Winter Fuel Allowance under discussion by Martin.

hugheskevi

Nelliegrace said:

Doesn’t that sound generous. DH worked from age 16, like most of his age, and paid NI for 48 years and gets he £184 a week pension. 

How much contracted-out pension does he get via occupational or personal pensions? For example Guaranteed Minimum Pension through a Defined Benefit scheme?

Due to contracting-out (1978-2016), you can't just look at the amount of State Pension payable because if an individual was contracted out the value of their Additional Pension was paid wholly or partly through a private pension.

kaMelo

And to emphasise the point on how generous the old state pension is due to the high deferral rate and SERPS/S2P, millions of pensioners receive a higher pension under the old system than what people can achieve under the new state Penson.  Twelve people receive in excess of £800 per week

Here is the full graph:



Source; The Telegraph.

GibbsRule_No3.

I am going to write something that will no doubt be controversial with regard to the WFA.  I remember when my mum received the £10 Christmas bonus and what a big deal it was, it hasn’t been raised or taken away, people have said it would cost too much to get rid of. There has also been much mention that a lot of OAPs don’t need the WFA and in fact they don’t use it for WFA but spend it either on themselves or grand children. Due to it being paid out around the Christmas period and the fact the £10 has not been raised, is it not likely that the £200 is really looked on as the modern day £10 Christmas bonus?

newatc

Wouldn't be simpler to award £100 winter fuel allowance to anyone over state pension age and in the previous tax year had income (from HMRC records) less than say £15k. Should be easier to administer and fairer.

BlackKnightMonty

Spending less on kids and more on pensioners doesn’t seem right to me. So maybe a bit of a rebalance is needed, harsh as it is?



https://www.if.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Government_Spending_By_Age_FINAL.pdf

Ibrahim5

I did a similar piece of research comparing state pension with doctors pay over the last 15 years. Every year pensioners under the triple lock always got above inflation pay rises whilst doctors always got below inflation rises which culminated in strikes. It seemed strange government policy to make the pensioners richer and the workers poorer. Coincidence that when the doctors eventually got a rise it coincided with a pensioners cut. Not sure whether the government did that on purpose or not. Ie blame the doctors for you losing WFA.

sunnyflower

westv said:

I imagine the WFA would be just a bit of loose change for most on here. 

Lucky old you... 

zagfles

BlackKnightMonty said:

Spending less on kids and more on pensioners doesn’t seem right to me. So maybe a bit of a rebalance is needed, harsh as it is?



https://www.if.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Government_Spending_By_Age_FINAL.pdf

Very misleading graph. Wind back a decade and it's spending on children which will show the greatest increase due to the New Labour obsession with "child poverty" targets.

Compared with other OECD countries, the UK spends less on pensioner benefits (inc state pension) than most other countries, and more on working age benefits particularly for families with children. 

BlackKnightMonty

zagfles said:

BlackKnightMonty said:

Spending less on kids and more on pensioners doesn’t seem right to me. So maybe a bit of a rebalance is needed, harsh as it is?



https://www.if.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Government_Spending_By_Age_FINAL.pdf

Very misleading graph. Wind back a decade and it's spending on children which will show the greatest increase due to the New Labour obsession with "child poverty" targets.

Compared with other OECD countries, the UK spends less on pensioner benefits (inc state pension) than most other countries, and more on working age benefits particularly for families with children. 

I have looked into this further, you make a fair point. I still do think children have been short changed.

https://assets.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/wpuploads/2018/06/Public-Spending-on-Children-in-England-CCO-JUNE-2018.pdf

Grumpy_chap

BlackKnightMonty said:

Spending less on kids and more on pensioners doesn’t seem right to me. 

Pensioners vote.
Kids can't vote.
Kids' parents, in many cases, don't vote.  Those that do are probably pleased that there is state care provision looking after their elderly parents.