will OAP's loosing out??

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

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 .

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

Yes, everyone will pay the piper, OAP included.

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.

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 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!

Doodledog - well said x

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

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!

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

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.

It seems to me that old people have already done enough to pay for this pandemic. They have died in their thousands and so saved the tax payer millions in pensions and care fees paid by the tax payer indirectly via local authorities and other benefits. They sacrificed their lives during the world wars and other smaller wars and now they are dying in their droves. Enough!

If they've been on benefits all their lives they're unlikely to have been in any position to save anything for their retirement.

People who have been on benefits all there lives and saved nothing are the ones that are worried

Many on this forum would be willing to lose these allowances as they've all said so in the past when it was discussed, most having husbands/partners.

Those people are not representative of pensioners. Every couple becomes a widowed person at some point, when one of them dies first, most often the husband.

The idea that the old should help to pay for the pandemic through breaking the triple lock, loss of benefits like the winter fuel allowance, etc, is framed as being fairer to the young, who will suffer through unemployment. This is a false dichotomy. There are poor young and poor old, and they have more in common with each other than they have with rich people of the same age. Maybe instead of asking people at the bottom of the heap to bear the brunt, we could look at the way people at the top could contribute more. We could start by looking at those extremely wealthy companies or individuals who manage to avoid contributing at all.

My husband and I live on our state pensions and his teeny-weeny private pension. The changes proposed will hurt us, and we won't be the only ones. There will be more pensioners sliding back into poverty. At the same time, I am guessing that the Universal Credit rate will be kept down too. The poor will pay for the pandemic.

It's the same the whole world over, It's the poor what gets the blame. It's the rich what gets the pleasure - Ain't it all a bleeding shame?

EllenVannin can you not see that your comments are not "helping others" as you put it but are simply winding the ladies up, and causing aggravation to some, we don't need to know that you can manage without the heating benefit, or the ten pound Xmas bonus and that your bus pass can wait, these are comments that you could surely keep to yourself, you will just continue to get negative comments which may cause you anxiety.

A comment on the free travel of OAPs: apparently for every £2.00 of free travel we receive on average we spend about £2.80. So, a net 80p goes into the economy. There is probably also a hidden saving attached: our trip into town to meed friends, attend U3A meetings and attend pilates or tai chi sessions is probably keeping us fit and well, physically and mentally, so we're less likely to become a burden on the NHS. I've paid it in, so I don't see why I shouldn't get it back. However, I will be generous with my spare time and any spare cash I have. We live near the centre of town and I'm contemplating walking if public transport remains a problem. A shame, as public transport versus private car was going some way towards saving the planet.