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

HattieTopper

I am one of those people (widowed) and just above the limit for claiming benefits. I get a small private pension from my late husband and a state pension in my own right. If I buy spectacles and pay for dental treatment, I immediately drop below the threshold so am worse off than the people on benefits. The winter fuel allowance is a god send for me and covers me for the higher energy costs during winter.

Once it stops I will be cutting down on cooking, washing and heating the house.

I am the same apart from my own private pension.I pay for dental treatment and glasses.
I only hope that there will not be a prescription charge next.I have COPD and exist on regular daily inhalers, three times daily plus the rescue one.I am on blood thinners for the rest of my life after having a bilateral pulmonary embolus.I may as well just curl up and die.

Pensioners have also lost £300 cost of living payment.

I'm not surprised by Labours actions but do think it an odd place to start. A bit worrying when you consider what might follow.
They make me laugh, they bang on about a cost of living crisis and yet they seem to think Joe Public has bottomless pockets.

Thanks Labour. Gordon reduced DH’s pension with his theft from the pension pot. Now they’ve removed the winter fuel payment even from those in need already mentioned on here.
Roll it out Labour. We knew you would.

pinkprincess

HattieTopper

I am one of those people (widowed) and just above the limit for claiming benefits. I get a small private pension from my late husband and a state pension in my own right. If I buy spectacles and pay for dental treatment, I immediately drop below the threshold so am worse off than the people on benefits. The winter fuel allowance is a god send for me and covers me for the higher energy costs during winter.

Once it stops I will be cutting down on cooking, washing and heating the house.

I am the same apart from my own private pension.I pay for dental treatment and glasses.
I only hope that there will not be a prescription charge next.I have COPD and exist on regular daily inhalers, three times daily plus the rescue one.I am on blood thinners for the rest of my life after having a bilateral pulmonary embolus.I may as well just curl up and die.

I too have medical problems and am on prescription drugs prescribed by the hospital specialists. I have recently found that some of the drugs I got on repeat prescription have now been classed as 'sold over the counter' so I have now to pay for them. If they do stop free prescriptions for pensioners not on benefits then a lot of us are going to die because we cannot afford to pay for them.

What a way to end our lives, penny pinching. If my husband was still alive, I would have had his state pension as well but I live alone with just my income.

This Reeves woman is going after pensioners who are not on benefits as she thinks we are well off. Just because we are not on benefits does not mean we are wealthy people, whereas people on benefits get everything going, we don't so are worse off than those on benefits.

M0nica

We will lose the benefit and that is fine by us. I think older people, especially those like us who are comfortably off, should be expected to make a contribution to sorting out the country's economic situation.

You state that losing the winter fuel allowance is fine by (US), does US mean you have a husband who has an income coming into the house along with yours.

I don't, I am in my mid 80's and just have my state pension and part of my late husbands pension. If I still had my husband we would have been okay because he would have got his full private pension and his state pension after retiring plus my state pension.

The doctors strike looks as if it is going to be settled. Have to prioritise whether hospital appointments are going to be moved along or we get other benefits. Personally for me health comes first.

MayBee70

I’m pretty sure that a lot of people on here have said over the years that it’s wrong that the winter fuel payment is given to everyone and many people don’t need it. Hopefully there will be an advertising campaign pointing out that many people don’t realise they are eligible for pension credit?

I applied for pension credit and was informed I was just over the limit for benefits and if my position changed i.e. my income dropped I could apply again.

That wasn’t how the care cap was going to work. It was only a cap on the care aspect. It was not going to cover accommodation, meals and so on. It wasn’t retrospective. The clock would have started ticking from October 2025 even for someone in care before that. For most self-funders, the cap would have kicked in around year three. Many people going into care don’t survive that long. Without central funding the costs of administering the scheme and picking up the tab for care for those who reached the cap would have broken council budgets that are already under immense strain from the cost of social care. My county council currently spends 2.2 million a day on social care for just 16,000 people. I’d rather wait for a full review of the social care system.

What is really bugging me at the moment is how much money in sitting in the National Insurance Fund (NIF). This is a ring-fenced fund. NIC is paid in and contributory benefits are paid out. Some NIC is allocated to the NHS but the numbers that are in the annual report are net of that. Most of the fund goes on State Pension.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-insurance-fund-accounts/great-britain-national-insurance-fund-account-for-the-year-ended-31-march-2023#receipts-and-payments-account

The Christmas bonus is paid from this but not the Winter Fuel Allowance because the latter is not a contributory benefit. You do not have to have paid NIC to receive it. The Christmas Bonus cost £126 million at the last count.

