Universal Benefits

[Ric.ror]

How can I respond to people at work calling for benefits to be aimed at the poorest members (fuel allowance etc) I personally think we should be proud to be able to reward ALL our old folk regardless of rheir savings and would rather see tax dodgers in big business hounded rather than a wealthy pensioner - is that a good enough argument
And why do these folk have all the facts and figures when I don't

[Bobbisox]

I have posted similar to this ric

[Thomas]

I don't see many poor pensioners about. They all seem to be rolling in it, new cars, the lot. Time they worked for a living like the rest of us!

[Bobbisox]

yeh, yeh. yeh Thomas
I did for 50 yrs, how old are you?

[anotheoldgit]

As a pensioner myself I believe that in the financial mess we are now in, due to new labour's spending spree, we must all take a share in trying to get out of the mess, from the very top down to the very bottom, it is what we once called the 'Dunkirk Spirit'

And if this means increasing the age of entitlement to fuel payments, then so be it, after all no one moans that pensioners have to pay the same price as working folk for their food.

Children (well their parents) should take their share too, child benefit for just two should be the rule. Obviously all those with more than two now keep their allowances, but those born after say one year fail to qualify.

After all in household budgets, if it comes to a squeeze every member of the family pays.

[ummmm]

I think anyone who doesn't work and receives benefits should not be able to claim anything for any children they have while they are in receipt of benefits.

[Nosha123]

"Children (well their parents) should take their share too, child benefit for just two should be the rule"

I agree AOG.... why should you choose to keep having children and expect the state to cough up all the time?

Should child benefit be stopped for the wealthy though??? Why would a family receiving in excess of £80,000 need to receive child benefit also?

BUT.. maybe they have higher outgoings - private education etc - and maybe they dont have lots of disposable income either!!

[madmaggot]

My OH received his first winter fuel allowance into his bank account totally 'out of the blue' he had not applied for it or received correspondence about it. We assumed his bank details must have come from his tax records. At this time we were both working and had no need for the extra income.
However, we are now both retired and living on limited means. Our oil tank costs about £1000 to fill and the fuel allowance arriving is our signal to call the oil company and order oil for the winter. We would really struggle to find this otherwise.

[Nosha123]

with regards to fuel payments

should you be entitled to these if you live abroad???

Especially if its a hotter country and so you use less fuel?

[ummmm]

Nosha....there is no rule to say you have to apply for child benefit. I don't get it for my youngest son because I never applied for it. I presume many others don't bother either.

[jomifl]

If a country is hotter wouldn't you need the fuel allowance to pay for running the air conditioning?

[jake-the-peg]

Personally I disagree as I think that benefits should be a safety net and thus judged soley on somebody's need and not as some sort of reward for managing to live long enough.

However if I were to argue the other way I'd probably say that pensioners who contributed to the country's wealth in earlier years helped underpin the better times in later years and therefore deserved a share in that too.

Although look out for those who'd then point out that the current generation of pensioners are in many cases enjoying the benefits of pension schemes that many of us working now can only fantasise about ending up with.

Final salary pension - what's one of them then?

[BertiWooster]

I've got one of them jake - but yes they're a threatened species :-)

[Ric.ror]

Look your all doing it again - well most of you - stop picking on the poor and those on benefits lets spend more on taxing the very rich and uncovering big buisness loopholes THEN lets start on the poor.
As for there not being many poor pensioners about - GREAT - I am really glad there aren't - we should be so proud of our welfare state that we can say that

[Ric.ror]

But I still need an argument in favour of universal benefits

[rov1200]

The government could easily claw back benefits to the rich. Every person including pensioners are given a tax code and if their income exceeds this they owe the taxman money. All universal benefits could be brought under the umbrella of the tax system so what they receive in handouts could be repaid in their tax.

This is already done with the state pension which is regarded as income and therefore set against the tax bill. Therefore every benefit could be taxable.