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

Foxyferret

There is a clip on X dated May 24 when Starmer was having a go at the Tories for considering removing the winter fuel allowance. He was asking for reassurance that this was not the case. Just two months later, guess what.

Its not been removed though has it🙄

Foxyferret

There is a clip on X dated May 24 when Starmer was having a go at the Tories for considering removing the winter fuel allowance. He was asking for reassurance that this was not the case. Just two months later, guess what.

Do you have a link please?

Presumably Ms Reeves ran this past Starmer first?
Didn't she? 😁

jenpax

I agree with this policy, many older people can easily afford their heating without Government help. I am not yet of an age to benefit from the payment but would feel the same if I were. The Government are keeping the 3 lock guarantee on pensions so older people are not being abandoned. The focus now must be on the huge number of children living in poverty and on the housing crisis!

So children before pensioners. Pensioners struggling to heat their homes/ or eat. No benefits for them.
That's rather a generalised statement from you. How do you know.
Soylent Green coming next.

Foxyferret

There is a clip on X dated May 24 when Starmer was having a go at the Tories for considering removing the winter fuel allowance. He was asking for reassurance that this was not the case. Just two months later, guess what.

I found this from September 2023:

www.theguardian.com/society/2023/sep/29/scrapping-winter-fuel-payments-death-sentence-pensioners-sunak-warned

No 10 has denied Rishi Sunak will scrap the winter fuel allowance for most elderly people, after reports that he was looking at means testing the allowance.

The prime minister was said to be considering cutting back on the allowances of £250 to £600 each winter in order to maintain the triple lock for pensions.

No 10 sources said Sunak was not looking at scrapping the allowance as a policy and that he had not received advice on it. “That is not something we are going to do,” a government spokesperson said.

Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, said ministers should “not be breaking those commitments” that they made to older people in the last election. She said Labour would be bringing in a proper windfall tax on oil and gas companies that would fund help for elderly and vulnerable people with their energy bills.

Wendy Chamberlain, the Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokesperson, said: “Scrapping the winter fuel allowance would be a slap in the face for pensioners facing soaring energy bills this winter.

Hollow laugh

vegansrock

I voted Labour and don’t have a problem with not receiving this benefit. I always wondered why they didn’t just put up the pension by £5 a week instead of a burdensome extra admin task - the reason ? So they didn’t have to increase it with inflation. When I was a young parent everyone got child benefit not means tested - we seem to have forgotten how people were up in arms about changing that at the time.

Child benefit isn't only given to families on benefits though is it. Only the highest earners lose it completely. Removing WFA from everyone who doesn't get PC isn't quite the same.

I have friends and family who did vote Labour and they are shocked and upset. I didn't vote for them and am not in the least surprised. Last year I received WFA for the first time. I gave mine to the church food bank. I would have done the same again.

vegansrock

I voted Labour and don’t have a problem with not receiving this benefit. I always wondered why they didn’t just put up the pension by £5 a week instead of a burdensome extra admin task - the reason ? So they didn’t have to increase it with inflation. When I was a young parent everyone got child benefit not means tested - we seem to have forgotten how people were up in arms about changing that at the time.

It is so they can take it away again at any time, like the TV licences. If it is incorporated into the state pension they cannot remove it.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202407/medium-529736-labour-windfall.png https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202407/medium-65245-warm-homes-plan.png

Well found, Callistemon.

So Sunak was denying the existence of the 2019 Briefing Paper and Reeves is using language very carefully - "fund help" which is not the same as saying Labour would keep the WFP.

All I can find in the Labour Manifesto relating to windfall tax is this where 1.2bn to be raised is going to GB Energy, National Wealth Fund, Warm Homes Plan and a couple of other things.

Warm Home Plan is about grants and green initatives. The inference is that instead of giving us money directly to pay for fossil fuel bills it's going into helping us save on energy costs and generating energy.

But these are medium to long-term initiatives, which is all good but, with the best will in the world, people need help keeping warm over the coming months.

It’s time to move on from the ranting I think. It had to come. No government should continue to pay people who don’t need it a universal benefit. Surely the argument here can only be about the people who are very close to the threshold for pension credit.
What I want to know is what will the government do to mitigate the effect on people near the threshold before the cold weather comes. There are a lot of options to support them.
Obviously raising the pension credit threshold is a priority.
One of the big ones we haven’t heard anything about is the energy price cap, which affects families as well as pensioners. The current cap runs out on 30th September.
Another option is raising the personal allowance, as a lot of pensioners on the cusp will also now be paying tax.
Lots more I’m sure.

🤣

Counterbalance. This one isn’t a joke.
fullfact.org/economy/state-pension-labour-conservatives/

GrannyGravy13

🤣

Snort!!

jenpax

I agree with this policy, many older people can easily afford their heating without Government help. I am not yet of an age to benefit from the payment but would feel the same if I were. The Government are keeping the 3 lock guarantee on pensions so older people are not being abandoned. The focus now must be on the huge number of children living in poverty and on the housing crisis!

