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Winter fuel payment petition
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Why should we have to do this.....Because thats why we get awarded DLA.
IS, ESA, JSA or shock horror wages are there to pay for 'normal' essential living costs. DLA is awarded to pay for extra costs related to disability such as, amongst other things, transport, medical equipment, special foods and additional heating.
Benefits are not designed to give a little extra at the end of each week/month for luxuries, savings etc. No they dont cover everything for everyone but then they are not designed to do so.
I'd actually argue that the CWP made to pensioners needs to means / need tested. No some of those retired Europe who dont need it shouldnt get it and those on the breadline should get more.
But some pensioners get DLA or AA. So, why don't they have to pay it out of theirs?
£18.65 per week doesn't go far. Especially when that involves things such as transport costs (can't drive and can't go out by myself) or things such as special food, nappy sacks, extra washing and possibly soon, nappies.
I'll still need those things at 65 - so why does the government then decide to help me?
50p saver #40 £20 banked
Virtual sealed pot #178 £80.25
My DLA pays for me to have ready meals delivered because I can't go out and shop, can't cook for myself, pays for me to get a little help ironing and cleaning and to have a computer because I have a severe phobia of telephone calls and get very depressed when I am cut off from friends and family without internet access. I don't get the severe disability premium because the DWP decided, despite the Pension Service advisor who helped me fill out my latest DLA form and my doctor's comments, that I don't need to be on middle-rate care. I can't drive, and often cannot take public transport because of anxiety, bad Aspie days and haptephobia, so have to have taxis about half the time. I also have to pay for special clothing and alternative health treatments out of my DLA as I have severe fibromyalgia, hypermobility, Raynaud's and temperature/air-pressure-affected migraines (along with rapid-cycling bipolar disorder) and am allergic to multiple fabrics including wool and acrylic.
All of the former are negatively affected by the winter and its weather - if I get too cold I become too stiff and am in too much pain to move at all - so I need extra heating. Does the DLA meet that cost? Hell, no. Not by a long chalk.
Given all I already have to pay for extras out of what little DLA I get, I can't afford extra heating on top, which means I have to go without other things to meet the bills I can't go without paying - for example, it means I have to reduce what I eat to the point where it will keep me from becoming hypoglycaemic and not much more. And I do not have the energy to appeal against my low-care ruling to get the severe disability premium, even though it takes me all my time to get anything done because of my state of health and there are many things I simply can't do at all. So I don't get winter fuel payments, even though the cold makes my conditions considerably - and noticeably - worse, because I am under 60.
Now tell me: how is that a fair way to make someone live?
Edit: Used the wrong abbreviation - I do get CWP, but not winter fuel payments.
Spot on! its NOT fair, why should pensioners that go to europe for the winter get the CWP and people who need the extra be left struggling, will someone PLEASE tell me why the CWP is not means tested
CWP is means tested. It's the winter fuel payments that aren't means tested.
50p saver #40 £20 banked
Virtual sealed pot #178 £80.25
I absolutely agree with you. I am disabled due to having several complex spinal surgeries and the kind of extra costs described is what I use my DLA for - that's why DLA is paid! If one's DLA income is below the Income Support threshold then it's topped up by IS and one gets a cold weather payment.
What you've said is incorrect:
DLA isn't means tested and you can claim it and work at the same.
IS is means tested and only certain people can claim it.
50p saver #40 £20 banked
Virtual sealed pot #178 £80.25