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Author Topic: WINTER FUEL PAYMENTS  (Read 7458 times)

Patternmaker

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WINTER FUEL PAYMENTS
« on: February 24, 2010, 08:14:00 pm »

What are you views on Winter Fuel Payments for everyone 60 and over regardless of income also nearly 65,00 Britons living in European countries including Spain, Portugal and Greece receiving state-funded winter fuel payments.

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dougal99

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Re: WINTER FUEL PAYMENTS
« Reply #1 on: February 24, 2010, 08:28:52 pm »

What's cheaper, paying everybody or having a means tested system? I do not have the answer but suspect the former. I did not submit my form when it was sent as my wife was already in receipt of it and my claim would have resulted in the amount being split between us. So by not claiming I hopefully saved a minute amount of adminsitration.

JMO
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Patrick Henry

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Re: WINTER FUEL PAYMENTS
« Reply #2 on: February 24, 2010, 08:35:13 pm »

I've never had a form...  <:(

Rich
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dougal99

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Re: WINTER FUEL PAYMENTS
« Reply #3 on: February 24, 2010, 08:43:54 pm »

You obviously look too young  :kiss:
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Patternmaker

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Re: WINTER FUEL PAYMENTS
« Reply #4 on: February 24, 2010, 08:52:24 pm »

I've never had a form...  <:(

Rich
Rich you can download a form at DirectGov
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sheerline

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Re: WINTER FUEL PAYMENTS
« Reply #5 on: February 24, 2010, 09:44:20 pm »

Winter fuel payment.. the usual mess you would expect from the government. The way money is doled out from the coffers beggars belief. I heard a debate about it on the radio the other day and it was said that to try to means test or change the system could cost countless millins and therefore was best leftalone. It was even mentioned that perhaps the concience of the OAP's living aboroad could be appealed to and ask that they did not claim it. This made me think...."why should they give it up"?
After the expenses scandal has left a bitter taste in the mouth, we learn that foriegn workers who leave a family at home to come and work here are having family allowance payments made to their families back home. Then I learn that immigrants who come here are allowed to bring their families once they have achieved British status and when the granparents arrive, they receive a state pension!!
I don't know how accurate this information is but if true it's a national scandal and I could be led to believe it's only the tip of the disgraceful iceberg.
So, as far as asking or demanding pensioners give up a £200-00 a year heating allowance is concerned , I say let em keep it until the playing field is levelled a bit more evenly.
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PMK

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Re: WINTER FUEL PAYMENTS
« Reply #6 on: February 25, 2010, 06:53:37 am »

They sent me 2x £25.00 WFPs last month. I'm still a young, tender sprog, ergo feel that I shouldn't qualify for that particular hand-out.
You try sending it back.
In no time at all you find yourself running into a wall of red-taped beaurocratic bumph. Everyone is passing the buck: "Oh, it's too much like work.", sort of scene.

I've got fifty nicker sitting in my account which, morally, isn't mine.
Anyone know of any freezing pensioners before it goes in the RNLI tin?
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Roger in France

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Re: WINTER FUEL PAYMENTS
« Reply #7 on: February 25, 2010, 07:27:38 am »

As someone living in France who receives the Winter Fuel Payment I thought I would comment.

First of all, please note that unless you were over 65 when you left the UK you do not qualify. Nor will you do so when living abroad and you reach 65.

When living here and being notified that I still qualified I was somewhat surprised. However,

1. I paid all my taxes before I left the UK and I am still taxed in the UK.

2. Although where I live winters are significantly shorter than the UK the temperature can and does frequently drop further.

3. In the summer it can be so hot at night that air conditioning is virtually essential to enable one to sleep.


I therefore consider I am as entitled to the payment as those who receive it in the UK. I do know that if it were means tested I would not qualify.


By all means discuss the subject but let us do it rationally and avoid the thought process that goes something like, "Oh, he lives abroad, he is different, he should not get the payment".

Roger in France.
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PMK

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Re: WINTER FUEL PAYMENTS
« Reply #8 on: February 25, 2010, 07:39:32 am »

"First of all, please note that unless you were over 65 when you left the UK you do not qualify."

So there you have it, Patternmaker. 65, not 60. And not necessarily for everyone.
Which still doesn't explain why they should offer it to a 49-yr-old.

