Caller @ 19:01 "my elderly mother cant pay her bills and now she loses this credit payment" - James "How do you think this will affect the Labour party?". Utterly shameful James.
I have always thought that meals should just be part of school - your kids are there all day and nutrition is essential to learning, to feeling better, and it should never be a bone of contention or something that separates students with the kind of stigma that it does -
That magic space where all the community could get help with forms and benefits claims, youth work, social groups and other great things was this marvellous thing called a community centre, but Cameron ditched so many of those without recognising their value.
Many of those pensioners that had the payment stopped are very well off,the payment should go to those who are on minimum state pension and families with small children,who can't afford the bills,even though they work,but have very small wages. Their children also miss put on free school meals because they work,even though with their wages they can hardly feed their children.
That's always an easy target, but it doesn't save that much money. Even if they saved one million each MP (and that's not possible) then it's not even a billion countrywide. In the UK budget, that's not very much.
@@joeasthope2064 Yeah, but what spending? Their staff? Travel allowance? Accommodation allowance? What do you cut? And how much do you save? And then you have to accept that only wealthy people will run for office. I think there are a lot better ways to reduce UK debt.
A LARGE part of the issue people have with this kind of thing is the seemingly TOTAL illogical nature of what we DO spend money on (which by its very nature implies those things are more necessary and important). Most of the time people don't claim benefits is because they don't realize they exist and are possibly entitled to them. From personal experience it was only when other organizations became involved in my circumstances, because things had gotten so bad, that I was told about funds I was entitled to but wasn't claiming. So many just seriously struggle to get by because they don't know any better, or indeed who can help!
What's never mentioned is the huge average temperature difference between the north of Scotland and south of England. With the winter fuel payment cut and the increase in price cap, there will be many Scots rueing the day they voted Labour. Anas Sarwar and his `read my lips, there will be no austerity under Labour` will cost them dearly here in Scotland.
Agreed, but if you start taking geography into account then it could become really complex. If rent/property is cheaper in, say, Scotland, then do you reduce the pension? Pay people more if they live in London? Could be a whole can-of-worms.
Sure, the 6th largest in the world by pure GDP but only the 28th in the world by GDP per Capita (PPP). The British state may be wealthy but British people certainly aren't.
@@joeasthope2064 Nope, that's India. If you've ever visited India you'll understand how silly it is to judge a country by GDP alone (they aren't exactly loaded lol).
@KriegersBeasts You mean they haven't solved 14 years of theft and corruption in the few weeks they've been in power? Sounds like you need help mate. 😂
My analysis says, Three Levels. Check, Kelly Jay Keen. The day approaches, is here in Oz, when to say a woman is a woman, is a crime of misogynistic hate speech. Check Kelly Jay Keen. What we've got here is 'government',a so called 'judiciary', so called 'Police force', even others in 'security services' roles, who are apparently willingly dictated to by Ka* Stoma, his ~entourage, into enforcing, laws which are dictated, not in the remotest way democratic, where these are enforced at three levels,... One, not enforced upon those against the nation, those whose intent, effectively, actions, results only in damage, crimes where everyone is the victim of,.. Totally illegal then, real world. Two, enforcement actions measured out upon specifically on those whose intention is to protect each other, the nation. Totally illegal, real world. Three, the enforcement of law never upon Ka Stoma, his entourage, the judiciary, the Police, security services, totally free of it. AND, these 'laws', real world cannot even be understood, do not real world make a n y sense. Have a nice day. Kelly number One! *, Ka, Jungle Book.
@kevino2622 Instead of continuing to punish vulnerable people maybe tackle the energy markets and cost of living crisis Instead but I suppose that will upset the ex Tory donors
We have always paid privately for our dentistry because there are. NO national health places available. After paying over £180 for a small filling I will need to cancel 6 monthly check ups and go annually or if I need treatment. I am 75 years old, am not a wealthy pensioner. I can see the quality of pensioners lives plummeting over the next few years. I am frightened.
I retired last Month and the fuel payment is the least of my problems. Iv'e not been able to see a dentist since Covid and have been forced to go private. The check up cost me £95 and i had to get o lone for the £3000 bill (£200 a Month for 15 Months) Do i get it back from my govenment....NO?
Snap and this is where our pension goes - just trying to stay out of pain. I went to my NHS dentist as an emergency appointment major tooth ache needed an extraction to be told come back in 3 months - I rang 111 for the first time ever in my life and a young lady gave me 4 telephone numbers to ring 2 x NHS 2 X private - I went to the private dentist seen the next day and sent home after extraction with pain killers. I stayed with that dentist since. NHS are just over whelmed currently and the last thing I need at my age 71 is more pain on a daily basis.
@@daveward4358 snap again - it`s quite the experience but man I felt so much better after they were removed and I apprecaite dentists don`t want to pull teeth but at my age it`s not an issue - just need to be able to get on with the day to day. Stay safe looking forward to Christmas and our £10 bonus or not???
Such a huge mistake. Not only in terms of removing funding from OAPs but social media and the people that want to ‘stop the boats’ will use this as such a springboard. Comparisons on the hill.
Announcing now that it it's changing this year is disgusting. At least if it started the following winter some people could save up for it. Also only about 66% of people eligible for pension credit get it.
Most forms claiming benefits are 16 page booklet and difficult to complete not by accident the Tories made them difficult knowing people will not claim because of the difficulty.
