will OAP's loosing out??

Menopausalbitch, we haven't been on benefits apart from a short period when my husband was made redundant. We are still worried. So are many others. You don't know everyone's personal circumstances.

Some of us get just over pension credit and the fuel allowance and bus pass vital , 2 single people (over 70 like myself) are on PC have a holiday every other month as no council tax to pay or rent have new glasses every year as free dental work too and get extra heating and one goes to the casino 3 times a week or did before lockdown as she said. Shrouds do not have pockets. If they stop any of the benefits for pensioners it should be for everyone or at least raise p c level to at least 200 a month

EllenVannin you are really full of yourself as i said before! You have set yourself as one who knows all & is always right. How stupid you make yourself look by trying to denigrate my name. That is beyond pathetic & I have no intention of going away when you tell me! Unlike you I do know what it is like to struggle so please do stop setting yourself up as a paragon of virtue! You are not & I want nothing further to do with your insane remarks! I have a life & suggest you go & try to find one. Should not be hard with all the money you brag about having!

I was always told as a child that it was vulgar to boast about your wealth.

Doodledog - well said x

I have no problem with pensioners on benefits receiving all payments etc. and everybody else who has pensions, private pensions and don't qualify should just get over it. My husband was due the free tv licence this year I'm a 1950's woman whose pension was moved from 60 to 65. But I do think we need to be realistic and not have the mindset of we've paid our taxes we are entitled to it!

This is one way that the government is thinking is getting us to contribute towards the huge debt that the country will have - changing the Triple Lock to a Double Lock.

www.which.co.uk/news/2020/05/will-the-state-pension-triple-lock-be-scrapped-to-help-pay-for-the-governments-coronavirus-spending/

I agree with Franbern, we should have a proper pension amount for all bringing us into line with other European cou ntries. Not everyone is fortunate enough to have a works pension so these "extras" of bus passes, heating allowance and the soon to be taken away, free TV licences, are most welcome.
For those who don't really need them they could help the economy by refusing and in so helping others who really do.

Yes, everyone will pay the piper, OAP included.

One thing I really wish the govt. would do is to introduce compulsory registration of all landlords, so that it’d be much harder to avoid paying tax on rental income. From all I’ve ever heard - including at least one very close source - this is rife.

We have one small rental property and there is absolutely nobody I am legally obliged to inform. On the self-assessment tax return, where I declare the income, I don’t even have to give the address - all it asks is how many properties you are renting out, and what the income is.
It’s far too easy to omit to declare at all, or to under-declare.

I’m sure someone will now start blaming the Tories, but Labour did nothing about it either, and Labour were in power when buy-to-let was positively mushrooming - at least partly, I might add, because after Gordon Brown’s raid on pension funds, property was seen as a safer bet.

We shouldn't need these sweeteners though. They were introduced by successive governments and have continued because there is no need to increase their value, unlike the actual State Pension.

They are designed to keep us all happy, make us fearful of losing them and are handed out as bounty, a pacifier, instead of paying us a higher pension such as those paid in other European countries.

An extra 25p a week for over 80s? How did they exist without that?

Curiously insensitive. perhaps you are bored and decided to draw attention to yourself by enraging some of the poorest people in society who are already anxious and cut off temporarily from their families?
You are achieving exactly the outcome that you hoped for.

Not impressed by your boasting EV. Not every pensioner has 2 pensions for various and personal reasons. A lot of us live on the state pension and it is certainly not easy. It is not a happy prospect for things to get even tighter.

But it sounds like you aren't bothered and will be ok, which is pretty self absorbed, sounds smug and self congratulatory.

You won't recognise my username as I rarely post and never join cliques. The odd rude posts on here make me stay away. But your incredible attitude has to be challenged. And your justifications for it sound hollow.

The whole system needs an overhaul but that is not likely to happen any time soon. I don't know how much would be saved in administrative costs by dispensing with these extra benefits for pensioners.
In the meantime surely those people who can afford to can donate their allowance to a local charity. Not ideal but it would help.

The simplest way to decrease benefits like the heating payment for pensioners, would surely be to have it automatically added to income on a tax return. People whose incomes are below the tax threshold would not be affected.
This would avoid any costly means testing.

I was going to say the same about bus passes - some amount added to income for those who do pay tax - but of course in many areas these may hardly be used, or not at all, if public transport is very poor.

The London Freedom Pass, OTOH....
In normal times we use ours a lot. I don’t know about anybody else, but dh and I would be happy to pay a reasonable annual sum - or have it added to income for tax purposes - for the sheer convenience of having them.
In our area they do keep a lot of cars off the road, too - a fact that’s not often mentioned.

We don't qualify for pension credit despite financially being entitled. Why? Because like many couples I'm younger than my husband. I fall into working age despite being unable to work. Between DH state pension and £8per month private pension, and my contribution based ESA, I am above the working age assessment. We manage BECAUSE we are careful, No sky, we don't smoke, we don't drink. We rely on my husband's winter fuel card to afford the heating, and our bus passes. So, No I hope that we won't lose his extra allowances.

I would be happy to pay £30 a year for my Freedom pass as I do for a Senior railcard . I don’t own a car, go on exotic holidays or have an expensive lifestyle . But I would not be able afford to go out and visit friends and family as much as I do without the bus pass . I always donate my winter fuel allowance to a charity I was involved in when I worked . I pay tax ( not much) and have a small NHS Pension . I worked part time for many years and we weren’t allowed to pay into the pension scheme then . So I manage . I would however be very angry if our meagre state pensions are frozen or the free prescriptions stopped . The wealthy will have made money out of this lock down as they did during the war . It is always the “plebs” that take the hit .

Where ignorance is bliss--------