General Chat

Are MP's going to forego their heating allowances?

Probably not especially as so many of them will be losing their WFA ;-)

Wish I had a fireplace ;-)

Maggie - well written but I doubt they’ll even acknowledge it.

I’m trying to work out when I can spend my savings on which will increase in value enough to cover all the raids planned.

I believe my kids voted Labour so I've just informed them that I expect them to provide our winter fuel allowance! Daughter said she would post us a lump of coal each week but agreed that it's not really a laughing matter esp. when I pointed out that any savings we had will probably get clobbered one way or another before we can pass them on to the family.
I know they aren't relying on inheriting anything but it's money we've worked and saved hard for over many years and never had a penny off the state.

Rant over!

I have just read this on BBC news

From winter 2024 fuel payments in England and Wales will be restricted to those on benefits and pension credit

The devolved governments in Scotland and Northern Ireland will make a decision on whether to follow the new policy

I'm not holding my breath.

I sent an email to Ms Reeves this morning:

Dear Ms Reeves

Despite the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO)’s report in favour of compensation for WASPI women, it seems the Labour Party hasn't set any money aside for compensation.
Then, yesterday, we were informed that those not in receipt of Pension Credit will no longer receive the Winter Fuel Payment

As someone born in 1956, who had her pension age increased twice, I feel I have, yet again, been kicked in the teeth.
Why?
I'm on Basic State Pension, which is currently £221.20 a week.
Anyone on Pension Credit - who, generally were born before 1950, and retired at 60, get their pension 'topped up' to £218.15 a week - £2.05 less than I receive
So I worked an extra 6 years, to end up a whole £106.60 a year better off.
And now, due to your stopping the Winter Fuel Payment for those not on Pension Credit, and because my pension is £2.05 a week 'too much' I'm going to end up worse off than someone who worked for 6 years less than me - paid 6 years less NI, 6 years less Tax, and has their pension 'topped up'. Is that fair?
I'm obviously not the only person in this situation.

Then there's the approximately 850,000 people who are entitled to Pension Credit, but don't claim it.
Are you going to encourage these people to claim? If they all did, that would cost the Government £1.7 billion - and then the cost of their Winter Fuel Allowance - only for those on Pension Credit, of course.

I realise you were left with a financial 'black hole', but trying to remedy it by 'attacking' those on the breadline, and making even more pensioners poorer, doesn't seem very useful.

We will both have company pensions. You can however opt out of the auto enrolment and for my age group auto enrolment did not exist when we started working. My dad however has always offered good financial advice and he helped me set up a pension as soon as I started working.

If she is really really hard up she can have my Christmas bonus of "10.

Shh! She probably forget about that as it is small ;-)

Florence the money problem you had is exactly why taking the WFA from so many is wrong. Too many will be just over and I do know people who spent it on things, includrding heating, that they needed. Just as I know people that donated theirs to charities. Recently ours has gone to our kids who struggled with the huge rises that hit us all.
I also think that they should have considered those who are on the old pension which is about 30% less than the new one.

Tawny - pensions in 30 years time - I thought that is why auto enrolment came in.

If they got rid of the totally useless Welsh Senedd….that would save 83m a year :-0 :-0 :-0

Last year the payment I received was The Winter Fuel Allowance and The Pensioner Cost of Living Allowance in one payment. As a Widow and living alone that came to £500. Presumably The Pensioner Cost of Living Allowance will go too :-(

What will happen to our £10 Christmas Bonus, which hasn't increased in yonks, will that go too :-0

I do understand what some of you are saying but I didn 't have rich parents and i stayed on at school til I was 18. It didn't cost my parents anything only to feed me etc
If you are in the age group of 66-79 the winter fuel payment is £200 which is only about £3.80 a week, the price of a large fancy coffee probably.

if you are over 80 £300 is around £5.75 a week.

My point is that either payment wont heat your home for the winter which is more than 1-2 months! my brother's electric & gas per month is over £250 so either payment would only cover1-2 months anyway.

When i was renting the previous house and had very little to live on, I ran out of heating oil and had none for 3 months through the winter, slept in a dressing gown every night because I was so cold. I needed help then but I didn't get any benefits whatsover as I was under pension age.

My late mother was on pension credit, she paid no council tax, no rent etc, no mortgage and got all those cost of living benefits which amounted to over £1500 whilst I froze and I was working!! She said she used the winter fuel allowance to do her xmas shopping as she didn't need it!

So at the risk of upsetting anyone, making a fuss about losing a few pounds a week which wouldn't heat your home for the winter is ridiculous. Any of these benefits are an extra bonus, they shouldn't be relied on as a guaranteed income.