Only those in reception, year 1 and year 2 get free school dinners regardless of parents income , high school students entitlement to free school dinners get their lunch card loaded up with cash , so no one would know who gets free meals
For a labour govt its completely moronic. Obviously the idea is do the bad stuff in the first couple of years to then do better in the last couple, but this is really dumb. Ok theyre technically only cutting it for those that dont need it in theory, but its still really poor
You already have a mechanism for making it fair: taxation. So, if someone makes too much money, there'll be a tiny section in their yearly taxes where they'll end up having to return it to the government as part of their annual taxes. Applying a "sliding scale" of some sort in this calculation is relatively easy, and already done regularly in other areas of the taxes. Ultimately, the best option is save the cost associated with the up bureaucracy needed to police and manage a means-tested program, and simply to make it universal and manage it within the annual tax handling. This will reduce costs, eliminate stigma, and simplify the process. Wins for all. And this can apply to many, many programs, not just the ones mentioned in this program. Addendum: The big question is _why_ does this not happen (more)? I think the answer is simply that there is a segment of politicians, and a smaller segment of the population, that don't believe in so-called "entitlement" programs, and wants them to be complicated, expensive to manage, and divisive, as a method for making them appear undesirable. (In the USA, especially, these people are many-times associated with prosperity gospel ministries of one sort or another, where it's all about a biased determination of who _deserves_ a thing. Personally, I think if you are human, you deserve the thing, and the determination should always be as simple as that.)
Why should any pensioner have to justify getting the winter fuel payment? Surely it should be the people trying to take away from their target part of the population what is theirs. This whole business is merely 'I want what you have and I'm taking it'. The rest of justifying it with pension credit and Council tax bands doesn't change that one part of the population has been targeted to take from.
Something must be done to eliminate the gap - there should never be a hard cut off amount, a pound above, a pound below, determining eligibility for anything.
What real reaserch ,do you actually do , I in my 70 ,look after my 90 year old mother saving the taxpayers £ thousands , and the Labour charlitons in power for 3 weeks , took £1,000 out of budget of my poor house
Brutal is the word James. Many pensioners, like my husband and I, dont have saving to be able fall back on. We, like many go month to month on our pensions. Nothing at the end of the month. We dont go on holiday at all. We both continued to work into our late 60s. I also only draw a married woman's pension. We are just over the threshold.
Maybe we should stop writing nothing comments that not a single shareholder reads or gives a s**t about and actually go down to these HQ's and make our feelings heard.
That comment about anticoagulants is vitally important. Anyone being means tested and fail the bar for pension credit should have their medication taken into account. People with copd and oxygen/blood thinners etc need to afford heating because the cold is felt more extreme by them.
I get your point but people are losing sight of the facts and it's masking the solutions. England, stop voting Tory, they stole billions while letting thousands die in care homes. Don't start your usual tack of already rubbishing labour, within weeks, and falling for right wing propoganda. You have voted for theft and death for nearly 50 years, under protest from the rest of the UK. Listen, stop it, get a grip, we don't hate you but we hate what you have stood for all of my lifetime. We are losing everything we hold dear, engage the brain please, stop the rot
The other thing James forgot to mention is how Starmer's new strategy is to cater to under 50yos which came out right around the same time as this decision did. He seems to forget whether someone is old or young, voted for you or not, that you serve the whole country.
I get why they're doing it - I agree that Dr Smith who retired at 55, lives in stately home worth 3 million quid and has a £75,000 a year pension probably shouldn't get the fuel allowance. I'm not keen on thresholds though, even though I generally support means testing of the WFA. I think it would be possible to do a sliding scale - but would that make it so expensive to impliment that it would negate any savings? What is really annoying me about it is the likes of the Daily Mail and GB News trying to scare every pensioner in the country by insinuating that 78 year old Betty who gets a state pension and lives in a rented terraced house is going to lose it, when they know full well that she isn't. As usual - the media is twisting the truth, trying to smear Labour and gaslighting the public. THAT annoys me a lot more than making the WFA means tested.
We could make an argument about why is she living in a terraced house and pay for her heating, if she could sell the property and get a more suitable flat and have much lower spending on her basic living.
For many of those on benefits,that I personally know,they spend their money on Christmas presents,holiday deposits and anything but their heating.fact.
I wish more was said about the disabled losing the warm home discount!! I too lost mine because of living in a bungalow because of the government changing the criteria of who received it, and thinking those living in a bungalow didnt need the warm home discount of £150 a year because a bungalow was a small space and therefore we didnt need help to heat it!! My bungalow like many is poorly insulated, all outside walls. My finances are so stretched with all the increases in bills and rises in electricity and running of medical equipment it is a choice of eating and heating. Last year I couldnt afford to put my heating on and ended up in ITU with pneumonia! This year will be the same with the rise in the cost of the energy costs
I’m also disabled with a severe respiratory condition living in a housing association bungalow which they poorly maintain, look after and insulate. It has mould and damp and I’ve repairs outstanding over 18mths old. I lost the warm home discount due to living in a bungalow also due to the Tory gov changing the criteria. I too wish people like Martin Lewis and James O’Brien spoke up for us disabled folk as well as for pensioners. I’ve been hospitalised 3 times in two years because of losing the warm home discount because I can’t afford to heat my home.
@@DebbieJones-g8g I feel for you. I dont understand how the government could just decide those of us living in bungalows who were disabled didnt need help in heating our homes when our homes could be poorly insulated, often consisting of all outside walls, with us having health conditions and disabilities that require us to keep warm, and many of us having medical needs that cause us to have extra heating requirements costing more in energy! The fact we are having to choose whether we can afford to put our heating on or not is shocking!
