Pensioner Power

Just thinking about the very effective women's strikes in Iceland which resulted in true equality of pay for the sexes. And if male retirees joined in ...
Also, hate tactics of stop oil but standing outside No 10 for example would hurt no-one but be good publicity.
That said, I do not need the Winter Fuel payment and maybe pensioner having to opt in would have been a good policy.

This is an extremely balanced and intelligent thread on an important subject. If someone were to compose a short letter to the Editor of The Times and post it here, we could all write a copy and send it in to the paper. Not a petition - just lots and lots of identical letters. We might get an Editorial Comment, but Starmer would certainly see it. He might even take notice of it if it stated that he was about to lose a large proportion of votes next time.

Just a thought, anyway.

The Retirement pension is going up quite a lot for apparently those born before 1951. I was born before that and like many of my generation stayed at home to care for children for 6 years, therefore not qualifying for the higher rate pension. Some will receive about £900 p.a. increase, myself will be nearer £300. So that increase will cover the WFA basically not giving me an overall increase

I’m sorry 4allweknow but I don’t think this is correct. The official announcement hasn’t been made yet, but a leak suggests the state pension increase will be based on the rise in average earnings. That figure also hasn’t been released, but is expected to be about 3.5%.

If true, this means those on the full new state pension (that is those who reached retirement age from 2016) will get about £400 extra on the basic pension.

If one is on the pre-2016 full basic pension of about £8,800, the rise will be about £300, but reduced if your pension is lower (it will be, if the leaked figures are true, about 3.5% of whatever pension you get).

Also, the increase does not compensate for the loss of the WFA, it just covers increases in the general cost of living over the year.

So many tens of thousands of pensioners who are entitled to Pension Credit, do not claim it. Why???
All that needs to be known is exactly how much from all sources, money comes into that person monthly/annually, and how much savings they have.
Even if they have savings well above the ten thousand pounds listed, they can still claim and received PC, losing just one pounds for every £500 above ten grand.
Even if receiving just 50p a week pension credit still opens the gateway for many other benefits such as WFA and assistance towards Council Tax.
Yes, I know there will still be people just over the income limit, but - surely, with a full state pension plus this extra they should be able to feed themselves and keep warm.

foxie48

I think a more appropriate way of using our time would be to help our pensioner relatives,friends and neighbours to check if they are eligible for pension credit. Lots of people don't claim when they should because although it might not entitle them to much extra cash it will get them the WFA and possibly help with rent or council tax.
I'm supportive of having targetted help rather than universal benefits like WFA which is paid to people who really don't need it.
www.gov.uk/government/news/you-could-get-pension-credit-week-of-action-to-drive-take-up

Yes

I think a more appropriate way of using our time would be to help our pensioner relatives,friends and neighbours to check if they are eligible for pension credit. Lots of people don't claim when they should because although it might not entitle them to much extra cash it will get them the WFA and possibly help with rent or council tax.
I'm supportive of having targetted help rather than universal benefits like WFA which is paid to people who really don't need it.
www.gov.uk/government/news/you-could-get-pension-credit-week-of-action-to-drive-take-up

The Retirement pension is going up quite a lot for apparently those born before 1951. I was born before that and like many of my generation stayed at home to care for children for 6 years, therefore not qualifying for the higher rate pension. Some will receive about £900 p.a. increase, myself will be nearer £300. So that increase will cover the WFA basically not giving me an overall increase. Of course if you have additional income you may end up paying tax, that will help the government to fix the black hole they keep talking about. Why couldn't they have had a programme of reducing the WFA say over 3 years instead of the abrupt withdrawal.

Monica my own father was thrilled to bits to have a part time job in a local restaurant when in his eighties. He was physically fit and enjoyed the company.
Yes I know that some jobs are not suitable for 67 year olds plus but some careers extend beyond the normal retirement age - lawyers, it specialists, accountants, teachers offering home tuition but equally, I knew a very cheerful oap who loved working in the local bakery. Also a neighbour still works as a nurse and she is beyond retirement age. B&Q used to be full of helpful, active retirees behind the tills.
My DH is also much better for the mental stimulation offered by consultancy in a shortage area and is combining numerous hospital visits and blood tests with a full workload from home. The body is failing but the brain is in tact.
No we definitely don’t want more harm caused to 90 year olds with osteoporosis. However I was sickened by KS today who seems oblivious to the problems facing poor pensioners. - PMQs. Simply not good enough.

