Difficult Decisions?? Who Gets to keep their Heating Allowance?
In the News
Question Time fans didn't hold back as they vented their frustration over the government slicing the winter fuel payment for all but the least well-off pensioners, as the show travelled to Ashton-under-Lyne for its latest instalment of heated debate.
In a controversial moment from the show, an audience member shone a light on the bitter situation facing thousands of elderly citizens who are set to lose out on the £300 winter fuel payment for easing the financial strain of heating their homes. They highlighted that MPs, with their annual salaries of £91,346 plus expenses, can claim up to £3,500 towards their own heating bills, claiming if these politicians skipped the perk, more than 6,700 pensioners could instead receive the winter fuel allowance.
I am flaberghasted by the fact that people aren't writing to the MP's about this as it is totally absurd!
I remember in the past the MPs could vote on whether they get a pay rise and of course pretty much all of them supported that motion to be paid more. Now I think its a so called independent body that decides but its been setup by MPs and unsurprisingly MPs pay has gone up considerably with this independent body that has been setup by MPs themselves. Now if MPs were assessed by their performance they would each probably have to pay billions to tax payers as they are worse than useless most of the time. If they were paid by what tax payers thought was fair it would likely be less than they currently get and without most of the expenses they claim for. Instead they have a main wage approaching a £100k and expenses approaching £200k plus get paid for anything they can do on the side like TV interviews etc.
I totally get the country is in a financial mess and is pretty much bankrupt and heading towards a IMF bailout at some point and I'm not saying its wrong to means test winter payments but I feel in such a situation MPs themselves should also have less paid to them. I just find the type of people that become MPs whatever the party pretty disgusting often weirdly perverted, claiming as much money as possible, huge egos, clueless what they are doing, not really understanding the problems of the economy, no strategy, no forward planning, just micromanaging failure while paying themselves huge money.
BonzoBanana Yes, exactly.
They should be looking at what they scam off the top and if that was reduced the country would be far better off!
Perhaps we should look to a system whereby they let us know what will get for a pension, as they do now, and we, the public, then tell them what we think they are worth paying!
However, the real crux here is that they have no shame by making the pensioners lose the WFA when they are claiming far more themselves. Disgusting!
tumblespots Why can't we means test MPs so if they are earning more than the minimum wage or have savings over 6,000 or whatever the limit is they can't claim expenses. Obviously not a serious suggestion but I just get annoyed with their attitude to themselves. It's like they think they deserve all these perks because they do such an important job but it seems like after each government be it Conservative or Labour, government debt has gone up, we lose a huge amount of industry, more assets have been sold, the country is in an even worse financial state and this has been happening with every government since the end of the 1970s. Yes of course joining the EU is the main factor to this but we are out of it now and need a proper industrial policy and a realistic trade policy to repair our country. We need to go into repair mode.
Labour MP's who went against the government when voting whether to let pensioners have the WFA were told they would be penalised and likely be deselected! What a scandal - is this democracy?
www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/sep/17/labour-mps-missed-winter-fuel-vote-feudal-warning-by-whips
I find it quite disgusting if MPs are receiving heating allowance while taking it away from vulnerable elderly pensioners that don’t have a choice.
JLouM They actually get far more than they were taking away from the pensioners too!
tumblespots I might explode with anger from this information and I’m not a pensioner- yet. Not that far away though.
JLouM Sadly it should make you angry and all 'youngsters' should be up in arms as they will be pensioners one day. They are chipping away at all the 'perks' (for want of a better word) that come with age, in small recompense for all the years you have paid in to the system, which is disgusting as each MP has so much money that none of these things will affect them when they are pensioners, if it did, maybe they would care more?! 
The reason governments get away with this type of thing is that nobody here protests in ways they do in other countries, and the government knows this , our country is spineless i am sorry to say
telmel We are so bad at letting the government get away with these things, I think it is partly because it is hard to band people together to revolt! And when they do not many people are brave enough to put themselves 'out there'. It wouldn't happen in so many other countries! It's such a shame because it means that ultimately they walk all over us 
tumblespots I think over the years we have had the heart of the country ripped out and have been left with just an empty shell of what it was
People just tend to give up now and just accept everything thrown at them
My mother was not happy to hear but I did point out to her she has enough money to afford heating. I think all benefits need to be means tested.
eyeballkerry I have to disagree as smacks to me of a nanny state where they demand to know absolutely everything about you. I would also bear in mind that MP's get a heating allowance of more than £3,000 and yet they earn far more than a pensioner - are they means tested?
I'd comment but would probably get the thread closed down, it's just sad that we don't demonstrate like we use too, oh wait you'd either be classed as a terrorist or far right, unless your left wing, with a left wing or liberal agenda
martinlufc5637 True. This wouldn't be happening in any other country in Europe as the people wouldn't allow it.