I find it very hard to care about this. I'm forever being told to "pull myself up by my bootstraps", the lack of compassion and understanding from their generaton is astounding, and now this same cohort of elderly is screeching about not receiving their free handout. The irony is palpable. It should be a sliding scale, not a hard cut-off. But other than that I'm all for means tested aid. It's either that or full UBI.
Why don’t they make it universal and set up an opt out scheme, so those who don’t need it can gift it back to the government which would prevent people from slipping through the cracks and puts the onus on wealthier retires to give it back, rather than on poorer people to make a claim and prove how poor they are
2:15 can only speak for my own country (US) but here it's very common for people not to actually realize assistance that they qualify for. Time is precious, and means-testing means testing the waters with weeks or months or possibly even years of bureaucratic rigamarole just before hearing a response.
Labour James the party of the people created by the people and drop the people in it! But they don’t make any cut to MPs expenses or turn the heating off in parliament and change more at the bar !! There is lots to be saved but not them
@martinreed. Your suggestion wouldn’t raise a fraction of what we need. A single tax on the super-rich couldn’t reasonably be seen as a wholesale attack on Capitalism. It could be presented as a patriotic gesture. The common people have always made sacrifices in perilous times.
Many pensioners may be entitled to attendance allowance (a disability allowance for pensioners). This increases the amount the government says you need to live on, which in turn can increase entitlement to other benefits e.g., pension credits, housing benefits, council tax support etc
We know what you mean, James 😂 you are a wonderful human being, a beloved voice in a chaotic environment of some truly awful cretins exploiting their own engineered chaos for power and greed..
Why dont we tax the brexit supporting/promoting million and billionaires who have since emigrated after helping cause the crisis this country is in, and whom are saving themselves billions in tax, leaving us poor suckers to pay for, and clean up the mess they helped create. It was reported at the time that Sir James Ratcliffe would save £4 Billion. That equates to over £50,000 per person remaining in this country. Add in the others, such as Dyson & Mullins, then that takes care of the funding for many social issues.
Means testing is probably more expensive than making a benefit universal. The simplest solution is to get the money back in taxes to those that don’t need the benefit. The best solution would be to change the tax system to get rid of the major loopholes that ensures the rich stay rich. the benefit and tax system will not change until we change the voting system.
Claiming pension credit is to difficult, means testing is taking away the WFP its wrong it’s not a gift the price of energy is astronomically high. The state pension won’t cover the hike in fuel bills.
We've just got a different party in power but the same results but instituted more competently. What about a wealth tax or would that upset Blair and his rich friends. I used to be a member of the Labour Party until Starmer started to become a New Labour clone and this confirms I made the right decision.
It`s not £300 for 10 million people though is it??? - some only re £200 - last year some also re an extra £300 on top as a cost of living payment from Rishi Sunak.
I am 12p above the pension credit threshold, so I am not entitled, and will loose the winter fuel help. It makes no sense to me at all... 12p...yes, I am getting 12p too much according to the DWP.
@mrdaveythebaby. It was poor presentation in any case. Can’t help thinking that if Kier had worked in the public courts, he would have learnt how to persuade a jury of ordinary citizens without putting their backs up.
@stephenbrown. How about a one-off emergency tax on the profiteers who run the energy companies ? They shouldn’t be too hard to find. ( But the pensioners are sitting ducks.)
Extraordinary official figures were published this week on the number of visas granted in the year to June 2024, in other words, up to a few days before the general election. An astonishing 547,000 work-related visas were issued, 260,000 of which were for dependants. A massive 69% of them were to dependants of those coming to work in the Health and Social Care sector many of would be earning wages below the national average. A further 98,906 visas were family-related, an incredible 40% increase from the previous year. Meanwhile 75,000 visas were issued to those granted humanitarian protection; this figure increases to 93,342 when those granted leave to remain on humanitarian grounds are added. Despite the government, seemingly, taking comfort from a modest reduction in overall numbers from the year before - largely because of measures (belatedly) introduced by the Tories, immigration is running at full throttle. And adding huge numbers to our population.
Here in NZ everyone is eligible for the state superannuation upon reaching sixty-five. From May to September (our equivalent of Nov to March in the NH) we get an extra $10 per week. It is not means tested. Other beneficiaries (means tested)also get this extra heating allowance. Means testing should never be a direct cut off. There should always be a sliding scale. Personally, I think all state benefits should be applied without discrimination, and tax brackets altered to raise the revenue needed to do so. We really need to be creating an UBI. And I mean universal. It’s paid from the moment you’re born, perhaps at a lower rate and to your caregiver during childhood. This UBI needs to be paid for by a “robot tax”. If a robot can do the work of, say, 10 human workers, then it should be taxed at a rate that covers that loss of tax revenue.
@@q.e.d.9112 True. I didn't vote for them but was prepared to give them a chance. A year in, and I'm still waiting to see something positive. Two friends are looking to see their government jobs go (one in immigration, one in fraud detection/prosecution) and I don't see the point except to give me a $10 tax cut.
The caller Penny (28 mins in) should claim attendance allowance as she is diabetic. Which would increase the amount she needs to live on, which in turn may entitle her to other benefits
I think this attitude towards the police is complex but the theme I see coming up again and again in these groups is that are extremely angry and scared over the police response to the grooming gang issue. They feel like the girls in their families and communities were abandoned by the police because the reports were mishandled/suppressed for such a long time. In their efforts to not stoke racial tensions, they neglected to deal with the crimes because the perpetrators were from a specific group. They definitely added to those racial tensions with their inaction and a general mistrust in the police. They failed to protect one community over another, it’s as simple as that. As much as I don’t see this as the only issue, it’s a massive part.
