I used to work with older people and they often got on to complaining about the price of coal,electricity, oil etc. I used to remind them that they got a generous WF Payment and some of them said they spent it on Christmas presents and one lady told me she doesn’t get it, it just goes straight in her bank!
My BIL is staying with us this weekend and keeps saying how warm our house is. i tell him if he put his heating ON, his would be warm too!! he says he sits there in a thick jumper and padded gilet! he is far better off than us and has a house in a very expensive village but is an absolute skinflint. I can’t see any point in being freezing cold when we are all getting these payments. As my friend would say “who wants to be the richest man in the graveyard?”
I bet most don’t know they receive this payment !
£10 .
OAP . The majority don’t live a life of poverty.
Ok pay those on special benefits £10 extra and stop this silly free for all over 66yrs £10 payment. It’s a waste of financial resources
in these desperate times.
It’s a nice gesture but I question the benefit of it.
When the £10 Christmas Bonus was first introduced, back in 1972, it was a useful amount - but while the price of everything else has been increasing every year, the Christmas Bonus amount has remained the same for 50 years!
The weekly State Pension back in 1972 was £6.75 for a single person and £10.90 for a married couple, so a £10 bonus at Christmas was equivalent to receiving an extra week’s pension or more.
When you consider that the minimum weekly income before you are eligible for Pension Credit is now £182.60 a week if you’re single, and £278.70 a week if you’re in a couple, it shows what a derisory amount the £10 Christmas Bonus is, compared to its value when it was first introduced.
If the Government was to stop paying the Christmas Bonus to every state pensioner regardless of their income and only pay it to pensioners receiving pension credit and the folk who are receiving any of the other existing selected benefits that make them eligible, then the money saved could be used to increase the Christmas Bonus to a more meaningful amount for those who need it most.
They already have a method of making cold weather payments to those pensioners who are receiving pension credits and other selected benefits, so it should be possible to do the same for the Christmas Bonus.
[quote="Zuleika, post:120
There are lots of pensioners who need it and in case you didn’t know others on certain other benefits get it too .
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I must say, I for one am very thankful for the £10, I could make a beautiful stew with that money, and as Tesco’s catchphrase says, I think it’s Tesco…” Every Penny Counts”…some pensioners who live on a shoe string, £ 10 is a lot of money to them!
Is this an extra payment on top of your pension? Don’t you get year round assistance with your energy bill? Can’t you save it for winter?
I get an energy supplement to help with power bills and a Pension Supplement to help with the GST (VAT) though to be frank I am surprised the latter hasn’t been absorbed into the general rate it has been so long since the GST was introduced.
I think there is also a rental assistance supplement for those who don’t own their own house but I have never received that.
Like send it to help the war effort in Ukraine?
Or help some obscure African state to install wind turbines…
There are more elderly on the breadline than you think Ripple.
The cost of doing means testing would outweigh sending the tenner to all the pensioners.
I must say, I for one am very thankful for the £10, I could make a beautiful stew with that money, and as Tesco’s catchphrase says, I think it’s Tesco…” Every Penny Counts”…some pensioners who live on a shoe string, £ 10 is a lot of money to them!
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Bravo Pauline.
If people are too well off they should donate the tenner to the salvation army who will be hard at it providing meals for those living rough over Christmas while some posters will be enjoying a warm well fed couple of days with their families around them…
Bravo Pauline.
If people are too well off they should donate the tenner to the salvation army who will be hard at it providing meals for those living rough over Christmas while some posters will be enjoying a warm well fed couple of days with their families around them…
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There’s no need to test - merely excluding all those who pay tax would simplify distribution or, selectively, using the criteria for Cold Weather Payment:
Eligibility
You may get Cold Weather Payments if you’re getting:
There are about 12 and half million people claiming a State Pension in UK.
Of those, less than 1 and half million are claiming Pension Credit.
The Government estimate that around £1.7 billion in benefits is not being claimed.
I would urge any Pensioner who is on the breadline or anyone who knows a pensioner who is on the breadline to have a look at whether they are eligible to apply for Pension Credit.
Even if it only tops their income up by a very small amount per week, it is one of the “gateway benefits” that means they are eligible for other means-tested benefits.
I donate by direct debit to the Trussle Trust, Also AgeUK
I feel I’m entitled to spend my £10 on a extra box Lindt chocolate truffles… they are my favourites. The large box is on offer at Ocado.
Until this year I had no idea I got a £10 Xmas bonus….that’s why this free for all over a certain age in my opinion should stop.
It’s made no difference to my life , but the money saved could make a difference if paid to those on benefits.
Or channelled into a worthy cause.
Social housing, affordable housing ,new dialysis machines for the NHS ,pothole repair …whatever
The Winter Fuel Payment is,as Jazzi said ,a once yearly payment for those in receipt of the State Pension .
The Energy Rebate is a one - off so far as we know to help with the rising cost of heating our homes ,not restricted to those in receipt of the state pension .
