What Will You Do With 10 Million Frozen Pensioners, Rachel?

There aren’t going to be 10 m frozen pensioners are there? The wfa was a ridiculous idea and it should have just been added onto the pension and be subject to tax, then the better off would pay. Yes a lot of pensioners do go on winter cruises and to their Spanish holiday homes, there is no one size fits all. I’d rather the money went to pay doctors and nurses

I'm just a spring chicken, growstuff (61)

BevSec

Growstuff, we have the lifestyle you describe, what is wrong with that?

Nothing at all, so long as you don’t expect a freebie from the state in the form of a winter fuel allowance which you don’t need.

MissAdventure

knspol

Another thing to consider is that there are many people who may be entitled to claim pension credit but who see it as receiving charity. An old fashioned idea perhaps but I would think there are a lot of very proud, elderly people who have never claimed any sort of benefit in their lives and don't want to start now and so they will suffer unnecessarily.

I feel thoroughly ashamed of needing disability benefit, however, because I do actually need it to live, I have to claim it.

Talk is cheap, but I need money to sustain myself and pay my bills, so needs must.

Pensioners can't have it all their own way - can they manage, or not?

You shouldn't feel ashamed. I don't know what your disability is, but presumably you've needed the money when you weren't a pensioner. You're not receiving the money because you're "elderly".

PS. Just realised I don't know how old you are.

BevSec

Growstuff, we have the lifestyle you describe, what is wrong with that?

Nothing at all wrong with it! Where did I write that it was. I was merely answering a question. Why so defensive?

knspol

Another thing to consider is that there are many people who may be entitled to claim pension credit but who see it as receiving charity. An old fashioned idea perhaps but I would think there are a lot of very proud, elderly people who have never claimed any sort of benefit in their lives and don't want to start now and so they will suffer unnecessarily.

I feel thoroughly ashamed of needing disability benefit, however, because I do actually need it to live, I have to claim it.

Talk is cheap, but I need money to sustain myself and pay my bills, so needs must.

Pensioners can't have it all their own way - can they manage, or not?

Growstuff, we have the lifestyle you describe, what is wrong with that?

Freespirit55

That’s why I voted for reform, the country needs a change a government who looks after the people

Interesting! How do you think Reform would look after the "people"? Which "people" anyway? All of them? I have never see any evidence that Reform would look after anybody but a very narrow group of people.

Nannapat1

Interesting to see the comments that say some pensioners don't need the WFA as they have sufficient income.
I wonder what Gransnetters regard as a sufficient income. What do you think about the State Pension in light of MPs' incomes and the receipt of personal 'gifts' to a number of Labour politicians, including Rachel Reeves?

How long is a piece of string?

"Sufficient" in its crudest sense means being enough to support life. Having read hundreds of posts on GN, it's obvious that, for some, "life" includes having expensive holidays and clothes, a newish car, a comfortable home owned mortgage-free and enough money to pay for meals out and entertainment.

Another thing to consider is that there are many people who may be entitled to claim pension credit but who see it as receiving charity. An old fashioned idea perhaps but I would think there are a lot of very proud, elderly people who have never claimed any sort of benefit in their lives and don't want to start now and so they will suffer unnecessarily.

glammagran

Misadventure - my husband now coming up to 75 went to Bounds Green primary school.

Small world, isn't it?
Did he go to the breakfast club?

That’s why I voted for reform, the country needs a change a government who looks after the people

Well said Greyisnotmycolour.

Interesting to see the comments that say some pensioners don't need the WFA as they have sufficient income.
I wonder what Gransnetters regard as a sufficient income. What do you think about the State Pension in light of MPs' incomes and the receipt of personal 'gifts' to a number of Labour politicians, including Rachel Reeves?

Allira I'm not trying to score any points. I do think all citizens matter and I really dislike any divisiveness. The mantra about the elderly and the young has become much-repeated and risks forgetting all the other citizens. If the emphasis were on a properly functioning society, there would be no need to single out specific groups.

Moreover, the "elderly" do not make up a homogenous group. I know people in their 90s who live alone and are independent, relying on just the same medical care to which everybody is entitled. A couple of them are wealthy by almost any definition and really are not vulnerable and in need of any special consideration. Anybody can go through periods of their life when they are more vulnerable and (IMO) society should support them.

