Freezing this 🎄… by Sir Starmer and The Granny Harmers!

"I do not think the BBC should act as pro-government censor
which they do all the time"

Usual BBC bashing. The right think its based towards the left, the left think its biased towards the right, twas ever thus. I read I player everyday and believe me there is plenty of government criticism including on its "Verify" functions.

What is doesn't do is publish more the more speculative news that we see on some front pages of newspapers until a fuller story has come out, and thats how it should be.

It doesn't indulge in "shock horror politician denies claims that/won't confirm that" (speculative question to politician of either persuasion). Nor does it print stories derived from X posts unless they have been confirmed otherwise.

When Margaret Thatcher died we still watched BBC news. They most definitely played the first lines every time they spoke about the song on the news. We have not watched BBC news for years!. My conscience will not let me.

How can you be able to comment on the BBC if you haven't watched or read it for years? All you have is "news" that criticises it?

We stopped watching because of its obvious bias! Some really hateful bias. The media and other outlets including on here makes it plain it has not changed it's stance.

I pity any government taking over from the complete shambles that the conservatives left behind. Things have to get tougher before they get better. Not a fan of Starmer or his policies but before he was elected that it would take years to sort out the mess. And yes I am a pensioner relying on benefits.

More people applying for pension credit will hopefully cost more for Labour. Good luck to all those applying🍀

love0c

We stopped watching because of its obvious bias! Some really hateful bias. The media and other outlets including on here makes it plain it has not changed it's stance.

What hateful bias?

I am not a fan of Starmer but I think this song is silly and cringe worthy. I can’t stand the BBC but I don’t blame them for not playing it.

heavenlyheath

More people applying for pension credit will hopefully cost more for Labour. Good luck to all those applying🍀

It will cost the tax payer more. It's quite right tax revenue is spent to help those that need it.

mae13

keepingquiet

More people getting pension credit than ever before.

Exactly how many? You sound as if you have authorised access to the required info and so you have a duty to back up your statement accordingly. I demand the numbers and your sources.

What a horrid tone, @mae13! Well, you clearly haven't been listening to the news. There was a big discussion about the fact that over 40,000 more pensioners are claiming credit but that charities were worried that a lot more that are in the pipeline and are going to miss out as the deadline for back payment which would include the Winter Fuel Payment was Saturday just gone.

Well as an older woman who has been conned by the pension age going up and up, paying what I think was called SERPS which took about a weeks wage in the year and I received a letter telling me it would put 6d on my pension . No that wasnt a mistake that was sixpence in £sd. which converts now to I think 2-1/2p . I am trying to decide whether I shall put that towards my missing winter fuel payment? I have a pension now which is just over the level to get any benefits, and doesnt get the wfp, yet when I tried to get a better bank account with a bit more interest I was told I dont put enough in a month to get it. !!! Cant make it up can you? Well women even more than men have been shafted by the lot of them, Tory or Labour. We are portrayed as the elderly blocking beds and taking up housing etc. But I dont see much news about the huge amount of voluntary work that pensioners do. Everything from running the libraries that they have axed the money from, meals on wheels. Now making hubs where we can all huddle over a warm space, unable to stay in our own homes as we cant put the heating on. Well I have already made my new years resolutions
1. To keep breathing , and stay alive for as long as possible to annoy the lot of them. It helps me fight against the cancer I have now. I plan to keep going until I am at least 103.
2. to fight the injustice of waspi women, and the winter fuel debacle. How dare they say that they havent the money to pay and most women were not affected!! As women often have mixed jobs and time out , they have had all our small bits of pension to pay to the men and we have been conned by all politicians. I paid full stamp for 11 years, went abroad and paid the highest level class 3 to keep me in the system for which obviously I got absolutely nothing as I wasnt here! Brought up my son, who is adopted , so never had maternity payments, have worked, done voluntary things ever since I retired. Well I call on women to join me in the new year and we will combine the general strike with the suffragettes example. We will choose ONE day, and try to make sure the people we help are given the least problems, but if every woman stopped what they normally did on that one day and we will put on social media pictures and lists of what we would have been doing that day and everyone come out to collect together in parks so that we will show them just what we do and make them acknowledge our presence and our worth. If there is not enough money, then that should be shared by the whole population of pensioners , not yet again using the system where we were paid less because we are women so consequently had less pension. Well enough is enough. Whose going to join me? Have a happy and peaceful christmas everyone and we will fight the good fight in the New Year

It is good that many more are applying for pension credits.All governments should make it easier for pensioners to get what they are entitled to.There will be a welcome increase in the state pension in April.The NHS is being better funded , the junior doctors strike has been settled.Slowly things will improve but it will be tough.

