Thanks for the replies I enjoy the discussion. For me I don’t see why it has to be such a hard line of £11k? Why can’t it be £11k and under is the full funding and then it dilutes gradually up to an annual income of say, £20k? Similar I suppose to a students maintenance loan along side their course fees. These are means tested and how much you are granted is entirely based on each individuals personal and families circumstance.
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[Politics] The Labour Government
- Thread starter Super Steve Earle
- Start date
Thunder Bolt
Silly old bat
Sorry I thought you were talking about the fuel payment. No, bus passes are not being taken away. That was made up by the poster.
Thunder Bolt
Silly old bat
I accept what you’re saying but how many staff would need to be employed just to handle the calibration?
Mellor 3 Ward 4
Well-known member
Thunder Bolt
Silly old bat
Three of my Granny friends have gone in the last few months anyway, without waiting for winter.Not yet
I'm not sure Granny Killer Reeveswould get away with that one.
- Oct 12, 2022
- 2,505
Again, I’m not the person you’re responding to, so apologies for jumping in. The reasoning for doing things this way, is that Pension Credit is a means tested benefit already paid to pensioners, there are already staff in place to check these claims, and that they meet conditionality. We already know who’s eligible.
That doesn’t mean we couldn’t introduce changes to Pension Credit eligibility so there was tapered eligibility to it, but what we don’t want to do is end up with multiple sets of eligibility criteria and having to employ multiple teams on separate IT systems, not talking to each other, all working out slightly different criteria. It gets expensive really quickly.
dsr-burnley
Well-known member
- Aug 15, 2014
- 2,410
Between the devil and the deep blue sea. On the one hand, even a tapered system is expensive; on the other hand, a non-tapered system is unfair.
Someone who is a pound or two under the limit gets pension credit, along with other benefits (as detailed on the government help sheet attached) of:
Housing Benefit if you rent the property you live in
Cost of Living Payments
Support for Mortgage Interest if you own the property you live in
a Council Tax discount
a free TV licence if you’re aged 75 or over
help with NHS dental treatment, glasses and transport costs for hospital appointments, if you get a certain type of Pension Credit
help with your heating costs through the Warm Home Discount Scheme
a discount on the Royal Mail redirection service if you’re moving house
and now a £300 heating bonus. Someone who gets perhaps a fiver a week more (or even less of a difference than that) gets none of the above. And no, I don't know what the answer is!
Pension Credit
Pension Credit is extra money for pensioners to bring your weekly income up to a minimum amount - what you'll get, apply, eligibility.
- Oct 12, 2022
- 2,505
Between the devil and the deep blue sea. On the one hand, even a tapered system is expensive; on the other hand, a non-tapered system is unfair.
Someone who is a pound or two under the limit gets pension credit, along with other benefits (as detailed on the government help sheet attached) of:
Housing Benefit if you rent the property you live in
Cost of Living Payments
Support for Mortgage Interest if you own the property you live in
a Council Tax discount
a free TV licence if you’re aged 75 or over
help with NHS dental treatment, glasses and transport costs for hospital appointments, if you get a certain type of Pension Credit
help with your heating costs through the Warm Home Discount Scheme
a discount on the Royal Mail redirection service if you’re moving house
and now a £300 heating bonus. Someone who gets perhaps a fiver a week more (or even less of a difference than that) gets none of the above. And no, I don't know what the answer is!
Pension Credit
Pension Credit is extra money for pensioners to bring your weekly income up to a minimum amount - what you'll get, apply, eligibility.www.gov.uk
I agree, an arbitrary boundary seems unfair to those who may be pennies over, but there would be significant expense in moving to a tiered system.
Nothing’s ever perfect.
- Oct 17, 2008
- 12,897
I don’t know why they don’t just means test it.
Probably cheaper to not introduce means testing. If it is introduced, as you note, a graduated reduction (or increase - depends which way you look at it) would be most fair.Between the devil and the deep blue sea. On the one hand, even a tapered system is expensive; on the other hand, a non-tapered system is unfair.
Someone who is a pound or two under the limit gets pension credit, along with other benefits (as detailed on the government help sheet attached) of:
Housing Benefit if you rent the property you live in
Cost of Living Payments
Support for Mortgage Interest if you own the property you live in
a Council Tax discount
a free TV licence if you’re aged 75 or over
help with NHS dental treatment, glasses and transport costs for hospital appointments, if you get a certain type of Pension Credit
help with your heating costs through the Warm Home Discount Scheme
a discount on the Royal Mail redirection service if you’re moving house
and now a £300 heating bonus. Someone who gets perhaps a fiver a week more (or even less of a difference than that) gets none of the above. And no, I don't know what the answer is!
Pension Credit
Pension Credit is extra money for pensioners to bring your weekly income up to a minimum amount - what you'll get, apply, eligibility.
I recall many years ago it being said that it is cheaper to have universal credit than to means test it.
Same argument goes for flat rate tax (%). Calling @Weststander.
Perhaps curation systems could be implemented more cheaply now with all the data and tech we now have.
One thing that is surely unfair is means testing based on assets, effectively forcing people to sell their property. This is what happens when you go into an old peoples' home. My great aunt spent the last year of her life in misery in a care home on the Old Shoreham Road, where the goons lost her false teeth and didn't replace them, talked down to her, and eat up most of the money she had saved during a lifetime of work. She died before Covid, which was probably a blessing.
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Which policies/strategy that Labour have brought in are doing that?
BadFish
Huge Member
- Oct 19, 2003
- 17,888
People are rioting up and down the country because of it, surely that news spread to where you were?
BadFish
Huge Member
- Oct 19, 2003
- 17,888
The heating allowance is now means tested isn't it?
dsr-burnley
Well-known member
- Aug 15, 2014
- 2,410
Yes. As it stands, about 1 in 8 pensioners will get it.
- Mar 1, 2021
- 544
The key there is "entitled". Many don't realise they are entitled so don't claim pension credit so won't get the heating allowance. It needs publicity to encourage claims from those who should get it but don't.
2.2m claim pension credit.
1/8th of 12.6m is 1.575m.
Wondering if the media stirred with the dramatic 1 in 8?
(Labour now need to educate the other 800,000 to claim).
dsr-burnley
Well-known member
- Aug 15, 2014
- 2,410
Nobody stirred anything. I did a qucik google and found a figure of 1.4m claiming pension credit. If it should have been 2.2m then it's 1 in 6 pensioners who will get it. Approximately.
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