I find this totally disgusting why are MPs getting a heating allowance ,look at all they poor pensioner's who really need that money and they took it away from them the government is a joke 
kate1310 Yes. A sick joke. I don't know how they can hold their heads up and tell us it is for the best!!
tumblespots yes totally agree with you a lot of people need that winter payment I feel sorry for them
I think whether an OAP is struggling financially or not, they should be entitled to the heating allowance as they have worked hard over the last 50 or so years paying into the system.
RegularComper91 Yes, pensioners have paid into the system their whole lives and this is how they are repaid - the government make them feel worthless.
In the olden days miners got free coal as a part of the job. MP's claim what's available to them, it may not be fair or moral but that's the job description. I wouldn't want the job for all the tea in China as the saying goes. We all have a choice, they have chosen politics.
Auntielettie They have chosen politics over getting a proper job because it isn't manual and they don't have to get their hands dirty, figuratively speaking. They can hide behind their masks and swear that Monday is Tuesday and get away with it. The financial benefits that come with it are also HUGE and it's a big power trip.
Brits who voted for Labour must have thought "It's the party of the people." and that backfired, it backfired so badly. And so sad.
Starmer has made England even less safe and now old folks will possibly perish due to their heating allowance being cut.
Oh, and I read this comment from the other deals website that just left me "What?"
There was a reply to that user praising the government, but the staff deleted. It wasn't even offensive or anything.
Why would you thank God that a government harms people? Jesus Christ, that's sick.
I blurred out the usernames to keep them anonymous (if that matters).
PhilipMarc It is probably best that you did otherwise if they got wind of it you have been in hot water too! But it does surprise me that anyone would praise this government!
It is terrible that in the 21st Century a country that wants to be a major player on the world stage is treating it's pensioners so badly.
tumblespots The church I go to, its priests always pray and include "pray for the government, prime minister, and the king" I uh... I disagree with that.
But one of the two did explain something along the lines "we have to pray whether they're good or bad." I wonder if Farage was the prime minister if they'd still say it.
Politics aside, it's a good community.
PhilipMarc I am glad that you live in a good community.
I do find it strange that the priests want everyone to pray for the government, prime minister etc I have never heard of that before. Perhaps they don't believe anything than the intervention of God could improve the government?
Jinky67 I don't think that makes any difference at all. Why should the public be paying to heat their offices??
tumblespots because it's a public service they're performing. That would be like asking you to pay to heat your workplace
Jinky67 Pretty sure its their second homes that they claim for and with figures running into many thousands of pounds per year its clearly for the whole home and not just a proportion of their costs just related to their office or one room they may use in it. I would like to see a further breakdown of all the costs they claim for to get the full picture which really taxpayers should get.
When you look at Rachel Reeves expenses charged to taxpayers why is insurance so much and why do we have to pay for newspaper subscriptions over £1000 a year etc. It's many thousands of pounds for stuff that they have not tried to get a competitive price for or shouldn't be charging to expenses anyway. Why do they have to have top end computer equipment and why is at the highest possible price? All the expenses charged by MPs is around £100 million a year, £200k each.
I remember in the past when I was in a situation where I could get expenses, I got close to the minimum needed to pay for a hotel and if I wanted better I had to pay the extra myself. Expenses were rationed and carefully kept low. I couldn't just turn up at the Hilton and have a luxury penthouse room to myself. The normal process of controlling expenses just doesn't seem to be going on.
If it hasn't been mentioned already Age UK have a petition about this. Not that I'm convinced anything will come of it, there's been a big enough outcry already and it doesn't look like they will budge.
Karen331 I signed this a week or so ago but Labour really don't like pensioners so they aren't likely to give it back, despite the fact that they say they hadn't done a feasibility study about potential outcomes for the pensioners concerned. The upshot is if the pensioners health deteriorates through the lack of heat/food (the choice of eating and heating) the burden on the NHS will be enormous costing far more 
They will end up paying more in NHS fees as more people will be in hospital for flu and suffering from Pneumonia .
LL81 Absolutely, they haven't thought this through at all. The additional burden on the NHS could be huge!
This world is going to pot!
Them mps, if they were a decent person they would refuse to take it and demand it goes to the pensioners.
possy but unfortunately they aren’t, they are more interested in what is in it for them, otherwise they would have all voted against this rather than being hypocrites with their own expenses. This country doesn’t reward those that have worked and saved all their lives, it continues to reward those that didn’t or those in MPs jobs to claim what they can.
possy I am sure I read that Starmer told them they would be deselected as MP's if they didn't vote the way he wanted them to. There's democracy in action for you - not 
I haven't believed in democracy in the country for a long time now as it is just a myth.
Gromit22 They should have been voting as their constituents and consciences told them not what Starmer said!
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