Many People are losing their Access to Pension Credit.

molerat

Interesting dilemma for the Scottish government who have taken over responsibility for the Pension Age Winter Heating Payment from this year

Eldi_Dos

molerat said:

Interesting dilemma for the Scottish government who have taken over responsibility for the Pension Age Winter Heating Payment from this year

The Pension Age Winter Heating Payment, draught regulations published in April 24 outlines that payment will be made to those on relevant benefit,ie pension credit and do not seem dissimilar to what was announced in Westminster.There was not much reportage of them at the time as press where focused on reporting other more headline catching stories.

Mustbeananswer??

She has Pensioners in her sights for sure.

The triple lock will mostly be swallowed up with tax anyway...particularly if you have Occupational Pensions ?? 

hugheskevi

After health expenditure, social security payments to pensioners are the second largest expenditure item in the UK.

DWP spends 56% of its benefit expenditure on pensioners. Prior to the Winter Fuel payment change, expenditure on pensioner benefits was forecast to increase by £9bn over and above inflation between 2024/25 and 2028/29.

State Pension is 84% of the total DWP expenditure on pensions, and that benefits from the Triple Lock guarantee for this Parliament. Any changes to State Pension age wouldn't happen within the Parliament, so the vast majority of pension expenditure over the next 5 years cannot be changed.

Winter Fuel Payments are only 1% of all DWP expenditure on pensioners, a total of a bit under £2bn. For context, pensioner benefit expenditure will increase by £6.4bn over and above inflation next year.

The only other pensioner benefits of any financial significance that could be cut are the disability benefits (Attendance Allowance and Disability Living Allowance) or Pension Credit.

I don't think it is too hard to see why this decision was taken in the context of wider financial pressures combined with pensioner benefit expenditure being almost entirely protected or paid to disabled and low-income pensioners.

GibbsRule_No3.

molerat said:

Interesting dilemma for the Scottish government who have taken over responsibility for the Pension Age Winter Heating Payment from this year

• In Scotland, the Government had previously announced it would replace Winter Fuel Payments with its own scheme called the 'Pension Age Winter Heating Payment' this coming winter. The new payments would be worth up to £300 and would be paid to everyone over State Pension age.
  
  We've asked the Scottish Government to confirm whether these plans will still go ahead following today's announcement and we'll update this story when we know more.

What the MSE page says about Scotland, unless they change their mind it does look like Scottish OAPs will be okay.


This is also on the front MSE page with Martin suggesting a better way of removing the WFA from English OAP's. Using the Council Tax bands A-D.

keanufan

Silvertabby's post stated: "any other pension savings they have will be theirs to keep". I can't keep all of mine, it was nice having the rise on the state pension this year but since the tax threshold wasn't increased most of my small work pension is eaten up in tax, and as someone else pointed out, being a few pounds over the threshold and you get no help from anyone. Welcome to my world.

eskbanker

Mustbeananswer?? said:

She has Pensioners in her sights for sure.

The triple lock will mostly be swallowed up with tax anyway...particularly if you have Occupational Pensions ?? 

But fiscal drag is nothing new - that particular issue stems from Rishi Sunak's 2021 decision to freeze the income tax threshold....

westv

I'm surprised we haven't had a "How do you think the budget will affect pensions?" sort of thread yet.

Exodi

Mustbeananswer?? said:
There really wasnt any need to keep in work all those years was there.Mum and Dad were wrong....I should have swung the lead.....

sheramber said:

In a couple of years won’t help those who freeze next winter

Mustbeananswer?? said:

She has Pensioners in her sights for sure.

The triple lock will mostly be swallowed up with tax anyway

It's like being on Facebook in this thread.

Well to the dismay of the pensioners who will be encased in ice next winter, I thought the change to the Winter Fuel Payment was long overdue. Every year on this very forum we see forumites smugly cracking jokes about which bottles they will be adding to their collections this year, or how they invested the money.

I've no doubt that some people on this forum, who generally skew as older and wealthier than the average person, will rush to tell me that they 'know someone' in the most specific of circumstances that will be left destitute following this change.

hyubh

Mustbeananswer?? said:

Pension Credit comes with a  lot of bonuses but a lot of Pensioners are losing theii access to Pension Credit because their State Pension(and their Occupational Pensions in some cases) kicks them over the threshold by a few quid.The bonuses include Free Dental Care...Free Glasses....Housing Benefit ...anybody in this situation ???.

Mustbeananswer?? said:

The_Green_Hornet said:

Reeves has just announced that the Winter Fuel Allowance will be restricted to pensioners claiming pension credit so the cliff edge is going to get steeper.

There really wasnt any need to keep in work all those years was there.Mum and Dad were wrong....I should have swung the lead.....it all evens out in the end???  

Mustbeananswer??, you are the Hyacinth Bucket of this forum. Winter Fuel Allowance: welfare benefit. Pension Credit: welfare benefit. State Pension: contributory benefit. However much you fight it, you're still one of them - might as well get the football out now...