"...as far as asking or demanding pensioners give up a £200-00 a year heating allowance..."

£200.00??
Blimey!
And there was I thinking that even £50.00 was waaaaaay generous.
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barryfoote

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Re: WINTER FUEL PAYMENTS
« Reply #9 on: February 25, 2010, 08:07:09 am »

PMK,

The state never makes mistakes.......You must be over 65.....sorry amigo but the facts speak for themselves.....Check your birth certificate.... {-) {-) {-) {-) {-) {-)

Down here in the south of Spain, my neighbour receives this allowance.....and boy does he need it. No it does not get any where near as cold as the Uk, but these houses were built to keep you cool, not warm. My heating bill in winter is about double what it would be in the UK. It costs me about 225 Euros per month for firewood and electricity. I can manage that, but pensioners over here, living solely on the state pension cannot...

Barry
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FullLeatherJacket

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Re: WINTER FUEL PAYMENTS
« Reply #10 on: February 25, 2010, 08:13:00 am »

Sorry, guys, but Mrs Jacket isn't (quite) 65 and we've been receiving this for four years now. Looks like it's 60 after all (sorry, Rog). Check out the Power Tzar's website here:
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Pensionsandretirementplanning/Benefits/BenefitsInRetirement/DG_10018657
I am a 'toy-boy' and so don't qualify in my own right.  8)
That said, I'd rather a little of our money goes towards the fuel bills of the undeserving affluent than have the many poor souls who really do  need it get mired in the hell of means-testing. For example, have you seen the forms for Pension Credit?? After all, it's not as if these wealthy folk don't pay into  the pot as well....... As for the elderly families of immigrants receiving benefits etc, I suspect that's just Daily Mail and/or Murk-doch hokum to keep Middle England topped up with xenophobic outrage and avidly buying their noxious rags.
There was some ex-TV producer ranting on the Beeb a couple of nights ago about not needing his WFP. He said he lives in a posh house in Surrey and that he's getting a six-figure income even in his retirement.
If he's that bl**dy clever how come he doesn't know the address of Help The Aged?
I rest my case, m' Lud.
FLJ
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funtimefrankie

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Re: WINTER FUEL PAYMENTS
« Reply #11 on: February 25, 2010, 08:23:08 am »

It might be interesting to get views on the Tory plans to cut inheritance tax on the the richest 3% of the population
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DickyD

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Re: WINTER FUEL PAYMENTS
« Reply #12 on: February 25, 2010, 08:30:51 am »

Well I'm not 65 and I have been getting the payment for sometime.
By the way Dave that TV presenter in Surrey was saying he gives his payment to charity and other people in his position should do the same.
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Roger in France

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Re: WINTER FUEL PAYMENTS
« Reply #13 on: February 25, 2010, 08:51:57 am »

Yes, sorry, the qualifying age is 60.

I was getting confused with the State Health System. My wife qualified for that in France at age 60 and I was accepted on her coat tails until I reached 65 then I became registered in France in my own right.

Which leads me to point out that my taxes (paid in the UK) which help to fund the UK Health System are not accessed by me because I am in the French Health System. I presume this is a reciprocal arrangement and French Nationals living in the UK are in the UK System. What the French Health System does not cover for me I pay for from a private insurance.

Roger in France
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Colin Bishop

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Re: WINTER FUEL PAYMENTS
« Reply #14 on: February 25, 2010, 09:40:50 am »

You always get anomalies in these sorts of situation and, as has already been stated, the cost of fine tuning them out can easily exceed the savings achieved not to mention the hassle factor and humiliation engendered by means testing. Child benefit was/is another example.

The tax system is full of inequalities and unfairness when applied to individual circumstances and I reckon that over the years I have been disadvantaged on budget day far more often than I have come out ahead so if they want to give me a tiny bit back by this method I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. You win some, you lose some - that's life.

Colin
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dougal99

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Re: WINTER FUEL PAYMENTS
« Reply #15 on: February 25, 2010, 10:08:40 am »

It seems my attempt to save money by not claiming my share of the WFP has not worked. I have just received a letter in the mail instructing me to reply as they have not heard from me. Seems you can't opt out.  <:(
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Circlip

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Re: WINTER FUEL PAYMENTS
« Reply #16 on: February 25, 2010, 12:44:21 pm »

You can Dougal, shred it and file in the plastic filing cabinet outside. I don't claim mine as a seperate from SWTSMBO cos todays filling clerks tend to have lost or not been issued with the common sense gene. If either of us curls our toes up, it will be sorted at that time cos the TOTAL monetary allocation will be unchanged, just sent to one or the other.

