MSE News: Winter benefits face cuts in welfare shake-up

dragon91317

I am retired now,through no fault of my own I had to give up work early in 1997 because of severs health problems, but before that I had worked solid since leaving schoolat 15, except for 3years when i had my children and then paid some one to look after them, no nurserys then,as me and my husband spend a lot of time in our bungalow in the winter as it is either too cold or even slippery to go out the winter fuel payment has been a life saver especially last winter as ti was so cold, but people who live in the sun still get the payment-why
I do think that the winter fuel payment should not be lowered, they could find the money if they wanted to all they have to do is stop giving benefits to all the migrants as soon as they arrive here,fi they where not given so much then they would not come here in droves, example in the Sun this week a couple arrived here with 7 children no job, no home but straight away given a house and he is on Job seekers allowance, no chance of him getting a job as he does not speak english, but he had a job back home before coming here, just think of the money that family will have every week coming in, all the childrens schooling and all of the free health care without paying a penny into the system.
After working nearly all of working time, I still have to pay Tax on my income and it makes me so mad where it is going, I get freeprescriptions, free bus pass, that is 1 bus every hour and of course the winter fuel payment, but then I have paid into the system for the past 40 years.

Paulgonnabedebtfree

dragon91317 wrote: »

I am retired now,through no fault of my own I had to give up work early in 1997 because of severs health problems, but before that I had worked solid since leaving schoolat 15, except for 3years when i had my children and then paid some one to look after them, no nurserys then,as me and my husband spend a lot of time in our bungalow in the winter as it is either too cold or even slippery to go out the winter fuel payment has been a life saver especially last winter as ti was so cold, but people who live in the sun still get the payment-why
I do think that the winter fuel payment should not be lowered, they could find the money if they wanted to all they have to do is stop giving benefits to all the migrants as soon as they arrive here,fi they where not given so much then they would not come here in droves, example in the Sun this week a couple arrived here with 7 children no job, no home but straight away given a house and he is on Job seekers allowance, no chance of him getting a job as he does not speak english, but he had a job back home before coming here, just think of the money that family will have every week coming in, all the childrens schooling and all of the free health care without paying a penny into the system.
After working nearly all of working time, I still have to pay Tax on my income and it makes me so mad where it is going, I get freeprescriptions, free bus pass, that is 1 bus every hour and of course the winter fuel payment, but then I have paid into the system for the past 40 years.

I quite agree.
The sooner they return the royal family back to Germany, the better.

generalcuster

Hi, I'm 62 and my wife is 66. We receive Pension Credit only because the pension scheme that I was in at work and my privately paid one did not produce as much as I was led to believe they would years ago and having to retire early due to chronic illness.
I have to be honest and say that the £250 we get every year for WFA is not used to pay for fuel costs. My wife saves it up for Christmas presents for the grandchildren. We pay a fixed amount each month for both gas and electricity so we really have no need for the payment as such.

As regards the bus passes we have, these are used instead of taking the car out and going into town and having to pay for car parking. We have a good bus service every 30 mins that goes to town via Tescos and Sainsburys which we also use to get our shopping.
The car is only used for social outings and if the buses don't run.

To finish off, my father who is 86, gets £400 WFA (he's on his own now) and £71.40 AA per week (he has had a couple of dizzy spells over the past year or so), and he is fitter than me. He openly says that he has saved all of his OAP for the past 21 years because his civil service pension is more than enough for him to live off. His AA he uses to pay his gardener/handyman/general gofa.
I do believe that maybe the OAP should also be means tested. It is obscene that he is able to do this.

On the whole, I would have no objection at all if both of these payments were stopped and only paid to those who are disabled or sick whatever their ages.
We pensioners don't really need as much money to live on as would a younger couple or someone who is ill/sick/disabled. I could never understand why you get more as a means tested benefit after age 60 than you do if you were under 60.

Pincher

The whole concept of Winter Fuel is insane.

The £400 should only pay for bills of properties that don't lose heat too badly, otherwise it's just burning money. If the social services really care, they need to identify and move vulnerable people out of cold, badly insulated houses during cold spells, instead of trying to heat a lost cause.

Re-train all these HIP energy assessors, properly this time,
and use them to run improvement projects.
Make them social worker/project managers.
Really bad housing should be condemned,
and residents relocated. Good enough housing will be improved, by vetted subcontractors. Quality inspections, the full works.

Only then should £400 be payable to the power company, because the pensioner will just buy Christmas presents for their grand children if you let them have the cash.

contribute_good_news

Right to a decent living iwhat means,having a decent income,appropriate shelter what includes heating too and enough food,cloths is a primary right of every human being and if that is not taken into consideration from goverment that shows that we cannot function as a human beings.