MSE News: Winter fuel payments cut in secret Budget measure

margaretclare

skcollobcat10 wrote: »

My mother is 77 years old, she worked all her life as a secretary/shorthand typist and brought up 3 children and my father worked also. You will probably find that the women you talk about who did not work were not interested in getting a career of any kind and therefore it was probably not worth their while working in low paid jobs.

There were many woman of that age group who worked. My grandmother who had 5 children was widowed at 34 years old, she also worked all her life up to the age of 69.

I agree. It is a fallacy that women of my generation (born just before WWII) 'never worked after marriage'. This is what I hear, though, from younger women. They think we didn't work. I worked from age 16 to 67, admittedly with 3 years out in the early 1960s when children were little. Even as a mature student 1978-81 I worked for 14 weeks every summer.

As I worked in mainly female jobs - nursing, midwifery, and before that, office jobs - where did all the other women come from whom I worked with?

What happened was that things changed between the 1930s, when you still had a lot of single women whose partners had been killed in WWI, and in nursing and teaching they had to leave if they got married. Those rules were relaxed during the 1940s and no longer applied by the time I was in the work-force, 1951 onwards.

Someone mentioned unmarried mothers. My mum was one. I wouldn't want to return to the punitive way we were treated in my childhood and growing-up years.

dark_lady

What a crying shame is isnt Iris or Poohsticks living underneath me because if either of them were and then showing me this attitude i wouldnt have bothered with hurrying up the repair by engaging the help of Environmental Health. I would have just let the GIVING WAY OF THE BATHROOM FLOOR IN MY UPSTAIRS FLAT WITH THE TOILET FALLING THROUGH into the flat underneath just take its natural course. How on earth can you wait two weeks for a repair like this when it could possibly kill someone. The jealousy and bitterness really shines through on some of the posts on here.

NASA_2

In more important news - the government are still not giving workers any money to help with the rise in fuel costs.

Marisco

Yes, my mother also always worked, and only gave up when arthritis struck and she couldn't use her hands. But most of my aunties didn't, they were "housewives". I'm sure for all those who worked, there were an equal amount who never, and it would be the likes of those who need the help. I do understand this argument about saving and pensions etc, but there were many people who simply couldn't save on the wage they had, and paying into a private pension (unless it was a works one) would also be out of the question. What I cannot understand is the assumption that anyone who didn't make provision for old age, is/was !!!!less and a waster!!!

Reading some of the posts about what some spend the WFA on is a disgrace. Far better it be means tested and given to someone who needs it!! And I speak as someone who would lose it, if means testing came in!! But I wouldn't mind, so long as it went to someone who needs it! Same with bus passes as well.

dark_lady

And no Iris i we wouldnt have had to pay the repair bill.
But we would have to pay a hotel or B+B bill because it would then have been unsafe to stay here. And to live some where you do tend to need somewhere to go to the toilet. It strikes me that you are so bitter about someone getting something you dont get and so eager to discredit them because of it that you are not thinking things through before you post. This was a dangerous situation but i have a feeling i am wasting my time.

margaretclare

Marisco wrote: »

Yes, my mother also always worked, and only gave up when arthritis struck and she couldn't use her hands. But most of my aunties didn't, they were "housewives". I'm sure for all those who worked, there were an equal amount who never, and it would be the likes of those who need the help. I do understand this argument about saving and pensions etc, but there were many people who simply couldn't save on the wage they had, and paying into a private pension (unless it was a works one) would also be out of the question. What I cannot understand is the assumption that anyone who didn't make provision for old age, is/was !!!!less and a waster!!!

Reading some of the posts about what some spend the WFA on is a disgrace. Far better it be means tested and given to someone who needs it!! And I speak as someone who would lose it, if means testing came in!! But I wouldn't mind, so long as it went to someone who needs it! Same with bus passes as well.

I completely agree with you.

I usually come in for a lot of criticism, though, if I express these types of opinion.

Recently I was sent a renewed bus pass. I was surprised, as I'd assumed I'd have to apply to have it renewed and had already decided I didn't want it. I also get a blue badge, but always have to re-apply for that and send an up-to-date photo. The bus pass - no. I'd only used it once in 5 years so it was pointless. I sent it back. I told the Over 50 board in a thread headed 'Bus passes again' and I got some severe criticism.

sardine

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

I don't think I've ever lived anywhere with a lockable gate, in fact, most people don't even shut theirs unless they have a dog.

Well we do!!

All of our rear entrances are accessed down a common path which is closed off with a 7' high steel gate with spikes on the top. We all have a key.

sardine

Gorgeous_George wrote: »

I holday in the winter and meet lots of OAPs who use their winter fuel payment for their flights or to buy digital cameras. It's a standing joke amongst them.

There is no need to buy votes in this way (IMHO) and the whole payment should be scrapped. Pensioners who cannot afford their bills should be helped but not necessarily financially. They have 50 years of work to plan for retirement.

GG

One of those will probably by my father. He can't stand the cold, that's why he goes abroad to Australia for the winter courtesy of his £400 Heating Allowance!!

sardine

skcollobcat10 wrote: »

If you think your heating bill is high look at mine:

electricity £82 per month = £984
coal x 1 bag for 26 weeks per year £13 = £338
logs to lorry loads £300
oil 6 full tanks per year approx £3,000

total: £4622



oil £650 to fill at the moment
overall the oil is the dearest and we have no gas to keep the house warm and I am disabled in an electric wheelchair so feel the cold more and I don't get a winter payment because I am in my fifties. Actually the winter fuel payment would be a p**s in the ocean for me.

Even though I can afford my fuel not only should pensioners get the allowance but ALL young disabled people under 65 years of age and not only the ones on income support.

Might I suggest that you get hold of one of those companies that offer free loft and wall insulation!!

Good God!! what on earth are you heating?

So it is you that is 50% responsible for the carbon emissions in the UK!!

sardine

NASA wrote: »

In more important news - the government are still not giving workers any money to help with the rise in fuel costs.

Why should they? Everybody is responsible for themselves.