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New Labour government - legislative agenda

PR1Berske said:
The cuts to winter fuel allowances are for those not on pension credit or means tested benefits. Like free TV licenses there are many pensioners who don't benefit because they're fairly well off.

The Tories left the country in debt and debts need repaying.
Click to expand...
there are 1 million pensioners who are eligible for pension credit, but dont claim it. They'll be losing out. There are well over a million pensioners who have savings/income barely over he PC limit who will also miss out, pushing them into hardship over the winter. If she wanted to go after wealthy pensioners - go after wealthy pensioners with wealth taxes or an equivalent. This is just performative 'we will be harsh on the poor' bollocks
 
PR1Berske said:
The cuts to winter fuel allowances are for those not on pension credit or means tested benefits. Like free TV licenses there are many pensioners who don't benefit because they're fairly well off.

The Tories left the country in debt and debts need repaying.
Click to expand...

800,000 pensioners eligible for Pension Credit don't claim it (stigma/unaware that they can/do not know how to).
1 million more pensioners live on less than £50 above the poverty line.
The richest pensioners won't even notice the loss of the allowance.

Less than a month into the Labour Government and it has suspended MPs for voting against child poverty and now its condemned 2 mllion pensioners into fuel poverty. Nicely put eh?
 
Smokeandsteam said:
800,000 pensioners eligible for Pension Credit don't claim it (stigma/unaware that they can/do not know how to).
Click to expand...
same announcement included measures to address that gap

Ms Reeves said pension credit would be merged with housing benefit so more people claim who are entitled to it, and the government would work with older people's charities and local government to increase take-up.
Click to expand...
www.bbc.co.uk

Rachel Reeves defends scrapping winter fuel payments for millions

The chancellor tells the BBC she "had to act" to "fix the mess" in public finances.
www.bbc.co.uk
 
Smokeandsteam said:
800,000 pensioners eligible for Pension Credit don't claim it
Click to expand...
Then AgeUK and others, including the DWP and local MPs, need to do a lot more to make sure they are claiming what they are eligible to receive. It's not good enough to just say, "X thousand are not claiming what they deserve and that's the end of it", as AgeUK seem to be doing.
 
PR1Berske said:
The cuts to winter fuel allowances are for those not on pension credit or means tested benefits. Like free TV licenses there are many pensioners who don't benefit because they're fairly well off.

The Tories left the country in debt and debts need repaying.
Click to expand...
the country has been in debt since at least 1692. so it's really daft to talk about it like it's some sort of new phenomenon.
 
Smokeandsteam said:
800,000 pensioners eligible for Pension Credit don't claim it (stigma/unaware that they can/do not know how to).
1 million more pensioners live on less than £50 above the poverty line.
The richest pensioners won't even notice the loss of the allowance.

Less than a month into the Labour Government and it has suspended MPs for voting against child poverty and now its condemned 2 mllion pensioners into fuel poverty. Nicely put eh?
Click to expand...
you have to wonder about the mental processes of labour cheerleaders like the unfortunate kid eternity
 
Cerv said:
same announcement included measures to address that gap


www.bbc.co.uk

Rachel Reeves defends scrapping winter fuel payments for millions

The chancellor tells the BBC she "had to act" to "fix the mess" in public finances.
www.bbc.co.uk
Click to expand...
it really really doesn't cover that gap tho, does it? There have been benefit workers trying to increase uptake for the last decade, and it's still almost a million. Pissing around the edges. And fuck charities having to do the governments job for them.
 
some people will not claim unless the money goes in the bank no questions. They don't like/are intimidated by authority or perceived authority. No police, no police. Others are too proud to be made to feel like a beggar, because you are made to feel that way regardless- the scrounger scrounger shite from the tv and news has done its poison so pride takes over. Rather go cold, with predictable consequences. Universalism is the only way but the Face of BOE reeves isn't going anywhere near that thinking ever...
 
DotCommunist said:
some people will not claim unless the money goes in the bank no questions. They don't like/are intimidated by authority or perceived authority. No police, no police. Others are too proud to be made to feel like a beggar, because you are made to feel that way regardless- the scrounger scrounger shite from the tv and news has done its poison so pride takes over. Rather go cold, with predictable consequences. Universalism is the only way but the Face of BOE reeves isn't going anywhere near that thinking ever...
Click to expand...

Exactly. I'm going to be generous and accept that a lot of posters haven't fully appreciated yet the stigma some associate with claiming benefits. But, let's be clear: the idea of a goverment campaign to get people to take what they are due isn't new and we know they do not work. Universalism is a principle that the left has fought to defend for good reason.

There are a lot of wealthy pensioners - mainly due to property ownership - and I'd have no problem if Reeves went after them. But, no, it's 2 million poor pensioners who are going to be cold this winter instead. Rich pensioners don't need the payment.

Given that Darren Jones said last night that Labour had not planned to do this and had not worked the cut up in opposition its likely that attack on the poorest pensioners was worked up the Tories before the GE and that the civil service had been asked to cost it etc and Reeves has simply adopted it.
 
Smokeandsteam said:
If the Tories had done it that's what you'd call it too. But, when its your new labour mates then it's 'fixing the black hole' or whatever bollocks Reeves barfed up to explain it.
Click to expand...

Would have been very surprising, given that the Tories left completely regressive benefits to well-off pensioners in place despite cutting everything else, solely out of electoral cynicism.
 
Smokeandsteam said:
its likely that attack on the poorest pensioners was worked up the Tories before the GE and that the civil service had been asked to cost it etc and Reeves has simply adopted it.
Click to expand...
I understand your thinking but I cannot see the Tories adopting a policy that targets what little is left of their core base.

Knowing a little of how the Treasury operates, I'd say they had a range of options prepared for the incoming government.
 
Targeting winter fuel payments just seems weird and utterly counter productive.

What happens if pensioners start claiming pension credit becoming eligible? Then they save nothing. For this to work surely it has to be something that a) people can't avoid and b) targets a lot of people (ie costs a lot).
 
Reeves seems to have similar approach to George Osborne, who as we all remember was the architect of austerity and loved phrases such as “fixing the roof while the sun is shining” to justify it while cutting public services, benefits etc

Edit and to follow up on post 268, GO was happy to keep blaming Labour in the absence of a plan bar swingeing cuts
 
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