If your income is more than £218 a week(single person) then you cant get pension credit which is correct.

I do agree there are many scroungers in society who get all sorts of benefits and don't work or want to work and the rules there should be tightened up. They are the drain on society.

There has to be a limit on earnings and if you are just £1.00 over the limit you miss out which is unfortunate, but where do you draw the line? There has to be limits in place doesn't there and so someone somewhere will always be just over whatever the limit.

I don't want to fallout with anyone on here as I think its good to have a healthy debate and it gets us all talking but i do believe that benefits should be means tested so that the most vulnerable and poorest people get the help they need.

We have been lucky enough to inherit already due to circumstances. We don’t expect anything from our parents and are grateful for the support and leg up we got. We are also saving for when we are older as both Mr Owl and myself wonder if pensions will be means tested by the time we retire. I’m 40 and Mr Owl is 42 next month.

There is so much now that younger people expect to drop in their laps whilst we had to work hard for it, except for uni grants if you decided to go rather than being the norm.

My son, the same age as Richi says he fuller understands the thing about Sky as he was about the only one at his school that didn’t have it either.

Absolutely Nameless one. We were both the first people in our families to stay on at school for A levels . We were lucky because of the following

1962–1998. David Eccles, Secretary of State for Education, under Harold Macmillan's Conservative Government, published the Education Act 1962, which granted an exemption for "ordinarily resident", full-time, students from University tuition fees, along with introducing a right to a means tested maintenance grant.

That meant that we could afford to go to university without our parents having to pay, we couldn’t have done it without the grants. Of course those grants were taken away , it was Tony Blair who first made students pay towards their tuition fees and now there are lots of people who can’t afford to go.

We worked and saved to give ourselves a good standard of living, We have never needed to claim a penny from the state ( child allowance excepted). We have saved when others didn’t bother and it hasn’t come easy , but we have been able to give our children a good start in life. Yes now we have a comfortable retirement, but no one gave that to us,

My children don’t “ expect” an inheritance Florence, but we would like to pass our hard work on to help them, It would be good to help them now, but of course that would be deemed as avoiding paying death taxes and heaven forbid if we needed to go into a nursing home and didn’t have the money to pay all our fees.

Yes I know some people will be thinking that we are lucky to have a good life now, but that is missing the point. We were lucky to have working class parents who saw the merit in letting us stay on at school for an extra two years instead of going straight out to work. It must have been hard for them supporting us, there were no holidays, fags, booze, smart cars, but they saw an opportunity to give us a leg up and they took it. After that it was up to us and as names said, it wasn’t easy. I get so annoyed when I look at OH’s sister’s family. All of her children have had multiple partners, lots of children which they can’t afford and spend all of their time complaining about the myriad of benefits which they claim. They would make a good tv program

:-|

I was too young to get my pension at 60 and too old to get the new state pension which is the only one that ever get mentioned.

I get about £12 on top of the old basic,yet when on the rare occasion the old one is mentioned there is am assumption that these extras are huge and give yoiu a much greater pension than the new.. Well it probaby does for some.

I paid out of my savings to increase to that full basic pension. Even with the fuel allowance it would still not bring me up to the equivalent new state pension amount.

How those elderly, without even that £12 will cope is frightening. Hoping we have 5 years of mild winters.

It is said sometimes that young people struggling along are resentful of the pensioners and the comfortable life some have. But they don’t understand that those same people struggled through years of low pay, high mortgage costs and child rearing - just as they are doing now.

AgRr OK nobody hates anybody. that is fair enough and I agree to a point. But, (although I don't really need the money now and usually passed it on to those in the family who did), I remember when we were younger that every time something like this happened, we were just below the level where we could have claimed and anyone in that position is now going to suffer by not being able to afford to heat their houses.

Full disclosure - well as much as I am prepared to admit on here - my household was previously entitled to the Winter Fuel Allowance, but we're not any longer.

But I have always felt that it should be means related. People who claim Pension Credit are still entitled to the extra payment, so it is now means related. I'm not saying it's perfect, but I do believe it's correct in principle.

I hope none of you hate me now!

Pension credit isn't just decided on your earnings though. If you have £10,000 or more in savings, you cant claim it.

Whilst its good if children can inherit from their parents, I have told my children, its not their right to expect anything. When I pass, whatever is left, they will inherit that, but if I have nothing left, that is the way it will be.

I have worked hard for 45 years and now live in a rented house I don't own .Situations can easily change and our children must not think inheritance is guaranteed!

I bet they’ve all got their own money hidden away in tax havens.