Don't you realise that next year when the triple lock kicks in, we will be worse off, well I and people getting a small private pension as well as g their state pension will be because we will be paying more tax than we do now. Until they stop blocking the personal tax threshold we will be worse off year after year until 2028 when hopefully they will raise the personal tax threshold to a decent amount then perhaps we would not need the WFA.

The fact remains that, whatever pensioner income, this is a drop in income for all pensioners.

No ranting. Just a fact.

The Tories froze the tax allowance.

You’ve mixed up your party policies HattieTopper. Labour haven’t announced they aren’t going to raise the personal allowance?

Callistemon213

The fact remains that, whatever pensioner income, this is a drop in income for all pensioners.

No ranting. Just a fact.

Agreed. I don’t think anybody is denying that though, not that I’ve seen?
However, for many of us the impact of the personal tax allowance being frozen is greater in financial terms than the loss of the fuel allowance. Personally I’d rather see that increased, because it will benefit millions of working people too.

Yes, I agree with that (as well).

I think its sad that some posters on here think its ok to say they dont need the money and think its a good idea and they gave thiers to charity blah blah blah well good luck to you. I feel for the people who havnt got enough and rely on this benefit. I hope it gets changed and RR gets the boot but she wont. How many posters on here I wonder who are financially well off voted labour.

Many of us on the forums had husbands who were ill for a few years so had to take early retirement and therefore did not receive their state pension at all as they died before they got to 65. Thanks to my wonderful husband he had a private pension whic h he claimed early of which I get a pro rata allowance each month. I also have a state pension in my own right but that means I pay tax on my income and am just above the threshold for claiming benefits.

We also had lots of savings when he took early retirement but we spent a lot of them on energy bills to keep him warm 24 hours a day, we bought all our own medical equipment, wheelchairs, stair lifts, nebulisers as they were on loan from the hospital but they asked for them back stating we were not on benefits so had to buy our own. We could not even have a ramp installed to get the wheelchair out as we were not on benefits, we could not afford the £6000 it would cost to dig up the front of the house and install a ramp as we had a steep drive. I had to carry the wheelchair outside and then help my husband with the oxygen tanks and get him in the wheelchair. We bought a mobility scooter and kept it in the garage to save me lifting the wheelchair. I applied for carers allowance and was told I could not claim it as I had a full state pension in my own right which is classed as a benefit. I tried to claim Attendance Allowance 6 times and was refused, as they said he was not ill enough, by the time I did get it, my husband died three months later. We did get it backdateed by the way. We used so much of our savings during the years my husband was ill, special foods etc . pillows, backrests, even urinals, luckily we got the oxygen tanks free but we had to buy our own nebulising machine for the medication to go into it so he could use the mask.

I must have saved the government hundreds of thousands of pounds caring for my husband myself for those years he was ill with no help from anyone.

I hope that this cruel government rot in hell

Casdon

You’ve mixed up your party policies HattieTopper. Labour haven’t announced they aren’t going to raise the personal allowance?

I am going by the recent discussions regarding the personal tax allowance and they are stating that at the moment there is nothing they will do about it until 2028.

I will try and find the link for you.

Oh HattieTopperim so sorry puts a lot of things into perspective.

jenpax

I agree with this policy, many older people can easily afford their heating without Government help. I am not yet of an age to benefit from the payment but would feel the same if I were. The Government are keeping the 3 lock guarantee on pensions so older people are not being abandoned. The focus now must be on the huge number of children living in poverty and on the housing crisis!

It’s not the many older people who can easily afford their heating that is the issue.
People born after April 6th 1953 already receive just over £50pw more than those born before that date.
If you’re in the fortunate position that you know you won’t need it, good for you Jack. You won’t be worrying about those who do need it.
Focusing on the housing crisis -I’ve got it on my spreadsheet to see what they actually do and when, and how they target the people including my DGC, to ensure they can find somewhere to live.
Children in poverty is a much more complex target. It involves providing reasonably paid employment.
That way parents can earn money to keep themselves and their children instead of living off handouts. It involves housing, so they have somewhere to live, but remembering also the needs of those hardworking people who equally cannot afford anywhere to live.
If the only way the Labour government can do that is by targeting pensioners . . .

CASDON This is the link.......

Labour will maintain Conservative plans for income tax thresholds to remain frozen if it wins the election, the shadow business secretary has said.

Jonathan Reynolds told the BBC he needed to be “candid” that Labour would continue with the plans. saying they amounted to a "tax rise".

The freeze on the personal allowance - the amount of money you can earn before any tax starts to be paid - is already set to continue until 2028.

SO CASDON

You should know your facts before posting.