Now see what we've started!

I fear that because the survey came out as our being in favour of the very rich (well, those in receipt of more than £55,000 a year or however much it was) being taken out of the older persons' allowances system the government will use it as a reason to exempt pensioners at a much lower income.

This looks like the sort of "nudging" that precedes new and potentially very unpopular policies - make people think that everybody else is in favour of something and then hey presto you're almost there.

If these allowances are abolished, perhaps those grandparents who volunteer for charities and who help with child care (a substantial number according to recent research) would like to go on strike for a day so that their true worth can be seen - worth far in excess of the cost of the bus pass, fuel allowance and over-75's TV licence. I'm sick of older people being portrayed as a drain on society.

Or they may already be making financial sacrifices by ensuring their children and grandchildren survive.

Of course that conclusion could be true and that older people are prepared to make their share of the financial sacrifices being force on our children and grandchildren.

GNHQ cannot make sure that such surveys are truly representative because they are self-selecting. The questions could be less general and more precise but that would probably make answering more onerous and even fewer than the small percentage of Gransnet members who did complete this survey would bother.

Look what's happened – a conclusion that the majority of pensioners want to cut off their noses to spite their faces.

Thanks Nfk for sorting it out. It certainly made more sensible reading than JSP's rant but I am still not comfortable that my views, as a member of Gransnet, have been portayed correctly. Please GN if we have to include these surveys make sure they are truly representative

How representative of all grandparents are Gransnetters?

How representative of all mothers with young children are Mumsnetters?

Theresa's another thread on this yesterday, albeit concentrating on us, the fuel allowance and what Janet SP thought of us. Stupid woman. However, this is a more rational and less sensational piece of reporting. Interesting, though I agree, the last sentence is nonsense.

So 1000 people is a "surprising level of support" is it. There must be many thousands of Gransnetters. Who allowed the use of "the bottom line is". What a stupid expression! 43% is less than a half so it should have read 57% do not support etc. but that does not support the argument so well. Unfortunately these are the types of remarks that politicians grab onto to make even more stupid decisions.

(And I'm afraid my surrealist moments are increasing with age!)

Oh, bums, I'm rather at sea with this www stuff. It was a link from a Tweet (I only read them - I haven't figured out how to Tweet yet) on a Telegraph article.

I'll copy and paste it instead!

Grandparents support rationing winter fuel payments and bus passes
Grandparents back an end to universal benefits such as the winter fuel allowance and travel concessions, Gransnet poll suggests

Grandparents support rationing winter fuel payments and bus passes, poll suggests
By John Bingham, Social Affairs Editor8:00AM GMT 18 Nov 2013 22 Comments
Grandparents increasingly favour an end to universal benefits for pensioners such as bus passes and winter fuel payments, a new poll suggests.
A survey of users of Gransnet, the spin-off of the parenting site Mumsnet, found that large majorities now support means-testing the fuel allowances, travel concessions and free television licences.
Substantial minorities also favour stripping well-off pensioners of medical benefits such as free prescriptions and eye tests while a quarter even back limits on the state pension, it found.
But the poll of more than 1,000 users of the grandparenting site, also found that most believe that any limit should only apply to the most well off.
The findings come amid intense debate between politicians over the possibility of limiting benefits currently available to all older people.
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Labour and the Liberal Democrats have both indicated that they would limit some benefits for older people but David Cameron has resisted a breach of the universal principle.
Last year an influential study by the health think-tank the Nuffield Trust argued that limiting winter fuel payments and other similar benefits could help pensioners by freeing up as much as £1.4 billion a year to invest in the care system.
But last month the Government’s social mobility tsar Alan Milburn, the Labour former health secretary, infuriated pensioners’ groups by calling for the money to be diverted to younger people.
He urged the Coalition to “place their bets” on the young rather than the old and said that suggested that elderly people were not suffering a fairer share of the “pain” of spending cuts.
Earlier this year the Bishop of London, the Rt Rev Richard Chartres, triggered a debate about the competing needs of different age groups when he described the baby boomers as a “fortunate generation” who have enjoyed dramatic improvements in living standards but were now “absorbing” too large a share of the national wealth.
Most of the respondents to the Gransnet survey could be classed as baby boomers aged in their late 50s and 60s.
Overall seven out of 10 supported means-testing winter fuel payments, just over two thirds backed limits on free television licences and six out of 10 supported some rationing of travel concessions.
Meanwhile 43 per cent backed limiting free prescriptions while 45 per cent said the same of eye tests. But when asked at what point the various benefits should be removed respondents typically set the bar at those with incomes of between £53,000 and £59,000.
A quarter supported the idea of targeting the state pension at those on lower incomes.
“Our survey shows quite a surprising level of support for means testing amongst Gransnet users,” said Cari Rosen, the site’s editor.
“The bottom line is that people do seem to accept that cuts are inevitable and they’d like to see help targeted at those who really need it.

NFK is having a surealist moment!

it's gone - or maybe that is the joke?