Received £10 Christmas Bonus

SandraScarlett

I see that my £10 Bonus is being paid with next Monday's SRP, so everyone should be getting theirs in the next week or 2.

K80_Black

Cheers for the heads up.

I think the bonus itself is a bit weird. Christmas costs a lot more than £10 for anyone who celebrates it - it's such a small amount that it's almost pointless. If they recognise there's extra expenses for a lot of people around this time of year and want to help us pay for them, great, but then £10?! That barely covers a thing.

I don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth but it's a bit of a mixed message. Either special occasions should be budgeted for in our weekly amounts, or not.

sheramber

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/liberaldemocrats/6865057/Pensioners-10-Christmas-bonus-is-same-as-four-decades-ago.html

When it was launched by Ted Heath's Tory government in 1972, the bonus payment was worth £98 in today's money.

The £10 Christmas boost was then worth more than the £6.75 basic state pension.

Rodders53

I've just had my first state pension payment, mid-last month, and next due 4 weeks later.

Got a letter about the £10 bonus the other day and can see that it will be paid, separately, on Monday via my internet banking. With a reference DWP XB The letters must cost almost as much to process and mail out as the payments given.

Keeps someone in employment though.

SandraScarlett

sheramber wrote: »

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/liberaldemocrats/6865057/Pensioners-10-Christmas-bonus-is-same-as-four-decades-ago.html

When it was launched by Ted Heath's Tory government in 1972, the bonus payment was worth £98 in today's money.

The £10 Christmas boost was then worth more than the £6.75 basic state pension.

I agree. When my late parents first got this, it paid for all their Christmas food shopping, and a lot of the presents too. But every little helps, even though it's nearer 5 decades than four since this was introduced.


That's a scary thought - I still think of the 1990s as being quite recent!!!

HighamKneeDee

It appears to be such a paltry amount that maybe it should now be scrapped. Save the government finding the money and save on the administration surrounding the payments.

K80_Black

sheramber wrote: »

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/liberaldemocrats/6865057/Pensioners-10-Christmas-bonus-is-same-as-four-decades-ago.html

When it was launched by Ted Heath's Tory government in 1972, the bonus payment was worth £98 in today's money.

The £10 Christmas boost was then worth more than the £6.75 basic state pension.

Thanks, that goes some way to explaining why it's such a silly amount!

I personally donate mine to charity. It won't make much of a difference to me having an extra tenner, but it does provide a personalised Christmas Gift to a homeless person at my local drop-in centre.

retiredandskint

I'll probably use mine for some Christmas goodies for the food bank. As the government is cutting everything to the bone I think it's time it was scrapped.

poppasmurf_bewdley

HighamKneeDee wrote: »

It appears to be such a paltry amount that maybe it should now be scrapped. Save the government finding the money and save on the administration surrounding the payments.

And could you imagine the howls of protest from the bleeding heart Lib-Dims, Labour and the Greens about the no-good Tories grinding the poor OAP's into the ground by even taking this miserable amount from them to pass it on to multi-millionaires in tax breaks!

sheramber

poppasmurf_bewdley wrote: »

And could you imagine the howls of protest from the bleeding heart Lib-Dims, Labour and the Greens about the no-good Tories grinding the poor OAP's into the ground by even taking this miserable amount from them to pass it on to multi-millionaires in tax breaks!

Exactly. No government wants to be the one who takes it away.

longleggedhair

sheramber wrote: »

Exactly. No government wants to be the one who takes it away.

It is being taken away, but by the back door....slowly letting inflation eat it away is easier than taking the plunge and stopping it all together.