Reeves’s Winter Fuel Raid to Raise Just £250 Million Instead of £1.5 Billion
Rachel Reeves’s winter fuel raid will raise just £250 million, experts have claimed, saying, “The amount raised looks tiny relative to the political damage which the whole episode has caused to the Government.” The Telegraph has more.
The Treasury previously estimated the controversial decision to axe universal winter fuel payments would raise £1.5 billion this year. However, experts on Monday said the real figure would be just £250 million, leaving the Chancellor in a £1.25 billion deficit.
Ms Reeves announced she would reinstate the benefit for 75% of pensioners amid mounting pressure from Labour MPs and following the party’s abysmal local election performance.
Under than changes, retirees whose annual income is below £35,000 will be entitled to a payment of up to £300.
Revised figures from the Treasury state the policy would still raise £450 million, but Sir Steve Webb, a partner at pension consultant LCP, said it had ignored the additional £200 million it has spent following a surge in pension credit applications.
There were 57,000 additional claims for pension credit following Labour’s decision to revoke winter fuel payments from 10 million pensioners last July, according to the Department for Work and Pensions.
Sir Steve said: “These changes wipe out most of the extra revenue which the Government was expecting to get from the winter fuel payment policy.
“Not only has the Government knocked more than £1 billion off the expected revenue, but it has also had to find more than £200 million per year extra because of the surge in pension credit claims.
“Overall, the amount raised looks tiny relative to the political damage which the whole episode has caused to the Government.”
Worth reading in full.
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It is funny to see how more and more unpleasant images of her appear as the economy goes down the plughole. It is horrible when the ctretins are in charge. What can you do? Absolutely bloody nothing. Sit back and contemplate how it is cool to be poor and frugal and austere. Just look at her. This is a woman that can only be sated by red meat. I know a carnivore when I see one.
The decision to cancel Winter Fuel Payments does not raise any money and to suggest it would do is disgraceful. It could have been argued that such a decision saved taxpayers money but even that would be disingenuous given that claims for Pension Credit increased by over 1,000 per week.
The Torygraph needs to employ editors who understand English instead of churning out garbage such as this. Copying rubbish publicity statements passed out by illiterate civil servants really isn’t good enough.
Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.
– George Orwell
Rather like Gordon Brown talked about ‘investment’ rather than spending current account money.
Exactly.
Gordon Brown led the way with ” investment” because for Labour investment was only ever a synonym for destruction and the spending of taxpayers money.
Ah yes, Gordy, the man who stole our pensions and sold our gold at rock bottom prices.
That was smart of Brown -‘investing’ sounds far better than ‘pissing away’ your hard earned taxes / freshly printed currency…
100%
Most recent political/government activity seems to amount to robbing Peter to pay Paul and while the general public seem to be economically illiterate due to decades of brainwashing and propaganda the Telegraph journalists ought to know better.
👍👍👍
Update:
The decision to cancel Winter Fuel Payments generated an additional 60,000 claims to Pension Credit and the average payout was £3,900. It can safely be reckoned once additional staff processing costs are factored in that the result of all this “cost-cutting” has been an increase in costs to taxpayers. Deliberately so or just Rachel from complaints’ incompetence?
These days my money is always on deliberate
And I agree tof. This was just another way of increasing the Benefit bill because Kneel’s job is to declare the country bankrupt at some point.
Fiddling around with little amounts of money and denying old people some respite from extortionate fuel bills all caused by the silly planet savers and their phony NET ZERO which is costing us all 1.4 TRILLION. —–Just think what could be done with that money instead of pissing it all down the eco socialist drain.
Why has the bar been set so high? They’ve lurched from people (say) earning maybe around the personal tax allowance of £12.5k to £35k. Anyone on £35k a year doesn’t need the WFA???
Many agreed that not everyone should have the WFA benefit but that the bar was too low. Now it’s way too high.
They’re lurching from one side to another it seems without any plan.
“They’re lurching from one side to another it seems without any plan.”
This is what you are expected to think. The reality is that the whole pantomime is carefully choreographed.
I mean, I do know that sorting all this crap out is damn hard work. My head just spins thinking about one issue, let alone trying to tie the entire mess together into a coherent plan. I almost found myself saying “You need a model for this” but then remembered what mess they got us into in 2020. But Shirley, there must be answer otherwise we’re screwed.
Then Harry Sheldon from Foundation popped into my head. Wonder if that’s where Ferguson got his ideas from?
Since removing the Winter Fuel payment last year prompted many pensioners to apply for Pension Top Up who previously hadn’t bothered/realised they might qualify, I doubt if the changed policy is going to save them any money.
I will now get the reinstated Winter Fuel payment since I’m below the income threshold, but it will simply increase my tax bill because my income is considerably above the Tax Allowance.
So they give with one hand and claw some back with the other.
No doubt they will add it to state pension paid gross, and leaving it to the HMRC to chop down the income tax allowance so as to claw it back that way. It might end up as clawing it back in arrears, like paying tax on taxable gross interest received the previous year. If that happens, it would be like a short term loan.
It sounds stupid, but could be the cheapest approach, rather than having to employ loads more to work out who is eligible for it. After all, it’s a small chunk per head compared with the cost of running an organisation specifically to manage it.
The cheapest approach would be to keep things simple. Either pay it to all pensioners or pay it to nobody and increase Pension Credit by £4-£6 per week. Instead vast amounts of money will be swallowed up to pay admin staff to manage a stupid system rather than using the money to help those who need it.
What a dreadful human being this woman is. —-A complete charlatan and imposter.
The trouble is with this is that applying any form of limit to who gets the payment will outstrip any savings that would be made from limiting the payment. The choice is pay everyone or pay nobody.