How much money would we save if we sent back ALL illegal immigrants and remove ALL immigrants in UK prisons? Would that cover winter fuel bills for ALL British OAP'S?
It would cost us money - as the Rwanda plan has. Increased border control etc wages. We could stop sending foreign aid to China and India that would be a start.
I just heard you talk about Tim Walz and his child on stage and then say that democrats appeal to live and conservatives to hate. You have just told the greatest lie I’ve ever heard. You just came up on continuous play and just telling absolute lies.
I remember I was going on a road trip from Tennessee to Florida to pick up one of my daughters from her grandparents, she'd gone with them when they returned home and I had to work another couple of weeks before I could take time off - everyone was trying to steer me AROUND Atlanta 😅 and I was like, WHY? I have time, I'm not on a schedule, I WANT to experience a bit of Atlanta, if you don't mind 🙄😘
On yhe inhertance topic, in Thailand on islands, land next to the beach was given to daughters and the more fertile land more inland was left go sons to farm. Who is laughing now.
The cost of fuel is going up. Perhaps the wealthy shareholders and those who run the companies should return their bonuses.
£12 a month!
The government are running the country, child not shareholders.
They won't do that. They are all multi millionaires on the front bench. They will take it from you, and the poor.
Sliding scale is needed
@@limpethead Starmer is a privately educated multimillionaire……just saying….😵💫
My friend was told she wasn't entitled. She phoned Age uk they came out and helped her fill in the forms, and she was entitled.
They should help the disabled person that posted below
Yes there is always miss information, and that is done on purpose, so glad your friend contacted age Uk.
@what-I-enjoy-doing my parents are 40 quid over the threshold. Thanks Labour!
@@voodoochile333 blame the tories
@cynic252 that's the goto excuse for Labours failure right now.
James , the Mps have not lost their heating allowance !
Caller @ 19:01 "my elderly mother cant pay her bills and now she loses this credit payment" - James "How do you think this will affect the Labour party?". Utterly shameful James.
I have always thought that meals should just be part of school - your kids are there all day and nutrition is essential to learning, to feeling better, and it should never be a bone of contention or something that separates students with the kind of stigma that it does -
if u can afford it then pay.
I agree.
Given their record profits I would make the energy companies pay for the deficit.
That magic space where all the community could get help with forms and benefits claims, youth work, social groups and other great things was this marvellous thing called a community centre, but Cameron ditched so many of those without recognising their value.
Do you think it was deliberate? So much community support for anything needed seems to be stopped by the Tories over the decades.
The don't want people getting help with benefits all anything else. They hate helping poor people. Simple.
Many of those pensioners that had the payment stopped are very well off,the payment should go to those who are on minimum state pension and families with small children,who can't afford the bills,even though they work,but have very small wages. Their children also miss put on free school meals because they work,even though with their wages they can hardly feed their children.
How about the MPs cut there spending
I assume you mean “their” spending.
@@norarafferty4702 oooopppss I made a spelling mistake that's for your correction most appropriated don't bother telling me about about my punctuation
That's always an easy target, but it doesn't save that much money. Even if they saved one million each MP (and that's not possible) then it's not even a billion countrywide. In the UK budget, that's not very much.
@@andrewstevenson118 better than nothing
@@joeasthope2064 Yeah, but what spending? Their staff? Travel allowance? Accommodation allowance? What do you cut? And how much do you save? And then you have to accept that only wealthy people will run for office. I think there are a lot better ways to reduce UK debt.
So it's the elderly community that's funding the Zelenskyy slush fund.
If old people stop spending money on Horlicks and bingo, they'll have money for heating...
Sound familiar?
A LARGE part of the issue people have with this kind of thing is the seemingly TOTAL illogical nature of what we DO spend money on (which by its very nature implies those things are more necessary and important). Most of the time people don't claim benefits is because they don't realize they exist and are possibly entitled to them. From personal experience it was only when other organizations became involved in my circumstances, because things had gotten so bad, that I was told about funds I was entitled to but wasn't claiming. So many just seriously struggle to get by because they don't know any better, or indeed who can help!
Winter fuel allowance must return
reduce the bills seems cheaper?
No just force energy companies to a fixed 1% max profit. It's energy ffs it's a national thing that shouldn't be for profit
The onus should be on the energy companies now to lower their prices enough so that a winter fuel allowance isn't needed.
What's never mentioned is the huge average temperature difference between the north of Scotland and south of England.
With the winter fuel payment cut and the increase in price cap, there will be many Scots rueing the day they voted Labour. Anas Sarwar and his `read my lips, there will be no austerity under Labour` will cost them dearly here in Scotland.
Agreed, but if you start taking geography into account then it could become really complex. If rent/property is cheaper in, say, Scotland, then do you reduce the pension? Pay people more if they live in London? Could be a whole can-of-worms.
And no-one can 'rue the day' properly without a strong scottish accent.. ach, the fondest of memories. Best wishes!👍😀
Am I wrong or did labour include a windfall tax on energy companies in their manifesto?
Yeah they said they gonna close the loophole and increase it by 3 percentage points whatever that means
6th largest economy in the world, there are no excuses for not spending.
Except the tories left said economy in tatters.
Sure, the 6th largest in the world by pure GDP but only the 28th in the world by GDP per Capita (PPP). The British state may be wealthy but British people certainly aren't.
I thought it was the 5th
@@joeasthope2064 Nope, that's India. If you've ever visited India you'll understand how silly it is to judge a country by GDP alone (they aren't exactly loaded lol).
@KriegersBeasts You mean they haven't solved 14 years of theft and corruption in the few weeks they've been in power? Sounds like you need help mate. 😂
If the government know who is under the threshold why doesnt the government just issue hardship payment automatically?
