Just after the WFP was introduced me and the Mrs were visiting her parents . When i moaned about it they sais
them "we're old and feel the cold"
us "so"
them " we're pensioners and need help"
us " you've just come back from a 19 day cruise on the QE2 and have already booked next year on the new flagship so give over with this nonsense "
While I hear and agree with what you say, my thoughts on this are that I doubt knowing most members on here (not606) that anyones parents are on the breadline. As I understand it there are over 800k pensioners that do fall within the category of being entitled to WFP, but they need to be claiming pension credit to get it?
Now I see the hurdle here, a lot of those pensioners may never of claimed any benefit, pension is not a benefit in my eyes. I'd be like them if I was entitled to claim pension credit, it feels like the state want to know the ins and outs of your life to claim it, it feels like a big rod over you if you inadvertently give them a piece of wrong information. So people steer clear.
Lots or people don't claim benefits that they are entitled, not just pensioners, something like PIP is a minefield, now I know you've worked in benefits and to you it might not, but to an outsider of the system it really does. And what happens in these situations people end up suffering because of it, quietly and often alone or that's how it feels to them.
So while I understand what Keir has done, I just wonder where the safety net is for those that are not like the example you have given. Then I look at the cost, savings of £3.8B is my understanding, £2.1B back out of that pot if everyone claims pension credit, and if I heard right, an additional 3 months backdated. So yeah close the hole but I don't believe the stated savings stack up. Not forgetting this is the same nation that gave everyone a fuel allowance during covid.
So I see the arguments from both sides for and against, and I just wonder to the Labour Party if it was all really worth this aggravation it has caused them. It feels like they've shot themselves in the foot, to save what about £1B while dishing out *£9B in payrises (Laura Kuennsberg interview I saw) - I got no problem with the payrises, if it stops anymore strikes, but just trying to put it into perspective there had to be a better way of handling this...
Anyway ageism is king on 606, so fook em.