Rachel Reeves has announced that winter fuel payments will only be paid to those on Pension Credit.nsion Credit

Sycamore123

I should be careful in speaking for everyone, many pensioners are just outside the Pension Credit limit who are far from ‘comfortably off’, I doubt they will be very happy!!

Not everyone on GN is comfortably off MOnica, as you have seen from the comments. It is people like HattieTopper who will struggle.

Freya5
The economy was picking up before your shower came in, reducing the spending power of pensioners to help heat their homes or for food is downright despicable.

Excuse me! How do you know who I voted for?
Your peddling mis information!

Raise taxes for higher earners

That's rather a generalisation.

Some 'higher earners' are hardly earning vast sums and may well have families, mortgages and are just about managing.

If you mean wealthy tax evaders, then yes.

Maggiemaybe

Sorry, I didn’t mean to divert the thread. I’ll get off now. Might even see if our bus to town is running today.

Sorry, back to topics!

We're going somewhere which will take us 35 minutes by car but 2 hours 40 minutes plus two long walks by bus.

J52

rosie1959

I find it odd that the supposedly caring Labour party are hitting pensioners who are just over the limit for benefits. They may be just managing but this kick on the teeth will not help.

So what would be your answer?

Give it to all pensioners even if they don’t need it? Very costly.
Means test it? Again costly to administer
Raise the UC credit bar? Then the next layer of missing out would complain.
Raise the SP? Then those pushed into tax would complain.
Of course they could abolish paying tax for Pensioners.
Any other suggestions?

Raise taxes for higher earners, Corporation taxes, dont send millions to the French for doing sweet sod all, billions to Africa middle East, won't do sod all.
Reeves obviously did no good as shadow Chancellor, aren't they supposed to take note of these deficits before hand, and put them in their manifesto as to what they will do. about it, but oh no, even less would have voted for them than did.
The economy was picking up before your shower came in, reducing the spending power of pensioners to help heat their homes or for food is downright despicable. Glad it's not on my conscience.

Sorry, I didn’t mean to divert the thread. I’ll get off now. Might even see if our bus to town is running today.

It’d be good if they were, Callistemon. We were pleased to find we could use ours on the Isle of Wight. Our Welsh friends couldn’t.

Should bus passes be inter-country, UK based? The time we might use ours would be on holiday in England but we can't because they are Welsh.

biglouis

*Why not save the costs and give more money to those pensioners on UC and those who are housebound and cannot make use of the bus pass*

UC is only available to those of working age.

I meant Pension Credit. Thanks for pointing that out.

I would if I could get to a bus stop easily and the bus took me where I wanted to go to.

Yes, I appreciate that getting around on public transport is a problem for many for various reasons, Callistemon. But there are others, and we personally know quite a few, who don’t use the passes even though they have a stop at the end of the road that takes them to just the same place as their car does. And pride themselves on not having been on a bus since they were 16.

We don’t see public transport as an asset in the way that many of our European neighbours do. And don’t prioritise it, despite our polluted cities and overcrowded roads.

If we don’t use public transport when we can, we will lose it. As many have already. And sadly, the same probably applies to the senior bus pass. The people losing out, again, will be the poorest.

If free bus passes were abolished, would this mean many companies, routes, would have to close down?

They do seem to be endangered anyway.
Good, affordable public transport should mean fewer cars on the road so it would be a shortsighted move.

Thanks Callistemon.

I asked why free bus passes in a rhetorical way. It wasn’t always the case and why give it to those who don’t need it? Rather like the WFA.
Heat and fuel to cook with are basic needs, a bus pass isn’t, although, I do realise that it is a lifeline to some.

Intergenerational (sorry - autocorrect!)

maddyone

Who’s Angus Hanton?

He of the Intergeneral Foundation, a think-tank promoting the interests of younger generations.

maggiemaybe, I often feel that dh and I do not ‘deserve’ our Freedom passes, and I’d certainly miss mine if it were taken away, but around here (outer SW London) anyway, it does certainly keep a lot of cars off the road. I use my car a great deal less since I’ve had it, and dh and I would never even think of driving into central London any more.

I do often feel that others would be much more deserving though - younger people still paying off mortgages and forking out for ruinously expensive childcare.

I expect those on LBC radio will love it.

Who’s Angus Hanton?

The thing is, Whitewave, politically and psychologically, this is not a good look although younger people might have a different take on it, of course.

Somd of the announcements about infrastructure are bewildering.

Struggling Millennials who are resentful of so-called wealthy "Boomers" might welcome this.
Angus Hanton may love it, fuelling his resentments.

I have no problem with RR move to scrap the WFA, except for those on pension credit etc. Whilst I understand it will be unpopular with many, it is very unfair that people get it who really don’t need it.

In her autumn budget, I hope she tackles those with obscene wealth!

I think the key point here is that Keir Starmer said before the election that he would not take money from the workers so it would seem that as pensioners no longer work we are easy targets. There will be more to come particularly now at the beginning of their term. Maybe bus passes will be the next to go.

pandapatch

I am lucky that it is not a problem for me and I broadly support the move, though I appreciate I may feel differently if I was just above pension credit level

Oh! patronising much!

Everyone is getting too excited.

I wouldn't say excited was exactly the right word!!

Bemused?

Maggiemaybe

^It interesting that pensioners are given free travel, one might ask why? ( I do know the arguments for bus passes, so please don’t explain it)^

If you know the answers, why ask?

But as you know, some of the reasons are that the bus pass helps many pensioners without access to cars get out and about instead of sitting at home in isolation, it takes quite a few cars off the road so has an environmental impact, and it’s been estimated that every pound spent on a pass generates at least three times as much for the local economy.

I only wish more people would use it. As I wish the 40% or so of eligible pensioners not taking up their entitlement to Pension Credit would apply.

I would if I could get to a bus stop easily and the bus took me where I wanted to go to.