Because they don`t know that`s why you must submit a claim and be prepared to share information about what other income savings etc you have.
Stop interrupting ! Give callers a chance to speak.
Anything that causes a deterioration in the quality of life for elderly people is totally wrong .
ageing?
My analysis says, Three Levels.
Check, Kelly Jay Keen.
The day approaches, is here in Oz, when to say a woman is a woman, is a crime of misogynistic hate speech.
Check Kelly Jay Keen.
What we've got here is 'government',a so called 'judiciary', so called 'Police force', even others in 'security services' roles, who are apparently willingly dictated to by Ka* Stoma, his ~entourage, into enforcing, laws which are dictated, not in the remotest way democratic, where these are enforced at three levels,...
One, not enforced upon those against the nation, those whose intent, effectively, actions, results only in damage, crimes where everyone is the victim of,..
Totally illegal then, real world.
Two, enforcement actions measured out upon specifically on those whose intention is to protect each other, the nation.
Totally illegal, real world.
Three, the enforcement of law never upon Ka Stoma, his entourage, the judiciary, the Police, security services, totally free of it.
AND, these 'laws', real world cannot even be understood, do not real world make a n y sense.
Have a nice day.
Kelly number One!
*, Ka, Jungle Book.
@@tonylennon7979 they've been helped out enough, time to start helping the people who actually contribute to this economy.
@kevino2622 Instead of continuing to punish vulnerable people maybe tackle the energy markets and cost of living crisis Instead but I suppose that will upset the ex Tory donors
💯
Pensioners just above credit limit are often in real need eg cannot get teeth fixed.
We have always paid privately for our dentistry because there are. NO national health places available. After paying over £180 for a small filling I will need to cancel 6 monthly check ups and go annually or if I need treatment. I am 75 years old, am not a wealthy pensioner. I can see the quality of pensioners lives plummeting over the next few years. I am frightened.
I retired last Month and the fuel payment is the least of my problems. Iv'e not been able to see a dentist since Covid and have been forced to go private. The check up cost me £95 and i had to get o lone for the £3000 bill (£200 a Month for 15 Months) Do i get it back from my govenment....NO?
Snap and this is where our pension goes - just trying to stay out of pain. I went to my NHS dentist as an emergency appointment major tooth ache needed an extraction to be told come back in 3 months - I rang 111 for the first time ever in my life and a young lady gave me 4 telephone numbers to ring 2 x NHS 2 X private - I went to the private dentist seen the next day and sent home after extraction with pain killers. I stayed with that dentist since. NHS are just over whelmed currently and the last thing I need at my age 71 is more pain on a daily basis.
@@pamvarnsverry2444 Same here a few yrs ago, i had to have two teeth taken out instead of fillings.
@@daveward4358 snap again - it`s quite the experience but man I felt so much better after they were removed and I apprecaite dentists don`t want to pull teeth but at my age it`s not an issue - just need to be able to get on with the day to day. Stay safe looking forward to Christmas and our £10 bonus or not???
Such a huge mistake. Not only in terms of removing funding from OAPs but social media and the people that want to ‘stop the boats’ will use this as such a springboard. Comparisons on the hill.
Announcing now that it it's changing this year is disgusting. At least if it started the following winter some people could save up for it. Also only about 66% of people eligible for pension credit get it.
Most forms claiming benefits are 16 page booklet and difficult to complete not by accident the Tories made them difficult knowing people will not claim because of the difficulty.
you can get age uk and the pensions service to help you with these forms
Citizens advice centres or local council
Lunch for all kids at school prevents kids being teased or bullied. Rich pensioners get or don’t get the subsidy in private.
Only those in reception, year 1 and year 2 get free school dinners regardless of parents income , high school students entitlement to free school dinners get their lunch card loaded up with cash , so no one would know who gets free meals
For a labour govt its completely moronic. Obviously the idea is do the bad stuff in the first couple of years to then do better in the last couple, but this is really dumb. Ok theyre technically only cutting it for those that dont need it in theory, but its still really poor
You already have a mechanism for making it fair: taxation. So, if someone makes too much money, there'll be a tiny section in their yearly taxes where they'll end up having to return it to the government as part of their annual taxes. Applying a "sliding scale" of some sort in this calculation is relatively easy, and already done regularly in other areas of the taxes.
Ultimately, the best option is save the cost associated with the up bureaucracy needed to police and manage a means-tested program, and simply to make it universal and manage it within the annual tax handling. This will reduce costs, eliminate stigma, and simplify the process. Wins for all. And this can apply to many, many programs, not just the ones mentioned in this program.
Addendum: The big question is _why_ does this not happen (more)? I think the answer is simply that there is a segment of politicians, and a smaller segment of the population, that don't believe in so-called "entitlement" programs, and wants them to be complicated, expensive to manage, and divisive, as a method for making them appear undesirable. (In the USA, especially, these people are many-times associated with prosperity gospel ministries of one sort or another, where it's all about a biased determination of who _deserves_ a thing. Personally, I think if you are human, you deserve the thing, and the determination should always be as simple as that.)
Stop foreign aid...
Why should any pensioner have to justify getting the winter fuel payment? Surely it should be the people trying to take away from their target part of the population what is theirs. This whole business is merely 'I want what you have and I'm taking it'. The rest of justifying it with pension credit and Council tax bands doesn't change that one part of the population has been targeted to take from.
Definitely the WFP wasn’t a gift it was because, .. the state pension doesn’t cover the WF hike in fuel prices
Given that labour got the least votes from those of pensionable age, this may be seen as a punishment.