My OH and myself being affected by the "non payment" of the Winter Fuel Payment and not being eligible for Pension Credit, not that we have a mound of money stashed away, we just about get by on our State Pension, my NHS pension and a small (very small private one of OH). All the media getting worked up ( hopefully on our behalf ) and printing loads and loads about pensioners, we went to the shops just after the stopping of the WFP and came back to two brown envelopes behind the door, informing us that we were NOT getting the WFP this year ( ?and how many other years?)
How much did this cost the government? paper, printer ink, envelopes, postage, manpower......all that money could have gone towards the WFP going to everyone, I'm sure that the government will have more up their sleeves, we've already had the WASPI decision to NOT pay out anything.
I really don't believe that they have NO MONEY left in the pot. My MP is Angela Rayner, I've already sent her an email about the WASPI women ( because I'm one), not even an acknowledgment and why , because they have Closed Shop for the Christmas Holidays probably sunning themselves on a hot beach somewhere while we freeze over here.
Sorry if I've gone on a bit, but feel a bit better typing it out and getting it "off my chest" as the old saying goes.
HAPPY CHRISTMAS ONE AND ALL xx

The problem is so many competing demands on the money that is in the pot not that there is none in at all.

Us older people are profoundly affected by funding for the NHS/care services and many many more issues, as well as younger people needing state help. My DGD, severely disabled, will need help all her life out of this same pot.

We've discussed those letters sent out before. People really did need to know where they stood, and what was equally important, the letter gave information about pension credit to those not aware

SillyNanny321

Have a friend who for years would not try to claim Pension Credit as she thought she would not get it! Now tried & got it! All the years of struggling when she did not need to is very annoying.

She should have checked shouldn't she. People complain, but will not do anything about asking for help. Your friend can only be annoyed with herself in my view. It takes one phone call to the DWP to get your finances checked or one to the Citizen's Advice bureau, which are doing a lot of the claims now. There has been an awful lot of advertising and awareness campaigns, hence so many more are now applying, it is no longer a stigma because they can blame Starmer!!

Freya5. Who gets 83 pence on their pension? I get the magnificent figure of 25p like ALL of my fellow pensioners who have reached that grand old age, and i would gladly forgo it to be given to the NHS

Graceless

I am a life long labour voter but I'm not a supporter of New Labour Mark 2.
Winter Fuel Allowance should have been means tested from the start. Why should people like me who have a private pension as well as my stae pension get it when there are thousands of young families whose need is greater?

Of course you shouldn't and neither should the well off pensioners either. However it would have been much fairer and just as easy if they had increased the allowance to £15,000 and then it would have helped both the low paid and the pensioners on a small private pension that have been the people who lost out the most as they are only just over the threshold for Pension Credit. Then they could have coordinated with HMRC and only paid WFA to those pensioners NOT paying any income tax.

Aw I was looking forward to getting 83p instead of 25p.!! How very disappointing!!! Ah well, the great thing for me is to be at last home with good coffee and hurray for radio 3 and 4. They give me so much pleasure, have been cheering my day all day today, and my great bargain is working well. I bought a long white padded gilet from a charity shop for £5. Presume it didnt sell because of the colour! It certainly does nothing for me in looking slimmer or smarter I must say. BUT it is very warm and saves the heating. Of course I shall have to look after it as I will need it on our day of Women Strike and Show them what we do!!! Ah well must go and make my dinner with the ingredients I got from the reduced shelf in the supermarket (not that they take that much off these days!) Still it gives you a surprise. You have no idea what you are going to eat until you see what is in the bargain box. Today I got some fish, so think I shall concoct a rice and fish kedgeree kind of thing. (Funny they have so many cookery programmes on the box , but you never see anyone doing a "what is there cheap in the bargain basket,?" and what can I make with this concoction.?) No point watching the other kind of cooking programmes ,as they start with a cheap item , but then their store cupboards have so many unusual and expensive bits and pieces, so I could never copy it if I want to!! Happy christmas to you all, and dont forget that you all have that useful excuse to get away from the family or annoying friends on the day. So if it is dry - you want to walk round the garden and see what is flowering. Take your secateurs and as you snip a small branch or whatever, in your mind it could be Donald Trump or your brother in law!! If wet, you promised to come on here and we are all going to send each other little messages , so you can shut the door on the lot of them. When the steam is coming out of your ears at the end of the day and you cant get to sleep we shall all be sneaking to vent our fury and tell each other what a rubbish present or whatever we want to say. It is so good , when you live alone as I do, to know that someone on here will listen to my rant about them cutting the winter fuel payment, or the way the tories have the cheek to try and blame it all on labour now when they have made everything worse for all these years.!!!!

