General Election 2024: General UK Politics Discussion here

[hackey lad]

1 minute ago, Mister M said:

I will indeed think what I want - I seem to remember a certain Suella Braverman (Home Sec at the time) ratchet up the tension with pro Palestinian marches in London, and refuse to back the police. 

God knows what would've come out of her gob had she still been in office....

If you think the marches are a good thing , then good for you 

[hackey lad]

1 minute ago, Mister M said:

Labour aren't perfect - but better than that shower of ****e which went before.

[Mister M]

1 minute ago, hackey lad said:

If you think the marches are a good thing , then good for you 

Not a good thing, but better than not having marches at all. We are a democracy with human rights - just.

Just now, hackey lad said:

Oh sorry hun, forgot you don't like swear words

[RJRB]

The winter fuel payment should always have been means tested .  It was a Tory device to win pensioners votes across the board.

I will lose it but it was never essential for me.

For others it is.Let them have it .

When and if I am on my uppers then I would like to think that there are some safety nets available to keep a house,to heat a house and put food on the table.

Also that NHS treatment is available when needed.

The Tories have set our social services back years

[Mister M]

Just now, RJRB said:

The winter fuel payment should always have been means tested .  It was a Tory device to win pensioners votes across the board.

I will lose it but it was never essential for me.

For others it is.Let them have it .

When and if I am on my uppers then I would like to think that there are some safety nets available to keep a house,to heat a house and put food on the table.

Also that NHS treatment is available when needed.

The Tories have set our social services back years

That's a good point. 

The way the Tories talk regarding the Winter fuel Allowance, you'd think they have every pensioner's back. 

They don't.

Just look at what they did in the last 14 years to the NHS, social services, and other services that the elderly rely on.

[Longcol]

4 minutes ago, RJRB said:

The winter fuel payment should always have been means tested .  It was a Tory device to win pensioners votes across the board.

I will lose it but it was never essential for me.

For others it is.Let them have it .

When and if I am on my uppers then I would like to think that there are some safety nets available to keep a house,to heat a house and put food on the table.

Also that NHS treatment is available when needed.

The Tories have set our social services back years

 

It was introduced by the Blair government in 1997 - although many more pensioners were in poverty at the time,

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_Fuel_Payment#:~:text=The payment was first introduced,other cross sections of society.

 

The payment was first introduced by the Labour Government in 1997, and was first announced by Chancellor of the Exchequer in his Pre-Budget Statement of that year.^[2]

When the policy was introduced under Blair, pensioners were significantly more likely to be in poverty and poorer than other cross sections of society. In 2002–03, approximately 29% of pensioners were in absolute income poverty, compared to 2022–23, that number had dropped to 12%.^[3] Children and those in work have higher rates of absolute income poverty and rates of material deprivation.^[4]

[RJRB]

@Longcol

I will amend to a political device and whichever Party is in power it should always have been means tested.

Many pensioners are not in poverty and some are.

Many young families are in poverty.

The old maxim of from each according to their ability ,to each according to their needs still rings true.

 

[Longcol]

I do wonder how OAP's managed before 1997 when the winter fuel allowance was introduced.

[hackey lad]

58 minutes ago, RJRB said:

The winter fuel payment should always have been means tested .  It was a Tory device to win pensioners votes across the board.

I will lose it but it was never essential for me.

For others it is.Let them have it .

When and if I am on my uppers then I would like to think that there are some safety nets available to keep a house,to heat a house and put food on the table.

Also that NHS treatment is available when needed.

The Tories have set our social services back years

Let’s keep this between ourselves but I agree with you about the winter fuel allowance being means tested .

Edited October 7 by hackey lad

[Anna B]

3 hours ago, Longcol said:

I do wonder how OAP's managed before 1997 when the winter fuel allowance was introduced.

 

They died of hyperthermia.

I remember it being on the news just about every winter with footage of OAP's huddled in bleak rooms with no heat...