Rachel Reeves did not give a costing in her speech for the saving made by withdrawing the WFA from people other than those entitled to Pension Credit. There are around 13 million State Pensioners altogther. About 1.5 million receive Pension Credit. I fully expected the WFA to drop back this year to £200 or £300 depending on age from the £500 or £600 it had been increased to during the energy crisiis. Assuming it would have done, I think Reeves reckons to save around 3 billion by withdrawing it.

Now take a look at the numbers in the NIF. It’s a long report but worth a read. There was over 72 billion sittng in the fund at 31 March 2023, an increase over the previous year and expected to rise again by 31 March 2024. At the time the last report was published, HMRC would have been aware of reductions in the rate of NIC and what pensions had risen by in April 2023 and were due to rise by in April 2024 so one would expect those numbers to have been taken into account when projecting a further increase in the balance. If there are going to be wage increases across certain sectors then the NIC yield will increase

72 billion is over three and half times the minimum balance required as a contingency without a Treasury grant to top it up.

I’ve asked my MP to table a question about why so much money is in the fund, copying my request to other MPs and Ministers, Shadows and spokespersons, because although the funds are ring-fenced, when times are tough it may be time to put a hand down the back of the sofa by way of a Statutory Instrument to divert some of the funds.

Callistemon213

rafichagran

crazyH

I personally think that the Winter Fuel Payment should be paid to those on a low income. I agree with Rachel Reeves, and with the OP

Yes course you do, you can probably afford it. I will now lose mine as I get the new state pension, minus a small amount, because I get a occ pen. I am not a wealthy pensioner but I jog along. The WFA allowance was welcome.
There are alot of Jack's on here, wealthy and can afford to lose it. I have osteo arthritis although I get around OK, it is worse in the cold so I put my heating on. The allowance helps.
My sympathy goes to the people that are just above the limit for pension credit.

The problem is that many of those who will lose the Fuel Allowance will be those who are only just above the limit to receive it, are often older people on the Old State Pension plus a small occupational pension and may be more immobile (not necessarily ill), spending more time at home and worrying themselves about how to keep themselves warm.

I am ashamed of them
I'm ashamed I voted for them.

You are quite right, I am on the old state pension so get much less than the younger people on the new state pension. Also I am widowed with just my income but I bet many on here are younger than myself (mid 80's) with husbands who also bring in a state pension and perhaps a private pension, Goody for them if they can manage without the WFA.

HattieTopper

pinkprincess

HattieTopper

I am one of those people (widowed) and just above the limit for claiming benefits. I get a small private pension from my late husband and a state pension in my own right. If I buy spectacles and pay for dental treatment, I immediately drop below the threshold so am worse off than the people on benefits. The winter fuel allowance is a god send for me and covers me for the higher energy costs during winter.

Once it stops I will be cutting down on cooking, washing and heating the house.

I am the same apart from my own private pension.I pay for dental treatment and glasses.
I only hope that there will not be a prescription charge next.I have COPD and exist on regular daily inhalers, three times daily plus the rescue one.I am on blood thinners for the rest of my life after having a bilateral pulmonary embolus.I may as well just curl up and die.

I too have medical problems and am on prescription drugs prescribed by the hospital specialists. I have recently found that some of the drugs I got on repeat prescription have now been classed as 'sold over the counter' so I have now to pay for them. If they do stop free prescriptions for pensioners not on benefits then a lot of us are going to die because we cannot afford to pay for them.

What a way to end our lives, penny pinching. If my husband was still alive, I would have had his state pension as well but I live alone with just my income.

This Reeves woman is going after pensioners who are not on benefits as she thinks we are well off. Just because we are not on benefits does not mean we are wealthy people, whereas people on benefits get everything going, we don't so are worse off than those on benefits.

Are you entitled to some of your FPDH's pension?

I'm not sure of the rules but I have read on here that the SERPS part of it (if that applies) can be transferred to you.

I've just checked the rules, they seem rather strange. It looks as if you cannot have more than a five year age gap between you 🤔
www.gov.uk/additional-state-pension/inheriting#:~:text=The%20maximum%20you%20can%20inherit,on%20their%20date%20of%20birth.

It looks as if you cannot have more than a five year age gap between you 🤔
No, I read that wrong.

I am a bit puzzled about why those people who supported the Conservatives are grumbling about Reeves behaving like a Tory.

Ilovecheese

I am a bit puzzled about why those people who supported the Conservatives are grumbling about Reeves behaving like a Tory.

She isn’t.