This government lost any respect I might have had for them when Two Tier Kier threw money at his paymesters (the unions) and targeted a vulnerable group. Not to mention all the taxpayer money being squandered on dubious causes and foreign wars.

ronib but not all pensioners are in a position to go out and earn if there incomes are low. Poorer pensioners have generally had ill paid jobs before they retired and as all the statistics show these are the just the group that have poorer health and more disabilities than better off pensioners. Many will be disabled to a greater or lesser extent. They may also not have the skills to easily get work. If you have spent your working life as a refuse system operator (dustbin man, to put it colloquially), then you may well have muscular, skeletal and stamina problems that make any physical work impossible, shops are shedding staff not employing them and standing all day will almost definitely be impossible, so what can they do.

Do we really want 90 year olds, with osteporosis, crawling to work through the worst of winter weather to try and work a few hours to pay their fuel bills?

The people who can manage to work through retirement are generally people like DH, now 80, a chartered engineer with specific expertise in a field of engineering where there is a shortage of experienced engineers, and he can work from home. With Zoom, he doesn't even have to leave the house for meetings. Very useful as he has several serious health problems. He obviously already has a good pension and doesn't actually need to work.

I take two of my grandchildren to school every day as my daughter is a single parent and works full-time. Withdrawing my labour would only hurt her.
I wouldn't mind paying an admin charge for my travel card, provided I could use it earlier in the morning. At the moment I pay a hefty fare before 9 a.m.

Typo supplement not implement

Dinahmo what did you not understand? If oaps are starving or freezing and there’s not enough pension coming in, then why not seek to implement one’s income?
Some pensioners are very poor.

ronib

If you are well enough to undertake voluntary work and are struggling financially, I would think about finding a part time job which pays. Of course there will be a huge variation in pay depending on skill set and demand but some folk just enjoy being at work.
Although of course, just helping out with grandchildren is the best way for me and I won’t let politics interfere with my life to that extent.

Why? people that do voluntary work in shops etc etc do it for a variety of reasons and not for the money.

If older people want to influence any particular party’s policy, they need to vote for them. Labourcdont need to worry about older people’s votes because most of them go elsewhere.

Also, we are by far from being a majority of the population, and removing the WFA is not a widely unpopular decision - anything but, as far as I can tell.

I do agree that older people probably need more effective and focused ways of influencing; not just politicians, but businesses, planning, transport, and more, but that comes down to how we can control advocacy organisations (mostly we don’t) to form a strong single bloc.

I'd have thought those big corporations should have been the first port of call to fill this 'black hole' not squeezing the pensioners, and if they do decide to means test the state pension in the future, they'd better be prepared for the storm of protest from those wanting all the money back they'd paid into it all their working lives

Many older people don’t just care for grandchildren but elderly parents, at a time of life when they should be enjoying their lives more quite often they are busier than ever, and ‘no’ I don’t suppose they would go on strike, their families would suffer too much. But just imagine how much it would cost the government if such unpaid work were to be paid by the state.

We all have to contribute in helping to sort this mess out. I agree with the changes to the WFA, I don’t think it’s a vastly unpopular decision. Myself and my siblings have lost their WFA but we as a family will support our 92 year old Mum with her fuel costs.

In 10 years time, when claiming state pension itself might well be means tested by then,, we will all wonder what the fuss about loss of WFA . Personally I would have left the WFA alone but allowed opting out for those who don't want to claim it, and looked at bigger tax generation items. I hope the likes of Facebook, Google and Amazon start paying proper amounts of corporation tax on their UK profits.

M0nica there are millions of pensioners so enough letters or emails can go from the group who are most acutely affected. It might have more of an impact than hearing from the privileged groups.

Not all pensioners share the same views on everything. I have no probles with stopping the Winter Fuel Allowance, providing adequate arrangements are made for those whose income is just above PC level.

I had vaguely heard of this

NATIONAL PENSIONERS CONVENTION

www.npcuk.org/campaigns

and they are campaigning like many others on WFA.

www.npcuk.org/post/npc-calls-on-all-members-to-write-to-their-mps-in-protest-at-axing-of-universal-winter-fuel-payments

I agree that if Pensioners went on strike it would be catastrophic.
Of course it will never happen because most of us are made of sterner stuff than that.

Depending on what is announced in the October budget, would it be a bonkers idea to individually write a letter to Starmer explaining in detail how his government is affecting your life as an oap? I don’t suppose Starmer would read any of the letters but it would clog up the letter box to number 10 and someone might get the message to pass on to him. As I said … bonkers idea!

I think Labour have kicked a hornets nest with removing WFA. I doubt many people will down tools who are childminding GCs. I wouldn't have done.
Labour say there will be a big increase in pensions next April but that doesn't help for those in need this winter does it?