Something must be done to eliminate the gap - there should never be a hard cut off amount, a pound above, a pound below, determining eligibility for anything.
we're all ears...
I can see the scrapping of the TV licence for pensioners to try and level things up.
Best idea I have heard this week
That won't happen. The BBC is a nest of lefties.
🇵🇸 FREE PALESTINE 🇵🇸
James O’Brien shafted the nation
Why must it always be young people who bear the brunt of economic problems?
How are we supposed to pay these huge bills? So many old, disabled and vulnerable people will die because of heat deprivation this winter
Or there's to many forms to fill in.
What real reaserch ,do you actually do , I in my 70 ,look after my 90 year old mother saving the taxpayers £ thousands , and the Labour charlitons in power for 3 weeks , took £1,000 out of budget of my poor house
No one is dealing with the harm to mental health that targeting a group of the population causes.
Brutal is the word James. Many pensioners, like my husband and I, dont have saving to be able fall back on. We, like many go month to month on our pensions. Nothing at the end of the month. We dont go on holiday at all. We both continued to work into our late 60s. I also only draw a married woman's pension. We are just over the threshold.
Divorce and claim as a single person...
A little late, but I'm a full time career for my wife for who's disabled and we are not entitled for any help. Going to be very stressful for us.
Thank you for such great content! You really put your heart into every video. I can see that you are trying for your audience.☘️🐫👠
And thank you Matilda for such a generous commendation. I can see that you also try very hard for your audience! 🤣
Maybe we should stop writing nothing comments that not a single shareholder reads or gives a s**t about and actually go down to these HQ's and make our feelings heard.
I don’t know about that I certainly hope some London pensioners will protest outside Parliament.
That comment about anticoagulants is vitally important. Anyone being means tested and fail the bar for pension credit should have their medication taken into account. People with copd and oxygen/blood thinners etc need to afford heating because the cold is felt more extreme by them.
‘Who wants to come on and be really enthusiastic about it’. A policy making it harder for old people to stay warm this winter. Biased much??
The people that don't need it could always donate it to someone else that does need help of some kind - we're all in this together, after all.
I get your point but people are losing sight of the facts and it's masking the solutions. England, stop voting Tory, they stole billions while letting thousands die in care homes. Don't start your usual tack of already rubbishing labour, within weeks, and falling for right wing propoganda. You have voted for theft and death for nearly 50 years, under protest from the rest of the UK. Listen, stop it, get a grip, we don't hate you but we hate what you have stood for all of my lifetime. We are losing everything we hold dear, engage the brain please, stop the rot
I like your style, but people in need shouldn't be reliant on charity. Government systems may not be perfect, but they're better than charity.
@@andrewstevenson118 And Sir, I like your style. Always have, always will!👍
@@RainyDayWithTheSpoonYou're too kind
Thats your beloved Labour party for you James , if the tories had done that you would be ripping them a new a hole. Double standards as per usual
The other thing James forgot to mention is how Starmer's new strategy is to cater to under 50yos which came out right around the same time as this decision did. He seems to forget whether someone is old or young, voted for you or not, that you serve the whole country.
The pensioners voted for the Tories who ruined the economy. I'd say it's just their choices coming home to roost.
If the tories had done this … woke leftist JOB would not describe it as A MISS STEP. He would labelled the tories nasty
The Tories were nasty. They spent all this WFP allowance on their own vanity projects.
I get why they're doing it - I agree that Dr Smith who retired at 55, lives in stately home worth 3 million quid and has a £75,000 a year pension probably shouldn't get the fuel allowance.
I'm not keen on thresholds though, even though I generally support means testing of the WFA. I think it would be possible to do a sliding scale - but would that make it so expensive to impliment that it would negate any savings?
What is really annoying me about it is the likes of the Daily Mail and GB News trying to scare every pensioner in the country by insinuating that 78 year old Betty who gets a state pension and lives in a rented terraced house is going to lose it, when they know full well that she isn't.
As usual - the media is twisting the truth, trying to smear Labour and gaslighting the public. THAT annoys me a lot more than making the WFA means tested.
We could make an argument about why is she living in a terraced house and pay for her heating, if she could sell the property and get a more suitable flat and have much lower spending on her basic living.
But Betty will lose it if she gets the full state pension of £11,541.90.
Its gone very quiet in this forum.
Where are all the Labour loving , working class hating posters?
Could be worse - imagine being poor in America.
Hold up people. Winter fuel payment is now targeted to those who need it
Surely you mean “some but not all of those who really need it”?
@@jennyg-uf1uo no I mean what I say. If you are on pension credit you will get it. I’m not mad am only on state pension and I know I will manage.
Those of us who believe there is ANY merit in UBI should be sceptical about means testing. Especially with a hard threshold.
For many of those on benefits,that I personally know,they spend their money on Christmas presents,holiday deposits and anything but their heating.fact.
I'm disabled and I've lost the warm home payment because my home bungalow is small and also the house hold support scheme
I wish more was said about the disabled losing the warm home discount!! I too lost mine because of living in a bungalow because of the government changing the criteria of who received it, and thinking those living in a bungalow didnt need the warm home discount of £150 a year because a bungalow was a small space and therefore we didnt need help to heat it!! My bungalow like many is poorly insulated, all outside walls. My finances are so stretched with all the increases in bills and rises in electricity and running of medical equipment it is a choice of eating and heating. Last year I couldnt afford to put my heating on and ended up in ITU with pneumonia! This year will be the same with the rise in the cost of the energy costs
I’m also disabled with a severe respiratory condition living in a housing association bungalow which they poorly maintain, look after and insulate. It has mould and damp and I’ve repairs outstanding over 18mths old. I lost the warm home discount due to living in a bungalow also due to the Tory gov changing the criteria. I too wish people like Martin Lewis and James O’Brien spoke up for us disabled folk as well as for pensioners. I’ve been hospitalised 3 times in two years because of losing the warm home discount because I can’t afford to heat my home.
