winter fuel payment

margaretclare

The trouble is, no one can define what is meant by 'rich' or 'wealthy'.

We're not rich but we're a long way off being poor. I've been able to save more since retirement than I ever did in all the years of being paid a reasonable salary but having commitments so that it all went out as fast as it came in. Is being able to save a way of defining 'rich'?

£100 into my account today. What to do with it? 'Winter fuel' is all taken care of. We pay by monthly direct debit and Eon tell us what they want us to pay. The boiler has to be serviced first week of the New Year so it will probably go towards that. We decided not to pay a monthly insurance for boiler maintenance but to get servicing done by a reputable local firm.

giraffe69

A simple way of doing it would be to tax it at the marginal rate so those who are poor and perhaps most in need get it all and those on high incomes (more than £150k) lose up to 45% of it.
If the payment is supposed to help people who have low incomes not be too afraid to switch on their heating then paying people who earn/have a lot seems a bit of an odd way to spend the tax receipts.

At least the latest part of the thread is a welcome relief from the people who want to tell us their payment and/or letter has arrived.

zygurat789

giraffe69 wrote: »

A simple way of doing it would be to tax it at the marginal rate so those who are poor and perhaps most in need get it all and those on high incomes (more than £150k) lose up to 45% of it.
If the payment is supposed to help people who have low incomes not be too afraid to switch on their heating then paying people who earn/have a lot seems a bit of an odd way to spend the tax receipts.

At least the latest part of the thread is a welcome relief from the people who want to tell us their payment and/or letter has arrived.

That would be anything but simple. How would you collect it, PAYE, what about those who are completely outside the tax system? Universal benefits are mainly regarded as net so as tio avoid the problems of tax.

Wealthy OAPs have paid most into the organised theft that is the tax system, so why shouldn't they get a little back?

That's a very anarchist point of view but I'm afraid it's not the tax system which collects money state will always need but the benefits system we have in this country; it's the reason we have so many perople queuing up in Calais and the massive annual deficit which increases our national debt year by year.
If we're going to have any benefits then the state should be rthe last resort and they should all be means tested, including the SRP though at an income level above mine.:rotfl:

Errata

Unfortunately the DumLibs aren't historians and are blissfully unaware that the WFP was initiated as it usfeully saved the government of that day from increasing the SRP by the amount they should have done.
Some retired people can easily be wealthier than they were when they were working if both of a couple received the highest rate of AA.
£162 each week tax free between them is quite a significant amount.

margaretclare

Errata wrote: »

Unfortunately the DumLibs aren't historians and are blissfully unaware that the WFP was initiated as it usfeully saved the government of that day from increasing the SRP by the amount they should have done.
Some retired people can easily be wealthier than they were when they were working if both of a couple received the highest rate of AA.
£162 each week tax free between them is quite a significant amount.

We don't have the financial commitments that we had while working. We do get a decent amount each, but most of it is still taxable.

I've always regarded these little 'add-ons' as dishonest and would prefer the basic income i.e. the SRP to have been increased. 'Vote-catchers' basically.

I keep hearing 'oh but you have a bus pass' and amazed stares when I say 'No, I don't'. DH has one but never uses it. I sent mine back knowing it was unlikely I'd ever use it.

Giraffe69, I agree, I don't see why it is necessary to record receiving letter and/or receiving payment on this thread!

zygurat789

margaretclare wrote: »

We don't have the financial commitments that we had while working. We do get a decent amount each, but most of it is still taxable.

!

If most (ie more than half) of it is taxable then your individual income must be in excess of £20,500 or £41,000 in total. Yes a very decent amount.

p00hsticks

zygurat789 wrote: »

If most (ie more than half) of it is taxable then your individual income must be in excess of £20,500 or £41,000 in total. Yes a very decent amount.

There's a difference between taxable and taxed

The state pension is taxable.
Therefore for someone whose only income is the state pension, 100% of their income is taxable. However, they are unlikely to actually be taxed on any of it as the amount received will be below their annual tax allowance.

I'm not sure of the point Margaret clare was trying to make by saying that most of her income was taxable though - I would expect that to be the case for most people ?

margaretclare

p00hsticks wrote: »

There's a difference between taxable and taxed

The state pension is taxable.
Therefore for someone whose only income is the state pension, 100% of their income is taxable. However, they are unlikely to actually be taxed on any of it as the amount received will be below their annual tax allowance.

We have pension payments from our previous careers so the state pension is not our only income. This will be the normal state of affairs for anyone who worked in a public sector job or any job that had a pension linked to it. Doesn't mean we're rich, but it does mean we're not poor.

zygurat789

margaretclare wrote: »

We have pension payments from our previous careers so the state pension is not our only income. This will be the normal state of affairs for anyone who worked in a public sector job or any job that had a pension linked to it. Doesn't mean we're rich, but it does mean we're not poor.

Rich and poor are relative terms.
Anyone who has a government pension from a lifetime's work in the public sector certainly is onto a winner and when the SRP is added it certainly gives a much better income than most outside this or the very large employers in the private sector.
I would say that people in these circumstances are rich when compared to most others in their age group.

grannytwice

Ours arrived this week £200 helps a bit in the frozen north,
safely paid into gas and electricity account so in credit ready for winter. On state pension so it is a lovely bonus, I do like to be warm