I searched for Christmas songs on Spotify and this came up near the top!
This is Christmas 2024
Very timely!

JennyCee

Freya5. Who gets 83 pence on their pension? I get the magnificent figure of 25p like ALL of my fellow pensioners who have reached that grand old age, and i would gladly forgo it to be given to the NHS

Well bully for you. For some people that might mean a very cheap loaf of bread to eat.

To put it into context, Last Christmas by Wham, is UK Christmas Number 1, and is getting 7.7m views a day on Spotify. Yesterday Freezing this Christmas was at no 37, which is remarkable - but not near the top.

open.spotify.com/track/7Cctma5cPR71xUSCAxlY07?si=S8rabkojQ_68vZquw5i2-w

For those who are interested

I had a most Surprising letter from Dept of Work and Pensions!
On my 80th birthday, next week, I am getting an increase in my Pension of 25 p per week!!!!
What a joke!!!

madeleine45

Well as an older woman who has been conned by the pension age going up and up, paying what I think was called SERPS which took about a weeks wage in the year and I received a letter telling me it would put 6d on my pension . No that wasnt a mistake that was sixpence in £sd. which converts now to I think 2-1/2p . I am trying to decide whether I shall put that towards my missing winter fuel payment? I have a pension now which is just over the level to get any benefits, and doesnt get the wfp, yet when I tried to get a better bank account with a bit more interest I was told I dont put enough in a month to get it. !!! Cant make it up can you? Well women even more than men have been shafted by the lot of them, Tory or Labour. We are portrayed as the elderly blocking beds and taking up housing etc. But I dont see much news about the huge amount of voluntary work that pensioners do. Everything from running the libraries that they have axed the money from, meals on wheels. Now making hubs where we can all huddle over a warm space, unable to stay in our own homes as we cant put the heating on. Well I have already made my new years resolutions
1. To keep breathing , and stay alive for as long as possible to annoy the lot of them. It helps me fight against the cancer I have now. I plan to keep going until I am at least 103.
2. to fight the injustice of waspi women, and the winter fuel debacle. How dare they say that they havent the money to pay and most women were not affected!! As women often have mixed jobs and time out , they have had all our small bits of pension to pay to the men and we have been conned by all politicians. I paid full stamp for 11 years, went abroad and paid the highest level class 3 to keep me in the system for which obviously I got absolutely nothing as I wasnt here! Brought up my son, who is adopted , so never had maternity payments, have worked, done voluntary things ever since I retired. Well I call on women to join me in the new year and we will combine the general strike with the suffragettes example. We will choose ONE day, and try to make sure the people we help are given the least problems, but if every woman stopped what they normally did on that one day and we will put on social media pictures and lists of what we would have been doing that day and everyone come out to collect together in parks so that we will show them just what we do and make them acknowledge our presence and our worth. If there is not enough money, then that should be shared by the whole population of pensioners , not yet again using the system where we were paid less because we are women so consequently had less pension. Well enough is enough. Whose going to join me? Have a happy and peaceful christmas everyone and we will fight the good fight in the New Year

I had a letter saying I'd get an extra 6d too from SERPS. I've no idea if I have been given that or not - how would I check? I have a small amount of pension on top of the state but I suspect that people on pension credit may end up with more than me as pension credit qualifies you for so much more. Thankfully I have some savings which I will probably have to dip into this year without the WFA, but I'm still better off than those who just miss out on pension credit by a smaller margin.

WFA should always have been means tested but unfortunately introducing a fair way of means testing it would be costly, so the government have gone for the cheapest option by linking it to pension credit. Despite the extra 40,000 pensioners claiming pension credit there are still many who won't. I spoke to someone today who would almost certainly be eligible but she won't apply as she doesn't want to give them all her information. At least that's her choice. But plenty people have no choice but to be cold!

Shinamae

FriedGreenTomatoes2

Mind you ….

Daniel Martin
Deputy Political Editor, Telegraph
19 December 2024 8:52pm GMT
Sir Keir Starmer has said he has no regrets about the decisions he has made in the past six months and would do nothing differently.

The Prime Minister made the comments as he answered questions from the liaison committee of senior MPs from all parties for the first time.

I saw this. His arrogance and ignorance is astounding…. 🙄

What regrets do you think he should have about the decisions he has made in the past six months?