@@DebbieJones-g8g I feel for you. I dont understand how the government could just decide those of us living in bungalows who were disabled didnt need help in heating our homes when our homes could be poorly insulated, often consisting of all outside walls, with us having health conditions and disabilities that require us to keep warm, and many of us having medical needs that cause us to have extra heating requirements costing more in energy! The fact we are having to choose whether we can afford to put our heating on or not is shocking!
My wife is disabled we’ve never had the winter payment because she’s not an pensioner that’s life
I find it very hard to care about this. I'm forever being told to "pull myself up by my bootstraps", the lack of compassion and understanding from their generaton is astounding, and now this same cohort of elderly is screeching about not receiving their free handout. The irony is palpable.
It should be a sliding scale, not a hard cut-off. But other than that I'm all for means tested aid. It's either that or full UBI.
Why don’t they make it universal and set up an opt out scheme, so those who don’t need it can gift it back to the government which would prevent people from slipping through the cracks and puts the onus on wealthier retires to give it back, rather than on poorer people to make a claim and prove how poor they are
Brilliant in principle, but you *know* the well off ones won't opt out.
Let the rich make charitable donations to the local Poor House, then ?
james trying to cover for keirs lies and treatment of pensioners is making me nauseous.
The old age pension is far too low
Blame the plebs who voted Labour in
Blame the plebs who voted the Tories in for the 14 years of this collapse in social services.
Life under Labour. Lies, hypocrisy and arrogance!
Life under CONSERVATIVES. Lies, hypocrisy and arrogance! Typo fixed. You are welcome.
First! First misstep! Have you been asleep for the past six weeks!
That's not the headline, FYI.
2:15 can only speak for my own country (US) but here it's very common for people not to actually realize assistance that they qualify for. Time is precious, and means-testing means testing the waters with weeks or months or possibly even years of bureaucratic rigamarole just before hearing a response.
Labour James the party of the people created by the people and drop the people in it! But they don’t make any cut to MPs expenses or turn the heating off in parliament and change more at the bar !! There is lots to be saved but not them
@martinreed. Your suggestion wouldn’t raise a fraction of what we need. A single tax on the super-rich couldn’t reasonably be seen as a wholesale attack on Capitalism. It could be presented as a patriotic gesture. The common people have always made sacrifices in perilous times.
Who on earth advised the government to do this? 2 mins into the game and they score an own goal...astonishing.
Because they then have five years to adjust their targets?
It's not an own goal. The pensioners have been the biggest enablers of the tories. Let them eat cake like everyone else in the country has had to.
@@ecaeas4439 But the pensioners who will suffer from this the most are the ones who didn't vote Tory.
If you think this is the first one you haven't been paying attention.......
Many pensioners may be entitled to attendance allowance (a disability allowance for pensioners). This increases the amount the government says you need to live on, which in turn can increase entitlement to other benefits e.g., pension credits, housing benefits, council tax support etc
and continues to be paid if you move into a care home??? that could change however.
We know what you mean, James 😂 you are a wonderful human being, a beloved voice in a chaotic environment of some truly awful cretins exploiting their own engineered chaos for power and greed..
Why dont we tax the brexit supporting/promoting million and billionaires who have since emigrated after helping cause the crisis this country is in, and whom are saving themselves billions in tax, leaving us poor suckers to pay for, and clean up the mess they helped create.
It was reported at the time that Sir James Ratcliffe would save £4 Billion. That equates to over £50,000 per person remaining in this country.
Add in the others, such as Dyson & Mullins, then that takes care of the funding for many social issues.
Absolutely but we can't afend the poor billionaires now can we. THE WORLD IS SICK BEYOND WORDS.
Means testing is probably more expensive than making a benefit universal. The simplest solution is to get the money back in taxes to those that don’t need the benefit. The best solution would be to change the tax system to get rid of the major loopholes that ensures the rich stay rich. the benefit and tax system will not change until we change the voting system.
Well, all you LBC lot voted for your beloved Labour. Aim your angst at yourselves for voting them in!
Fascinating conversation about sibling preference
Claiming pension credit is to difficult, means testing is taking away the WFP its wrong it’s not a gift the price of energy is astronomically high. The state pension won’t cover the hike in fuel bills.
We've just got a different party in power but the same results but instituted more competently. What about a wealth tax or would that upset Blair and his rich friends. I used to be a member of the Labour Party until Starmer started to become a New Labour clone and this confirms I made the right decision.
£300 for 10 million people. That's £3 billion. Of course they have to stop it...
if they are using Tory maths!
{:o:O:}
Configures!
@@RainyDayWithTheSpoon
🤣🤣
It`s not £300 for 10 million people though is it??? - some only re £200 - last year some also re an extra £300 on top as a cost of living payment from Rishi Sunak.
Warm home discount talk to your utility providor ( electric)
I am 12p above the pension credit threshold, so I am not entitled, and will loose the winter fuel help. It makes no sense to me at all... 12p...yes, I am getting 12p too much according to the DWP.
You've reached retirement age and can't spell lose?
Seriously?
@@TomBartram-b1cyou are not well seriously.
Have the details of the policy been published yet? Weird how people can predict how it will affect them without that information.
