Winter fuel payment

[John Adams]

I remember a few years ago when Abbot was visiting Northern Ireland. A reporter asked her what she thought of County Down.  She said she still watched it but it wasn't so good without Richard Whitely.

[DavidCM]

Is there any truth on the rumor she is changing her name to Diane Abacus?

[Boomer54]

14 minutes ago, DavidCM said:

Is there any truth on the rumor she is changing her name to Diane Abacus?

I wouldn't count on it , and presumably neither can she.

[LenT]

40 minutes ago, Boomer54 said:

I wouldn't count on it , and presumably neither can she.

As Frankie Howard used to say : It’s rude to mock the afflicted!

But like all generalisations, there are exceptions.

[Boomer54]

13 minutes ago, LenT said:

As Frankie Howard used to say : It’s rude to mock the afflicted!

But like all generalisations, there are exceptions.

"Titter ye not"

[Malc1]

WINTER   FUEL.  ALLOWANCE

 

AGE UK. Petition     now stands at

301,537       sign it if you wish  👍👍👍

Malc  

[Malc1]

12 hours ago, Malc1 said:

WINTER   FUEL.  ALLOWANCE

 

AGE UK. Petition     now stands at

301,537       sign it if you wish  👍👍👍

Malc  

Now, some 12 hrs later, at 

307,367 

 

Malc 

Jeremy Vine show has just catapulted Rachel Reeves to “ well done “ celebrity status I feel   👏👏👏

[Boomer54]

5 hours ago, Malc1 said:

Now, some 12 hrs later, at 

307,367 

 

Malc 

Jeremy Vine show has just catapulted Rachel Reeves to “ well done “ celebrity status I feel   👏👏👏

Hitting that nice big, fat , round number of 1/2 a million would be nice. Be even nicer if they all turned up on Sat morning in Downing Street. However, subtracting those out cutting fire wood, and those camped outside Waitrose with their bowls and 3 legged dog, that just leaves me.

[Malc1]

Now at.       312,284 

AGE UK.   Petition   👍👍

WINTER FUEL PAYMENT 

 

Malc 

[steve2006]

5 hours ago, Malc1 said:

Now at.       312,284 

AGE UK.   Petition   👍👍

WINTER FUEL PAYMENT 

 

Malc 

Does this mean we get 3 Commons debates instead of one.

Thinking of telling my utilities supplier I’m reducing my monthly Direct Debit by £16.666 a month ( coincidental scary amount) and if they need to discuss it further please send all correspondence to 11 Downing Street FTAO Rachael Reeves.

 

[Malc1]

Steve, you’re as likely to receive a response as I too from my fresh Labour MP new to all this politicking stuff ……. 
 

btw the Petition just now is at 

 

317,072    
 

and heading for 4 Debates in the House

But not for a while coz they’re all still on holiday ……. They deserve it, can afford it, god bless ‘em  👏👏👏👍

Malc 

 

[Lmafudd]

I'm not sure how this thread passed me by but I clearly have a lot of reading to catch-up. In my defence I state that my letter complaining about this situation was published in the Daily Mail! I am no longer a Mail letters virgin, quite a refreshing feeling.

Like others have mentioned and as I too enter my 'Old-age pensioner' phase this month, I can manage without the paltry £100.00 WFA but it's all about principles to me. We are one of the lowest paid state pension groups in the G7. At around £1000 a month most, not all but most, people would not manage to carry on their lives as if they were still at work and within reason I would say that is a fair aim. I can partly balance the equation by saying that whilst the payment may be low there are other 'benefits' that help. Medical and Prescriptions, Bus Passes, Age Discounts etc. etc. However, in my time I have seen most of these 'extra's' moved - along with the Pension age and see no reason why this vindictive Socialist Government will not feel that these are 'Easy Targets'. I also predict that there will be NI payments applied to our pension payments soon and we will hear the weasel words - "These are needed to fund elderly care" or some such. Read that as "So we can pay Public Employees and ourselves more"!

Secondly, Immigration. I know that the majority of people on this site will not be racists but as we are probably older and more experienced we are possibly more confident to have an opinion contrary to the 'Woke' that all must be accepted. Stating that Immigration must be controlled is not being racist but it is being practical. If the economy is so bad that it cannot afford to give long contributing pensioners a small payment to keep warm then how can we fund tens-of- thousands, (possibly millions), of the world's transitory peoples? Fact is, we can't. We should all be writing to this Government asking for evidence of the 'plan' they said was ready to go! We all know what that means.