The tories didn’t hit pensioners

A good reminder that many women have been underpaid state pension. In the NIF report I referred to just upthread, there was a contingency of 1.8 billion set aside for pension underpayments to women. Read section 2.3 of the report. Hopefully most cases have now been identified but always check that you are getting what you are entitled to.

merlotgran

Ilovecheese

I am a bit puzzled about why those people who supported the Conservatives are grumbling about Reeves behaving like a Tory.

She isn’t.

The tories didn’t hit pensioners

Yes, they did. See the narrative regarding poorer pensioners here.
ifs.org.uk/publications/how-have-pensioner-incomes-and-poverty-changed-recent-years

Are you on your own with the £180 dalrymple?
It seems to me that you should use the benefits calculator I posted above.

I’m stunned by comments here criticising this decision, from posters who don’t ‘need’ wfa

Me too Iam!

ronib

Pensioners have also lost £300 cost of living payment.

Not all of them. It was means-tested in the first place.

Casdon

merlotgran

Ilovecheese

I am a bit puzzled about why those people who supported the Conservatives are grumbling about Reeves behaving like a Tory.

She isn’t.

The tories didn’t hit pensioners

Yes, they did. See the narrative regarding poorer pensioners here.
ifs.org.uk/publications/how-have-pensioner-incomes-and-poverty-changed-recent-years

The tories hit all of us. NHS, police, adult and children’s social care, cost of living crisis.

Callistemon213

Ladyleftfieldlover

I honestly think Rachel Reeves is genuinely very annoyed at the state of the country’s finances. I don’t think you can say that Labour don’t like pensioners! I’m sorry that some GNs will suffer because of the decision on fuel allowance being limited to those on various benefits. Sadly there has to be a line drawn and there will always be people caught just in the wrong place. Don’t despise Labour yet.

Liam Byrne left that note: ‘I’m afraid there is no money’ and when this has been mentioned on GN posters have been told that the economy does not work like that, it is not like a household budget and that the Government can create money for the building of infrastructure which will in turn stimulate the economy. Tax does not fund spending, so we are told.

Now we've been told we're over-drawn (like having a huge over-draft on the household budget) and have to tighten our belts because the Government can't afford anything.

The chancellor laid blame for her decisions on the previous government, accusing the Conservatives of having "let people down" by making "commitment after commitment without knowing where the money was going to come from"

But if the Government can create money which in turn stimulates the economy, what is the problem?

What am I missing, please?

You're not missing anything. It's Reeves who is 'missing''

I can't defend this in any way at all, but I've been saying for ages that I thought Reeves economic ideas were very suspect.

Austerity was the stupidest policy after 2010 but Labour doesn't seem to have learned any lessons from it.

IMO whatever 'hole' we have in the national finances is a consequence of years of running the economy for the benefit of the wealthy, the banks and big businesses, failing to tax back the excessive amounts of money that flows upwards to them from the poor and the 'middling' classes.

Labour painted itself into a hole with its ridiculous 'fiscal rules' and this is the result. As predicted by many. I only hope that the Autumn budget takes some of the sting out of this by unfreezing tax allowances and taxing sources of unearned income at the same rate as earned income.

I can't see her much vaunted relationship with businesses being much use if she makes the population too poor for it to be worthwhile for them to invest in the UK.

A couple of thoughts

Since the announcement I’ve spent some time comforting a neighbour who was distraught in tears. She’s one of the just managing group, the CAB and Age U.K. confirm not quite entitled to a means tested benefit of any kind. Not to put too fine a point on it she’s struggling to find anything positive going forward. A proud woman she’ll not tell her family and ask for help from them. She’ll also not willingly trot along to a church to benefit from a free drink, to her that’s unacceptable charity. She’ll also not accept a coffee and chat with a neighbour this winter as she told me she would be embarrassed to invite someone into a cold home. So she’ll cut back on the minimal treats in her life, put on a brave face and keep going with little pleasure. How many are like her?

If really necessary (and I’ll take some convincing) it would have been humane to announce the change in the Autumn budget to come into force in Winter 2025. This would give people the chance to re-jig their own budgets, if indeed that’s possible. It seems there is no understanding of holes in personal budgets.

I’m trying not to second guess what will come next, too many potential scenarios are frankly frightening.

Thank you.

It's not looking very promising.

I’m worried that in the budget that free prescriptions for pensioners will go. I have a number of conditions which necessitate a number of medications. It will cost a fortune for me to pay for them all.

So many on here were convinced Labour would do great things. How wrong they were. Don’t say you weren’t warned. 😉

Imagine if the Conservatives had stopped the cost of living payments and the winter fuel payments. This board would be littered with vile remarks about Tory scum, filth, robbing b******s.