The government’s attack on pensioners last year threw up some interesting issues. Readers will remember that they slashed winter fuel payments to all but the neediest pensioners, just as we headed into the winter period.
This was cruel. All of us suffer from high fuel prices here in the UK, mainly due to choices made by this government. Each of us pays a cost, for example, for green subsidies. But how many of knew that the government paid around £1.3 billion last year to stop green energy suppliers deliver electricity to our homes? Incredible though it sounds, because the wind was in the wrong part of the grid, the government compensated the producers by paying for undelivered power. No wonder they needed to raid pensioners £300 per year help with energy bills.
To be fair, some pensioners do very well. Having put more money aside for their retirement, and saving more, some pensioners pay higher tax rates. There is an argument that they, perhaps, don’t need the extra £300.
But the government, when they hit all but the poorest pensioners, threw up a peculiar anomaly. The government decided that the benchmark by which poor pensioners were defined was by who was receiving pension credit, and who was not.
The criteria is simple enough. If you receive, as an individual, less than £227.10 per week income, £346.60 as a couple, you can claim pension credit.
But the surprise to the government (after they made the announcement, obviously) was that around 800,000 pensioners were eligible for pension credit, but did not claim it.
So, many pensioners who were eligible subsequently applied and that number dropped, but only by around 100,000. Of course, this government then performed their signature screeching U-turn so now pensioners below the higher tax rates all receive the winter fuel allowance. The net effect has been an increase in the overall costs to us all.
But the saddest outcome of all this is that there are still 700,000 pensioner households who are entitled to pension credit but are not claiming it. These households could be claiming at extra £2,100 a year.
Pensioners have a specific problem. They are in a far worse position to be able to adapt quickly to changing circumstances. We have a difficult budget coming up and it is right that pensioners receive what they are owed – especially when there may be new ways the government can raid their savings.