@mrdaveythebaby. It was poor presentation in any case. Can’t help thinking that if Kier had worked in the public courts, he would have learnt how to persuade a jury of ordinary citizens without putting their backs up.
There's a tonne of reasons why pensioners may not have applied for fuel credit. I'm surprised you haven't come up with one.
I am surprised that the Labour government has not labelled the elderly that complain as Far Right.
They'll be arresting anyone who makes an angry facebook post about it
Surely you mean left.🤡
The thing you are missing is old pensioners have no access ,to online , because they give up with higher keys passwords its ridiculous
Cost of fuel goes up, James celebrates.
@stephenbrown. How about a one-off emergency tax on the profiteers who run the energy companies ? They shouldn’t be too hard to find. ( But the pensioners are sitting ducks.)
@@belindamay8063 would be wonderful but won’t happen.
😂 First? Read the room - you’re out of touch .Just look at your viewing figures compared to others 🤡
Extraordinary official figures were published this week on the number of visas granted in the year to June 2024, in other words, up to a few days before the general election.
An astonishing 547,000 work-related visas were issued, 260,000 of which were for dependants. A massive 69% of them were to dependants of those coming to work in the Health and Social Care sector many of would be earning wages below the national average. A further 98,906 visas were family-related, an incredible 40% increase from the previous year. Meanwhile 75,000 visas were issued to those granted humanitarian protection; this figure increases to 93,342 when those granted leave to remain on humanitarian grounds are added.
Despite the government, seemingly, taking comfort from a modest reduction in overall numbers from the year before - largely because of measures (belatedly) introduced by the Tories, immigration is running at full throttle. And adding huge numbers to our population.
Here in NZ everyone is eligible for the state superannuation upon reaching sixty-five. From May to September (our equivalent of Nov to March in the NH) we get an extra $10 per week. It is not means tested.
Other beneficiaries (means tested)also get this extra heating allowance.
Means testing should never be a direct cut off. There should always be a sliding scale. Personally, I think all state benefits should be applied without discrimination, and tax brackets altered to raise the revenue needed to do so.
We really need to be creating an UBI. And I mean universal. It’s paid from the moment you’re born, perhaps at a lower rate and to your caregiver during childhood. This UBI needs to be paid for by a “robot tax”.
If a robot can do the work of, say, 10 human workers, then it should be taxed at a rate that covers that loss of tax revenue.
I'm in NZ and did not know about the extra $10. Thanks for that. Well-written. 🙂
@@andrewstevenson118
Don’t count on it being here next year. Could see the current government deciding we need a dose of austerity.
@@q.e.d.9112 True. I didn't vote for them but was prepared to give them a chance. A year in, and I'm still waiting to see something positive. Two friends are looking to see their government jobs go (one in immigration, one in fraud detection/prosecution) and I don't see the point except to give me a $10 tax cut.
contempt for the conman compassion for the conned. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
The caller Penny (28 mins in) should claim attendance allowance as she is diabetic. Which would increase the amount she needs to live on, which in turn may entitle her to other benefits
I have wealthy friends who get the heating allowance but some donate it to charity.😊
Emphasis on the word "some"
The fact that CHARITY exists in a "civilised" society, means it isn't civilised!
I think this attitude towards the police is complex but the theme I see coming up again and again in these groups is that are extremely angry and scared over the police response to the grooming gang issue.
They feel like the girls in their families and communities were abandoned by the police because the reports were mishandled/suppressed for such a long time. In their efforts to not stoke racial tensions, they neglected to deal with the crimes because the perpetrators were from a specific group. They definitely added to those racial tensions with their inaction and a general mistrust in the police.
They failed to protect one community over another, it’s as simple as that.
As much as I don’t see this as the only issue, it’s a massive part.
How much money would we save if we sent back ALL illegal immigrants and remove ALL immigrants in UK prisons? Would that cover winter fuel bills for ALL British OAP'S?
Immigrants...immigrants...immigrants...immigrants...immigrants ..immigrants. Give it a f*cking rest.
It would cost us money - as the Rwanda plan has. Increased border control etc wages. We could stop sending foreign aid to China and India that would be a start.
It's not complicated to do it on a sliding scale James. That's what they want you to think. It is literally Math that 13 year olds do every day.
Kiss it when you are fended clutching your pearls 😂😂😂😂😂😂
I just heard you talk about Tim Walz and his child on stage and then say that democrats appeal to live and conservatives to hate. You have just told the greatest lie I’ve ever heard. You just came up on continuous play and just telling absolute lies.
Paperwork, hearing problems and no access or difficulties with internet access, also cut backs in CAB funding.
I remember I was going on a road trip from Tennessee to Florida to pick up one of my daughters from her grandparents, she'd gone with them when they returned home and I had to work another couple of weeks before I could take time off - everyone was trying to steer me AROUND Atlanta 😅 and I was like, WHY? I have time, I'm not on a schedule, I WANT to experience a bit of Atlanta, if you don't mind 🙄😘
Has Labour not also removed the cap on social care
Someone needs to ask Labour why they're ok (according to Labour from a couple of years ago) with killing thousands of pensioners.
Great replacement 😂
Labour voters are middle class so they can afford it anyway. It is the rest of the OAP`s who did not vote Labour that I worry about.
there is a energy fund!
@clownofthetimes. It is possible to be middle class and poor at the same time.
@@belindamay8063 Not many middle classes rent though. Do they?
To the old dude who was looking help for his daughter. Money matters is the best for that they do everything for you.
On yhe inhertance topic, in Thailand on islands, land next to the beach was given to daughters and the more fertile land more inland was left go sons to farm.
Who is laughing now.