The timing last year was bad, no question not least that people had also had two consecutive years of receiving at extra £300 CoL payment with the WFP.
Energy prices had dropped substantially but for people on very low incomes they will have welcomed that £500 (or £600 depending on age). I wonder to what extent people hadn't realised it was going to drop back to £200 (or £300) for 2024 and that made it sting more.
As I have said before, most people on-grid are having their annual enegy costs spread evenly over the year now, building a spring summer credit toward autumn winter. Most energy suppliers now want to charge a higher tariff for variable direct debits so it’s less expensive to pay by fixed DD. Once that £200 lands around November it’s just being added to someone’s bank balace and can be spent on anything, probably something Christmas related. It matters not. It was never compulsory to spend it on fuel.
It amounts to just 55p or 82p a day. It’s peanuts but it’s the principle of taking away something that has been in place since 1997 and with such little notice. A woman in her late 80s now will have received WFP since in was introduced. I am sure it felt like a slap in the face to our most senior citizens.
There are all kinds of ways that someone can make up £200 or £300 quite easily. Switching bank accounts, cash backs for switching energy providers, referral discounts etc but that isn’t always easy for the very elderly.
You say growstuff Maybe the fuss about WFP was manufactured, so that people didn't look too closely at the ways women (and poorer people in general) are still at a disadvantage.
My gut tells me this is something Reeves wanted to do. She knew the Tories had wanted to do it in 2017. One can only assume she knew about the 2019 briefing paper and the options for reform in it that the previous goverment didnt act on as the timing want right. The PC one that has been tried and largely failed was one of them, as is this one to withdraw it from those with higher incomes. Sunak then presented her with an open goal calling the election when he did.
I dont think Labour are frightened of Reform in the way that some suggest. If Starmer called a snap election tomorrow and Reform won, it would be unable to form a government. Left to their own devices they would crash the economy in days.
You Gov polls show that young people really don’t like Reform and few Labour voters of any age age switch from red to any shade of blue.
Farage will naturally take credit for the J turn in the same way that he would take credit if my dog peed up a lampost. He’s a grade A narcissist. That’s what they do.
In other news: The latest figures from the Electoral Commission show Reform failing to raise as much money as the Conservatives, despite its claims to be capturing its rival party’s donors. The Tories raised £3.3m, Labour £2.3m, and Reform and the Liberal Democrats about £1.5m each.
A lot of the Reform money is coming from convicted fraudster George Cottrell’s mother. She’s donated £750,000. The other big donor to the party over the last quarter was a company called Tisun Investments, controlled by Tice. The company has given £613,000 since the beginning of the year in 33 tranches.
Nick Candy, Reform’s treasurer (although not according to latest Companies House records), had pledged to give about £1,000,000 but his donation was not in official filings published by the Electoral Commission on Tuesday.
www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/jun/10/fiona-cottrell-mother-of-nigel-farage-aide-reform-uk-donors
