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Post by mostlywrong on Jul 29, 2024 15:14:31 GMT
The Winter Fuel Allowance has gone, apparently.
I felt that the Chancellor left herself a hostage to fortune in several places but I didn't make any notes!
I did hear that the last bunch were useless but this bunch are wonderful and they have fixed the country, nay the world, in just 3 weeks.
The Budget is due on Wed 30 October.
We live in interesting times!
Oh, and we are doomed!
MW
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pikestaff
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Post by pikestaff on Jul 29, 2024 16:16:31 GMT
The Winter Fuel Allowance has gone, apparently. [...] Not gone but restricted to those on pension credits or other means-tested benefits. About time too. There are lots of more deserving cases and it was always ludicrous that the likes of me should get it.
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Post by bracknellboy on Jul 29, 2024 16:54:51 GMT
The Winter Fuel Allowance has gone, apparently. [...] Not gone but restricted to those on pension credits or other means-tested benefits. About time too. There are lots of more deserving cases and it was always ludicrous that the likes of me should get it. it is ludicrous that it is a universal benefit. However it is also ludicrous that receipt of such benefits is binary and tied to pension credits. 86 Y/O MIL is about £1 or £2 over the limit for pension credits (thanks to deliberate decision to TOP UP NICs during working life) and therefore ultimately is £000's out of pocket because of losing out on other benefits which are directly tied. So in her case, this will be a significant blow to her finances. Unless there are other reforms which will remove that direct connection or raise the clip level.
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Post by mostlywrong on Jul 29, 2024 17:09:07 GMT
The Chancellor has really upset Martin Lewis (TM) by withdrawing the universal Winter Fuel Payment.
We will never hear the last of this now.
And there will be pensioners rioting on the streets in the deepest of winter in order to keep warm...
MW
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agent69
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Post by agent69 on Jul 29, 2024 17:29:23 GMT
Some observations following the announcements from the new chancellor:
- At the time of the election the Office for Budget Responsibility said there was a black hole of £15 - £20bn in Labours 'fully funded' policies
- The Institute for Fiscal Studies aren't impressed by the Chancellor's comments and point out that most of the things she is complaining about were known about before the election
- Half of the alleged £20bn black hole in government finances comes about as a result of the pay deals that Labour are proposing for public sector employees.
- Having offered 22% pay rise to junior doctors over 2 years, the unions representing all the other NHS workers (who were offered 5.5%) are now saying why can't we have 22% as well.
Less than a month into the job and I'm not impressed, although I do think that cancelling the A303 tunnel past Stonehenge is a victory for common sense
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keitha
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2024, hopefully the year I get out of P2P
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Post by keitha on Jul 29, 2024 17:31:38 GMT
yes the binary attitude towards some benefits is becoming stupid
being a few pounds short of a full state pension with no other income could now make you hundreds of pounds a year better off than someone with just a full state pension
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Post by overthehill on Jul 29, 2024 17:39:49 GMT
Some observations following the announcements from the new chancellor:
- At the time of the election the Office for Budget Responsibility said there was a black hole of £15 - £20bn in Labours 'fully funded' policies
- The Institute for Fiscal Studies aren't impressed by the Chancellor's comments and point out that most of the things she is complaining about were known about before the election
- Half of the alleged £20bn black hole in government finances comes about as a result of the pay deals that Labour are proposing for public sector employees.
- Having offered 22% pay rise to junior doctors over 2 years, the unions representing all the other NHS workers (who were offered 5.5%) are now saying why can't we have 22% as well.
Less than a month into the job and I'm not impressed, although I do think that cancelling the A303 tunnel past Stonehenge is a victory for common sense
Can someone condense 30 years of wasted money into a few words describing the point of this tunnel.
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Post by mostlywrong on Jul 29, 2024 17:59:01 GMT
I am waiting for the news that the current A303 will be the first example of road-pricing.
A nice fat £20, say, to drive along it in the summer???
MW
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james100
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Post by james100 on Jul 29, 2024 18:00:54 GMT
Yes, the winter fuel payments made no sense to give to wealthy pensioners, but the criteria for eligibility is also inadequate. If an extra payment is supposed to exist for people below income level £Xpa then the obvious way would be to grant a tax credit/debit through the system automatically based on income, surely. People who don't need it would get it automatically clawed back - done. There's something really distasteful (to me) around removing a substantial payment from this segment of the population like this without fully considering the impact (easily enough done through consulting with a body like Age UK which clearly didn't happen per their statement).