I am not saying that we should riot as we have seen recently but I do feel that if a few million of us walk (slowly) through the major cities then maybe the 'Grey Vote' will start to count again.

Thanks for reading, or not. It's a free country - apparently!

[Malc1]

Why I personally, almost at the outset,  asked this Forum for some guidance on how on earth we OAPs might focus our efforts on addressing this issue , it was kindly mentioned that 

AGE UK  we’re holding this Petition 

knowing OAPs might have some mobility issues and physically unable to remonstrate over all this AND having a zero avenue, unlike Unions to take physical or even mental action and “ go on strike “. 😂🤣🤩

So

AGE UK have this wonderful Petition 

which now stands at 

317,973   👍👏👍👏

 

up about 1000 this past hour  👍

Malc 

 

[Boomer54]

1 hour ago, Malc1 said:

Why I personally, almost at the outset,  asked this Forum for some guidance on how on earth we OAPs might focus our efforts on addressing this issue , it was kindly mentioned that 

AGE UK  we’re holding this Petition 

knowing OAPs might have some mobility issues and physically unable to remonstrate over all this AND having a zero avenue, unlike Unions to take physical or even mental action and “ go on strike “. 😂🤣🤩

So

AGE UK have this wonderful Petition 

which now stands at 

317,973   👍👏👍👏

 

up about 1000 this past hour  👍

Malc 

 

I have reinforcements on the way to ensure we reach 500,000. I think they are old enough to qualify.

[Malc1]

1 minute ago, Boomer54 said:

I have reinforcements on the way to ensure we reach 500,000.

When I visited those guys a few years back they couldn’t move, let alone use a computer to sign a Petition …… a mesmerising sight nonetheless 😄

 

Petition now at 

319,106  👍👏👍

 

[steve2006]

3 hours ago, Boomer54 said:

I have reinforcements on the way to ensure we reach 500,000. I think they are old enough to qualify.

They may be grey and a bit stiff like us but I bet they’ve got the heating on, didn’t have to make the choice either because they don’t need to eat.

[steve2006]

I’ve found a way to save more than the WF allowance, tapped into the street lamp post.

I need to ring the council though because it went off at midnight.

[Malc1]

WINTER  FUEL. PAYMENT 

AGE UK.   Petition   now at 

324,264       👍👏👍👏

 

Malc 

 

[Malc1]

12 hours ago, Malc1 said:

WINTER  FUEL. PAYMENT 

AGE UK.   Petition   now at 

324,264       👍👏👍👏

 

Malc 

 

Up to just now

326,947.   👍

 

Malc 

[Malc1]

4 hours ago, Malc1 said:

Up to just now

326,947.   👍

 

Malc 

now at

AGE UK    Petition 

330,548 

 

Malc 

[Malc1]

It’s now over one third of a million Petitioners

334,638   ……. Over a third of a million voters, OAPs or nay  

 

Wake up Socialism. Wake up all you new and previous Labour and other party MPs …….. listen to what’s happening  in our hopefully otherwise caring Society 

This must surely be a wake-up call to Starmer and Reeves ……. surely  🤔

Over one third of a million Petitioners against your draconian and BLUNT affect on 10 million OAPs 

Ignore this “ vote “  if you will, Govt credibility is on the line and maybe already shot to shreds 

I despair with you 🥵

Malc 

[Malc1]

now reached overnight to

340,343 

 

Malc 

[Malc1]

Just at 

343,700.      signatories 
 

AGE UK.      Petition  should one wish to sign-up  👍

Makc 

[Linas.P]

On 8/10/2024 at 9:22 AM, Lmafudd said:

I'm not sure how this thread passed me by but I clearly have a lot of reading to catch-up. In my defence I state that my letter complaining about this situation was published in the Daily Mail! I am no longer a Mail letters virgin, quite a refreshing feeling.