   Seems ALL of the "Official" bodies are tarred with the stupid brush, don't get me started on "Prescription Line"

  Regards  Ian.
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Patternmaker

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Re: WINTER FUEL PAYMENTS
« Reply #17 on: February 25, 2010, 12:53:33 pm »

Thanks for all your input, the winter fuel payment helped me personally with last quarters bills I also got a cold weather payment of £25.00, to qualify the temperature has to be an average of  0 for seven consecutive days.

Are you aware that one energy company gives you 20% discount if your annual bills amount to 10% of your annual income, I know its means testing but well worth it.

A lot of pensioners are put off claiming the winter fuel payment because of the 7 page claim form and the relevant documents that have to be sent. I would never pay my bills by direct debit which means that energy companies dictate how much you will pay


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tt1

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Re: WINTER FUEL PAYMENTS
« Reply #18 on: February 25, 2010, 01:00:39 pm »

I'd forgotten about this allowance - amazing, I get reminders for just about everything that I pay out in life, but no one tells me my entitlements now I'm 60! -------------- how do I claim? might even go for a bus pass as well!
                                           Tony.
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Patternmaker

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Re: WINTER FUEL PAYMENTS
« Reply #19 on: February 25, 2010, 02:48:26 pm »

I'd forgotten about this allowance - amazing, I get reminders for just about everything that I pay out in life, but no one tells me my entitlements now I'm 60! -------------- how do I claim? might even go for a bus pass as well!
                                           Tony.

Tony, if you log on to DirectGov you can download all the forms to claim for your entitlements for over 60s and pensioners.

Mick
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Netleyned

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Re: WINTER FUEL PAYMENTS
« Reply #20 on: February 25, 2010, 02:57:41 pm »

Winter Fuel Payments are for anyone over 60
Cold weather payments are means tested by the fact
you must get pension credit to qualify
Even if you get Disabled Living allowance you don't
qualify unless you get pension credit.
Neither my wife nor myself get pension credit
so all we get is half the winter fuel payment each


Ned
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Perkasaman2

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Re: WINTER FUEL PAYMENTS
« Reply #21 on: February 25, 2010, 03:42:38 pm »

A big problem is that the various government departments, even those clustered in the same large Agency,  don't use a common or central computerised database. This situation creates huge ineffiiciency and inconvenience for them and us. Oceans of cash since the days of Mrs T have been spent on this problem without much apparent success. Hence the confusion, anomolies and 'boo boos'. The regular policy changes/ tweaks exacerbates this ongoing situation and obliges  excessive form filling   <:(
It's banana skins galore for exploitation in the media, however the blame in my opinion, largely belongs at the door of incompetent professional managers/civil servants/ I T wallahs who seem unable to find solutions, irregardless of how much  money has been thrown at this beaurocratic Tower of Babel.
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Colin Bishop

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Re: WINTER FUEL PAYMENTS
« Reply #22 on: February 25, 2010, 04:01:20 pm »

Quote
however the blame in my opinion, largely belongs at the door of incompetent professional managers/civil servants/ I T wallahs who seem unable to find solutions,

And on what first hand experience is that opinion based on? Those of us who have had direct experience of working in that sort of environment might beg to differ. Things are never as simple as people would like to believe and the root causes of the effects you see are not always what you might assume them to be.

Colin
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Bee

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Re: WINTER FUEL PAYMENTS
« Reply #23 on: February 25, 2010, 04:34:54 pm »

I think it should be related to the actual weather by virtue of actual location. It is ridiculous to pay the same in London as the top of a Yorkshire hill. Even half a mile can make a difference and relating address to exposure is not difficult.
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PMK

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Re: WINTER FUEL PAYMENTS
« Reply #24 on: February 25, 2010, 04:41:13 pm »

Even if you get Disabled Living allowance you don't
qualify unless you get pension credit.

I've never heard of Pension Credit, let alone receive it, but somebody somewhere reckons I qualify because they still sent two lots of £25.00.
From what I'm gathering, Cold Weather Payment is a different thing from Winter Fuel Payment.
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