£10.00 Christmas bonus?

The_Green_Hornet

Universidad said:

The Christmas bonus was introduced by Ted Heath in 1972. It was 10 pounds then, and it's 10 pounds now. It was supposed to cover the cost of a full Christmas dinner for a family. Barely covers the bus to the supermarket these days.

It was initially introduced as a special one-off payment but, like now, no politician wants to be known as the grinch who took it away so they have decided to let it wither under the weight of inflation.

woolly_wombat

The_Green_Hornet said:

It was initially introduced as a special one-off payment but, like now, no politician wants to be known as the grinch who took it away so they have decided to let it wither under the weight of inflation.

It’s a pity the WFA wasn’t also allowed to ‘wither under the weight of inflation’ as the ‘new’ 2016 ‘flat rate’ state pension continues to be rolled out.

GibbsRule_No3.

Still no sign of it in my bank account. Usually had it by now when WFA was still a payment.

Flugelhorn

GibbsRule_No3. said:

Still no sign of it in my bank account. Usually had it by now when WFA was still a payment.

got my first SP payment today, thought they might have sent the £10 too but no sign of it 

Exodi

The_Green_Hornet said:

Universidad said:

The Christmas bonus was introduced by Ted Heath in 1972. It was 10 pounds then, and it's 10 pounds now. It was supposed to cover the cost of a full Christmas dinner for a family. Barely covers the bus to the supermarket these days.

It was initially introduced as a special one-off payment but, like now, no politician wants to be known as the grinch who took it away so they have decided to let it wither under the weight of inflation.

Exactly that.

And ironically despite headlines calling it 'meaningless' and pensioners complaining it doesn't cover anything, we all know there would be absolute pandemonium if they even considered removing it.

An article for the telegraph is running a poll on their article about the Christmas Bonus asking 'Should pensioners' Christmas bonus increase to £200?'

7,215 votes so far and 82% say yes.

As Edward Leigh - the longest serving MP in the Commons - said in September, spending more and more every year on pensioners will eventually bankrupt the country (but I guess selfishly you could ask why a pensioner would care when they'd likely be 6 feet under by then (especially if they don't have kids)).

teaselMay

I bet if the same question was asked about non pension benefit recipients (which I am) the answer would be different.

Universidad

teaselMay said:

I bet if the same question was asked about non pension benefit recipients (which I am) the answer would be different.

We're all different, but I favour it for the non-pensioners far more. And actually, only really think of it in that context.

IvanOpinion

Exodi said:

The_Green_Hornet said:

Universidad said:

The Christmas bonus was introduced by Ted Heath in 1972. It was 10 pounds then, and it's 10 pounds now. It was supposed to cover the cost of a full Christmas dinner for a family. Barely covers the bus to the supermarket these days.

It was initially introduced as a special one-off payment but, like now, no politician wants to be known as the grinch who took it away so they have decided to let it wither under the weight of inflation.

Exactly that.

And ironically despite headlines calling it 'meaningless' and pensioners complaining it doesn't cover anything, we all know there would be absolute pandemonium if they even considered removing it.

An article for the telegraph is running a poll on their article about the Christmas Bonus asking 'Should pensioners' Christmas bonus increase to £200?'

7,215 votes so far and 82% say yes.

As Edward Leigh - the longest serving MP in the Commons - said in September, spending more and more every year on pensioners will eventually bankrupt the country (but I guess selfishly you could ask why a pensioner would care when they'd likely be 6 feet under by then (especially if they don't have kids)).

I would love to see that 7215 broken down by age demographic

I agree with the sentiment in your last paragraph. We are living in an incredibly selfish era with everyone seemingly having their hand out for their piece of silver. As a country we have collectively run up a debt of £2.8 trillion and seem to expect the next generation/someone else to pay it back.

We are a generation that, relatively speaking, has not known a lot of hardship, so maybe it is the right time for the government to say 'No' to all the hand outs, until such times as we get our finances in order and can actually afford them. At that point there would be a lot more money to go around since we won't have to spend billions every year on financing debt that our generation has accrued. 

GibbsRule_No3.

Still no sign of the £10 wondering if it is due to the backlog with the WFA applications? Not that I will be getting that this year or have applied, so I’m not in a system waiting.

spot1034

Still not had mine either. Last year I didn't get it until the 20th, but I was a new entrant to the system then, having only reached pension age on Dec 5th so I could understand why it was paid later than most others. Different this year. My 95 year old mother got hers on Dec 2nd. Could they be paying in descending order of age, oldest first?