I've never tried to claim PC as OH deferred his pension for 3 years so gets more and I have a small (less than £20 a week) private pension from a part time job, but not a full state pension. So we're definitely over the limit.
Seems wrong that OH continued working to get a slightly larger pension which has stopped us getting PC and WFA
We're OK though as although we're managing and have some savings our eldest son assured us he will pay our fuel bills if we ever need help as he has a very well paid job. Feel very sorry for people just over the limit with no savings. Hopefully charities will help them.

Casdon

All I can say is Monica, that you had unusually compliant children. My son had to be dragged from his bed every morning and into the car to go to school, which was on my way to work. He went to breakfast club, but otherwise he would have had to have a drink and a snack in the car or at morning break, because there was no way he would prioritise breakfast over an extra 10 minutes (or ideally, an hour or two) in bed. I really don’t think that’s unusual.

Are you me?

Oh, no, it was my my DS who was up and out doing a paper round early every morning, oldest child was always good at getting up but hated breakfast.

The youngest was the problem; I tried everything from dragging off her duvet to sprinkling water on her but always managed to get her to school on my way to work with a minute to spare. Luckily I worked flexible hours, if I was five minutes late could make it up another time.
Not everyone's job is like that however.

Misadventure - my husband now coming up to 75 went to Bounds Green primary school.

M0nica

The majority of working parents manage quite satisfactolriy to give their children their breakfast before they go to school.

I worked for most of my children's childhood, including fulltime with a commute. My DH was away a lot of the time, but my children never went to school without breakfast.

There was far less help for working mothers whne I was dooing it, Oh, and I didn't have any grandparents living nearby, except for one year.

I am all for breakfast clubs for those children from homes where parents are struggling - ill-health, addiction, having disabled children, shiftless and feckless. But children from those homes will not be able to pay for breakfasts, so the only children who will benefit will be from financially secure and untrammelled homes. where there parents are quite capable of giving children breakfast themselves.

This is seriously not true.

Firstly, children from poorer families won't have to pay. Schools already receive Pupil Premium for many of them. In fact, some schools decided years ago that providing breakfast clubs was an effective use of the money and this has been supported by research.

Secondly, (and I don't really know how many times this needs repeating) parents who use breakfast clubs for their children aren't feckless. You keep saying that your own children were organised in the morning. Does this mean you left them on their own after you left for work?

Many children have two working parents - and most of them have to start work well before the beginning of the school day. I was one of many when I kept an eye on my children in the early morning, got myself ready for work and then took them to breakfast club (where at least I knew they would be supervised well and given breakfast), while I did my best to arrive at work on time (crossing all my fingers and toes that there wouldn't be traffic hold ups). Feckless I was not!!!

RR sounded very self satisfied yesterday … whoopee Do … she’s the first female chancellor… so what! That seemed to be her priority… that and her freebies!

I've never been able to send my grandson to school over an hour before the gates open.
My shifts started at 7am and often involved a commute.

The young mum in our block had two little girls, close in age, and at the same school.

Their hours are totally different, though, so she has to juggle that with full time work.
Nothing shiftless about her whatsoever.

She is expected to work, she does, and she outs gwr girls into breakfast club ad and when necessary.

All I can say is Monica, that you had unusually compliant children. My son had to be dragged from his bed every morning and into the car to go to school, which was on my way to work. He went to breakfast club, but otherwise he would have had to have a drink and a snack in the car or at morning break, because there was no way he would prioritise breakfast over an extra 10 minutes (or ideally, an hour or two) in bed. I really don’t think that’s unusual.

Then they're free to give them their breakfast, arent they?

Nobody will be making them attend.

However, others whose jobs dont rally in with a leisurely breakfast, will be using breakfast clubs, as they do already.

This is not a new concept.
Breakfast and after school clubs are for everyone.

Hark at you, with your long words.
Actipually

The majority of working parents manage quite satisfactolriy to give their children their breakfast before they go to school.

I worked for most of my children's childhood, including fulltime with a commute. My DH was away a lot of the time, but my children never went to school without breakfast.

There was far less help for working mothers whne I was dooing it, Oh, and I didn't have any grandparents living nearby, except for one year.

I am all for breakfast clubs for those children from homes where parents are struggling - ill-health, addiction, having disabled children, shiftless and feckless. But children from those homes will not be able to pay for breakfasts, so the only children who will benefit will be from financially secure and untrammelled homes. where there parents are quite capable of giving children breakfast themselves.