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adrianc
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Post by adrianc on Jul 29, 2024 18:13:23 GMT
I am waiting for the news that the current A303 will be the first example of road-pricing. Apart from the various other examples of road-pricing that have been in operation for years? The M6 Toll, p'raps? Or any of a largeish number of bridges?
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jlend
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Post by jlend on Jul 29, 2024 19:02:13 GMT
I think the whole idea of the winter fuel allowance is silly.
Simply make the state pension, pension credit etc at a level where the winter fuel allowance is never needed for anyone.
I personally would make more things means tested. I honestly don't need my state pension, and it seems wrong for young people to be paying it to me via their taxes.
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Post by mostlywrong on Jul 29, 2024 19:34:31 GMT
I am waiting for the news that the current A303 will be the first example of road-pricing. Apart from the various other examples of road-pricing that have been in operation for years? The M6 Toll, p'raps? Or any of a largeish number of bridges? The M6 Toll road was built from scratch by its operator. Through virgin countryside, IIRC.
And it was done to relieve congestion on the M6 and allow rich people to get somewhere much more quickly than the proles.
At nil cost to the government.
Bridges have a security factor in that the alternative is, usually, rather wet and slightly damaging to power units whether IC or electric.
My understanding is that a lot of the traffic on the A303 at peak periods diverts to the smaller villages around the jams. Ditto for the A27 down in Sussex although my comment about water kicks in for that road!
I was speculating about road-pricing, adrianc. To be honest, my money would be on London first.
MW
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Post by mostlywrong on Jul 29, 2024 19:51:44 GMT
It occurs to me that the Chancellor might have just shot herself in the foot.
There is no doubt that the economy is fragile. For example, the slump in sales in May and June due to the bad weather will have cut the amount of VAT heading towards the Treasury. And I note that the Brighton Pier Company blamed poor weather for a sharp drop in profit. And, strangely, SIG, which is a building materials and insulation company, has also warned of a downturn in confidence.
So, with a fragile economy, why would you stand up and tell the electorate (who, on the whole and in percentage terms, did not vote for you) that things are really bad and that you are going to tax the hell out of them in October.
And I note that the Budget is on All Hallow's Eve, just to keep the headline writers happy.
The abolition of the universal Winter Fuel Allowance will hit some pensioners really hard. It is little good explaining that you are going to improve the penetration of pension credit when the fact that pension credit does not reach a good chunk of those pensioners who are eligible for it, tells me that it ain't working. And if I was reliant on my new style state pension, losing £200 would make me switch off the heating.
In effect, the Chancellor has frightened the horses. And I think that a lot of people will rein in their expenditure until they are comfortable with the future. They will cut back on summer goodies over the next 3 months and the VAT reaching the Treasury will fall.
What good is political expediency then?
Very happy to be proven wrong...
MW
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agent69
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Post by agent69 on Jul 29, 2024 20:17:01 GMT
Apart from the various other examples of road-pricing that have been in operation for years? The M6 Toll, p'raps? Or any of a largeish number of bridges? The M6 Toll road was built from scratch by its operator. Through virgin countryside, IIRC.
And it was done to relieve congestion on the M6 and allow rich people to get somewhere much more quickly than the proles.
If lots of rich people use the BNRR then that means less traffic (and a quicker journey) for the poor people on the M6. Sounds like a win-win situation
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Post by bracknellboy on Jul 29, 2024 20:24:12 GMT
The M6 Toll road was built from scratch by its operator. Through virgin countryside, IIRC.
And it was done to relieve congestion on the M6 and allow rich people to get somewhere much more quickly than the proles.
If lots of rich people use the BNRR then that means less traffic (and a quicker journey) for the poor people on the M6. Sounds like a win-win situation My understanding - which is quite possibly flawed - was that originally the M6 Toll was conceived primarily to take lorries off the M6 and not car traffic. However, the developers had a fairly free rein and they soon came to realise that the significant additional road maintenance costs that came with heavy vehicles couldn't be properly offset by the prices they could charge. And that the optimum profit point came from pricing commercial heavy vehicles so as to largely deter, also giving them leeway to charge higher prices for cars given the resulting absence of lorries. Such is the tale that I once took onboard.
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