Like others have mentioned and as I too enter my 'Old-age pensioner' phase this month, I can manage without the paltry £100.00 WFA but it's all about principles to me. We are one of the lowest paid state pension groups in the G7. At around £1000 a month most, not all but most, people would not manage to carry on their lives as if they were still at work and within reason I would say that is a fair aim. I can partly balance the equation by saying that whilst the payment may be low there are other 'benefits' that help. Medical and Prescriptions, Bus Passes, Age Discounts etc. etc. However, in my time I have seen most of these 'extra's' moved - along with the Pension age and see no reason why this vindictive Socialist Government will not feel that these are 'Easy Targets'. I also predict that there will be NI payments applied to our pension payments soon and we will hear the weasel words - "These are needed to fund elderly care" or some such. Read that as "So we can pay Public Employees and ourselves more"!

Secondly, Immigration. I know that the majority of people on this site will not be racists but as we are probably older and more experienced we are possibly more confident to have an opinion contrary to the 'Woke' that all must be accepted. Stating that Immigration must be controlled is not being racist but it is being practical. If the economy is so bad that it cannot afford to give long contributing pensioners a small payment to keep warm then how can we fund tens-of- thousands, (possibly millions), of the world's transitory peoples? Fact is, we can't. We should all be writing to this Government asking for evidence of the 'plan' they said was ready to go! We all know what that means.

I am not saying that we should riot as we have seen recently but I do feel that if a few million of us walk (slowly) through the major cities then maybe the 'Grey Vote' will start to count again.

Thanks for reading, or not. It's a free country - apparently!

When I was studying, I lived on less than £900 a month and still had to pay ~£500 rent and this wasn't 70s either when £900 was decent chunk of money, not saying this is norm, but many "gig-workers" on "zero-hours" contracts are in this position, working poor... and they still have to spend money to get to work etc. So saying that person can't live on £1000 a month when retired, have no necessary expenses (like traveling to work, uniform etc) really sounds farcical to me. That UK pensions are lowest in G7 - that is fact, so not much I can say here, grass is always greener on other side I guess. In short £1000 is not much money, but fully adequate for survival, not a party, but basic needs. Assuming obviously the home is paid out.

Regarding immigration - this is actually very very simple. You see - if they wanted they could stop it right away, but the truth is that UK BADLY NEEDS IT. Do not care what Mail or some other right wing pieces of misinformation are saying - immigrants are allowed to come in, because UK is in dire need of unskilled labour. Tories knew it, Labour knows it, nothing will change. The problem is that they don't have balls to admit it, to educate the public, to stand-up and say "we all know, that y'all hate them, but the facts is - nobody will serve you coffee, nobody will clean your streets, nobody will collect your rubbish, nobody will dry clean your clothes, nobody will collect strawberries or potatoes and nobody will stock shelves in supermarkets unless some unskilled immigrant comes and does it. British people won't do these jobs, they have proven to be not interested in doing them, end of story. So either immigrants comes in, or economy stops". And sure I know many will be happy for economy to stop, just look at brexshaite vote, but then why complain about small pensions, if what you suggesting would make them even smaller? 

This is great British fallacy, "they stealing or jobs and housing"... who builds housing? It was mostly Eastern Europeans for last 20 years... and what happens when you want extension and British builder quotes you more then your house? Then you hire Polish guy who does it for fraction of the price and does a better job... fun fact... even if you went with the British guy's offer, then the workers likely will be same Eastern Europeans.

And this is not about pride, I am not woke either, quite conservative actually, but the whole migration debate is so flawed and it is so popular to use migration as scapegoats. The issues are all local, caused by local government, migrants are brought in to lessen the blow to economy and to fill undesirable roles to support basic services, yet they are also blamed for the issues caused by British own government. Immigration is not a problem, it is solution (whenever it is good solution that is debatable) and that is why nobody tries to deal with it. If anything since brexshaite immigration tripled, expect now the immigrants are not Europeans who easily integrated, but more of diverse people who are much harder to control. 

Regardless if you agree or don't agree that immigrants are the solution, or good solution for that, I just wanted to explain why immigration will never stop and no government every will do anything about it... they don't want to!

[Malc1]

Linas hi …….. just keep paying your due taxes like all other good citizens and all will be well ……… 

let’s remember our dear Chancellor of the Exchequer and her NHS is it ? employed hubby are indubitably paying their fair share of taxes on their joint income, slightly above that of a standard

OAP on some £218 a week

……… not sure how one equates their joint income of £450/500k per annum …… oh yes, about £10,218 a glorious food laden, well heated home ….. each week 😂

Oh how they must comprehend the need to live, eat and heat frugally, sparingly eh ! 

Again, I despair 🥵

Malc