Winter fuel Payments.

[stuart little]

OH well, the 'Labourites' are off with the scrapping of our Winter Fuel Payments!!! I wonder what they'll rubbish --oops, scrap next, & what they'll squander what they've saved on?

 

[Spectric]

Remember they are not labour, they are the starmer party and have a big issue in that unlike the tories who wanted to please the wealthy they also need to try and please the unions and the other end as well, just like pulling equally on a rope in opposite directions where you get zero movement.

 

[Rhossydd]

Not scrapped, but means tested. Seems eminently sensible not to give winter fuel payments to millionaires, especially if it means that money goes to public service workers that haven't had a decent pay rise for years.

Maybe get angry about the tories that stole all our money through corruption and incompetence over the last 14 years instead.

 

[stuart little]

Remember they are not labour, they are the starmer party and have a big issue in that unlike the tories who wanted to please the wealthy they also need to try and please the unions and the other wnd as well, just like pulling equally on a rope in opposite directions where you get zero movement.

All the same, in my opinion, one step up from commies!

 

[stuart little]

One good thing, so far, is the scrapping of a tunnel under Stonehenge. The Arundel bypass is scrapped & the money saved to be spent on filling potholes - a likely story? or what? I guess time will tell.

 

[selectortone]

Not scrapped, but means tested. Seems eminently sensible not to give winter fuel payments to millionaires, especially if it means that money goes to public service workers that haven't had a decent pay rise for years.

Maybe get angry about the tories that stole all our money through corruption and incompetence over the last 14 years instead.

Couldn't have put it better. At least we have some grown-ups in charge now.

 

[Cooper]

OH well, the 'Labourites' are off with the scrapping of our Winter Fuel Payments!!! I wonder what they'll rubbish --oops, scrap next, & what they'll squander what they've saved on?

I wish in the same statement there had been be push to ensure pensioners in cold homes had real help with insulation and fuel efficiency

Still its sensible not giving handouts to those of us pensioners well able to meet our bills, while there are so many really in need of support.

I'm staggered that those on the left aren't delighted to have a government who knows what a state the country is in and are realistic bout putting it right. They are only in the position to be able to do this because they didn't frighten away voters as Corbin did, in the previous election. If they ignore sensible management of the economy I believe there would be far more disenchantment nation wide than there is from the whingers on the far left. Then we would have the last shower back, really screwing things up again.

I didn't vote for them but I'm glad our corrupt first past the post system gave the Tories a sound thrashing.

 

[treeturner123]

Quite sensible given that we don't seem, in most of England, to have winters any more. All we have are 2 seasons, Rain incessantly and a few days of sun!!

Gone are the days of heavy snow and long periods of freezing weather as 1962/63 or the early 1980s.

Phil

 

[flying haggis]

Well, all the bills for the small boat arrivees has to be paid somehow.....

 

[Rhossydd]

I wish in the same statement there had been be push to ensure pensioners in cold homes had real help with insulation and fuel efficiency

Absolutely right, but not just pensioners.... everyone.

 

[niall Y]

Not everyone who is poor is on Tax Credits, Therefore it will be withdrawn from many of those who are reliant on it. This hints of a very poor understanding of fuel poverty.

It certainly is pointless to give it to millionaires just because they have reached their dotage. After all I would class King Charles as being in this category.
But equally it should not be withdrawn from those who are in need because it is convenient, from an administration point of view, to link it to tax credits.

Would it not be equally expedient to link it to income based on ones tax returns?

 

[Cordy]

Andrew Neill

 

[Spectric]

The winter fuel payments needed some updates but not just a simple scrap them unless you are on a means tested benefit because there are those that are only just outside of getting such a benefit and will suffer as a result. What should have been done is just stop anyone living outside the Uk from getting them as they are living in warmer climates and anyone paying high rate tax as they also do not require them.

This is only the tip of what is to come, no one should be that surprised because they never really said much as to what they would do during the election campagn but many did say that there is no money to do much so you either raise taxes, borrow or cut services and reeves is just talking out of her nether region when she says she did not know about the so called black hole left by the tories, she knew the tories could not do much because there was no money because so much had been spent during Covid. All she is really doing is to prepare people for what is coming and put the blame elsewhere in saying there is this massive debt she was not aware of.

 

[niemeyjt]

Listening on radio this morning, over £9bn of the "black hole" is to cover the above inflation pay rises she has just granted.

Another £6bn is to cover the costs of housing the migrants - esp now Rwanda scheme has been scrapped.

Remember my second rule - there is no situation a politician cannot make worse.

 

[Rhossydd]

Listening on radio this morning, over £9bn of the "black hole" is to cover the above inflation pay rises she has just granted.

Given that so many public service workers have had BELOW inflation pay rises imposed on them in the last decade, that's hardly a gift.

Another £6bn is to cover the costs of housing the migrants - esp now Rwanda scheme has been scrapped.

That will save money, or didn't you listen to the detail or question who made migration jump so much in recent years ?

Remember my second rule - there is no situation a politician cannot make worse.

Tedious repetition, find something constructive to say.

 

[niemeyjt]

I am not saying what rate of pay increase is right or wrong - only that it is something she has done so is not part of some inherited black hole as she claims.

Before the election the IFS said BOTH sides were being economical with the truth over the the forthcoming budget requirements. I have no doubt that had the Tories won the GE we would be going through something similar (just with different targets).

So like it or not, Ms Reeves is no better than her predecessor.

 

[RobinBHM]

so is not part of some inherited black hole as she claims

Well it is really, pay disputes with public sector have been rumbling on for a long time and the pay review body had produced the figures.

So like it or not, Ms Reeves is no better than her predecessor

I don’t think that is true

Jeremy Hunt dishonestly cut NI to buy voters knowing there was no money to pay for it……he had funded it by cutting the public sector budget by £19b then saying departments would make savings.



All Rachel Reeves is doing is completing the Jeremy Hunt budget

 

[Keith Cocker]

What a bunch of moaners some people on this forum are. I don’t need the winter fuel allowance and never have and it can be put to better use by the government on our behalf. I’ve given mine to charity each year.

By the way I suspect some of the same moaners voted Reform in the recent election. Just look what you voted for.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/nigel-farage-southport-stabbings-riots-b2588657.html

 

[Rhossydd]

I don’t need the winter fuel allowance and never have and it can be put to better use by the government on our behalf.

Just because a lot of us don't need it doesn't mean that everyone will be ok, some will genuinely suffer.
I can understand why Reeves has had to make such an immediate decision. I'd hope that it will have the side effect of encouraging some who don't claim the benefits (PC etc) that they're entitled to and avoid hardship.

 

[Lard]

Well, here's another thought......I'm in Wales and get free prescriptions.....why? I, and most if not all of my mates, can afford to pay for medicines so why aren't we means tested? Would save the ludicrously expanded welsh assembly a small fortune methinks.