geezer466 wrote:
She worked for a local authority for quite a few years so it could be fair to say she gets far more from that pension benefit than she ever paid in?
There is a pensioner couple at the other end of the scale up the street from me. They cannot switch the heating on when they want to, nor have any funds left to enjoy the little things in life. I believe they have been in low paid work (not saved nor towards a pension) all their lives. They live in rented accommodation and pay their council and other taxes on time, income tax and NI all their working lives. I am not taking an entire socialist view but are they not are victims of the circumstance of opportunity.
Sadly, that description of yours applies to an increasing numbers of people today; even some in work are finding the cost of food and heating increasingly beyond their reach. I believe this situation has been deliberately engineered by the political elite and their banker colleagues. State dependency for the masses is their aim. And now they have turned their attention to the 'middle-classes'.
The example you cite does not explain away the very large numbers of career State dependants that make a comfortable living at the expense of the type of people in your example. Part of the answer is for the State to stop handing out taxpayers' cash to those who have not earned the right to benefit from the taxpayer – not to penalise those who have contributed their dues to the system, such as your mother. It is always the prudent and responsible members of society that are punished; the professional State dependent, the political elite, and the criminal bankers all go untroubled and unpunished.
Another large part of the answer is for the political class, including all MPs and MEPs, to have their salaries, expenses, and pensions savagely reduced before they seek to penalise the likes of your mother. These elitists enjoy a standard of living that is far beyond any value they add to society. That is, if they actually add any value to society.
geezer466 wrote:
Isn't it right that perhaps the state can pass these sorts of people a few extra quid every year so they can properly heat themselves and means test those with multi million pension deals like the Goodwins and most council leaders of this world?
The State could do a lot to help the people in your example if only the political class didn't waste so much of taxpayers' money in the first place. As for the cost of heating homes, the political class would do all of us a lot of good if the whole deceitful Green agenda was abolished.
geezer466 wrote:
Going further couldn't a test be applied that to qualify for the winter fuel payment people actually have to be resident in the UK over the colder Months? The amount of abuse where people decamp to sunnier climes over the winter is staggering.
I agree with you there. I also think that all child benefits for children that do not live in the UK should be stopped. A lot of money could be saved if the political elite stopped giving money away in foreign aid on such ridiculous stunts as wind turbines for Africa. Of course, the politicians could learn to mind their own business and stop wasting our money of wars that have nothing whatsoever to do with us. I believe our politicians willingly hand over the equivalent of £50,000,000 per day to that corrupt foreign power known as the European Union – the same organisation that hasn't had it accounts signed off for 18 YEARS.
There is plenty of scope to save some serious money so that your low-paid pensioners can receive the proper care, and for the likes of your mother NOT to be penalised for having been prudent with her earnings over the years.
geezer466 wrote:
People would be disgusted if disability benefit was paid to a fit person who didn't need it, what is the difference in the winter fuel allowance?
The Winter Fuel Allowance should be considered part of the grossly inadequate State Pension; an element that is rapidly losing its value due to the immoral actions of the political elite who engineer the year-on-year inflation/currency devaluation.
By drawing attention to the likes of your mother's just rewards, you are in fact assisting and excusing the immoral political elite by taking attention away from the guilty elitists, and suggesting that the prudent, such as you mother, should be punished for their foresight and self-protection.