For me they've now gone too far and are giving handouts to people who don't need it. 35k a year in a full time 9 to 5 job is basically £18 an hour. If you're 23 with a mortgage up to your eye balls on minimum wage you get £10k less than a pensioner who will be getting a handout. This hasn't been done on need. It's been done to win the pensioner vote. No problem with them upping the cutoff but it seems like they've gone way too high to win the old votes and it isn't who needs the money at all.
Have to agree. I'm not near receiving 35k p.a but i can afford to heat the house. Me and missus will be donating our allowances to a local food bank
So as a pensioner on £35k+ a year, that means you've got the state pension + a private pension of c£23k a year of private pension, or am I misunderstanding summat? I jacked it all in early at 54, sold up, got out of the ratrace, went offgrid, bought a narrowboat and am living on a lot less than that now, very happily. I obvs don't get a fuel payment, I just burn anything available and for free . As a pensioner on £35k a year, you're more than comfortable. Would have made much more sense to peg it somewhere around £20k-25k.
There will be an option to opt out mate. Going to be interesting. As quite a few on here inc. yours truly, don't want the payment/s
I haven't heard the detail yet but is it 35000 per person or 35000 per household, if there's 2 of you both on a pension plus a private pension taking the pair of you over 35000.
The quote below from BBC report explains it. "Eligible households with a person under 80 automatically receive £200 a year in November or December, while homes with a person over 80 receive £300. The payments are halved if one household has two pensioners living together. If one of them has an income of more than £35,000 and the other earns less than £35,000, the higher-income pensioner will not receive any payment and the lower-income pensioner will receive half the payment. Pensioners above the £35,000 annual income threshold, which the Treasury said was "broadly in line with average earnings", will have the payment automatically recovered or be able to opt out. This will apply to about two million people." BBC News - Winter fuel payment: Three-quarters of pensioners eligible after U-turn - BBC News https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn4gnk7g228o
Per person though if pensioners get a measley £70,000 between them they won't get the full amount but both will get half the amount each. Likewise if a married couple living together have pensions of £35,000 and £100m each then one will get half of the amount to help them afford their heating in their mansion.
I suspect with the uptake in people receiving pension credit, the new rules will quite possibily mean the Government aren't saving all that much money compared to what the situation was last year. Reeves' refusal to apologise means the Government aren't likely to get much credit for the U turn so you have to think that the political capital to come out of this is likely to be negligible.
Utter chaos again from one of the most incoherent governments of my lifetime. I know they came in at a very tricky time for the country, but more austerity and try to out-reform Reform is not going to end well.
Agreed. The government has gone too far in corrective the error they created. Many better off pensioners use the allowance to purchase Christmas presents. We already have a Christmas bonus of £10. This has not been increased since the 1970s. I suspect that the Winter Fuel Payment will not be increased for some time.
Older people find it harder to keep warm. They are also more likely to have difficuties in moving around so feely Seems a good compromise to me..
I love how some folk, really begrudge the pensioners getting stuff . Guess quite a few fail to realise if they are lucky they will one day become the very people they are knocking. A lot of pensioners I know lived more or less hand to mouth bringing up their kids putting a roof over their heads struggling on low wages and when of working age couldn't afford to put money away for the future into private pensions. I'm one of the lucky ones, not mega rich but comfortable in many ways But that could change tomorrow as you don't know what is round the corner both health wise or financially There's only a bloke who's worked in an office and not done a physical job could come up with the idea to keep raising the retirement age for folk And yet the younger generations just accept it There no fun in getting old especially if you don't have your health. Imagine a society were pensioners (when you got to 60 ) were looked after and respected by the generations below them, without the selfish squibling that takes place
Is there no way the govt could help make fuel prices cheaper at source. That would help instead of this shambles of handing out money to only some people.
Damned if they do AND damned if they don't. Non of the outrage EVER referenced cut off points. Imagine, if you will the utter HYSTERIA if anyone mentioned the triply expensive pensions triple lock as an area for visiting unecessary spending on the MILLION PLUS u.k. state pensioners who,"earn" enough already to fall into higher rate income tax bands? ALL the U.K.'s political parties supprted/advocated universal winter fuel payments, probably as an understandable response to the undue rancour poured out when they don't, witness the Runcorn by election. Rant ends!
Would it put people off saving for retirement only to be penalised for contributing to a private or company pension.
So do babies... I've come to the conclusion that every perceived problem in this country is trying to satisfy the needs of the pensioners. Currently 20% of the population and 25% of the electorate are pensioners (and increasing by 200,000+ every year), and they take ~60% of the benefits budget, the majority of the NHS budget, a significant amount of the social care budget and by extension the majority of local council spending. Any attempts to increase the pension age or decrease the pension/benefits they receive or make them pay for their care sees attacks from all sides of the political divide, which leaves the only ways of dealing with it increasing tax on the workers or increasing levels of immigration - both of which are unpopular with the electorate. They are also the ones seemingly most likely to object to new developments in their area - anything from housing estates to solar farms/wind turbines to new industrial units. It is political suicide to make the hard decisions that are needed, but an economic straightjacket for the rest of the country if they don't. (By pensioners, I'm generalizing rather than talking about individuals. Many see the issues and vote accordingly, but many neither know nor care)
Pensioners are the demographic who actually vote the most as well, about 80% turnout rate compared to about 40% for 18-24. If you take the average turnout rate for the other demographics as being about 60% it means that pensioners aren't far off casting 1 in every 3 votes. So as you say, nobody wants to take them on.