Nail on the head.
Part of the problem here might be in perception. The word ‘pensioner’ makes people think of little old men and women shivering in draughty terraced houses. You should see the pensioners round where I live.
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I don’t disagree about the goals, but my main issue is that their entire approach to this has been a mess. They could have sold it in particular as a holistic plan to try to improve take-up of welfare programmes while means-testing government aid in general.
But they didn’t. Instead, they made a lot of noise about how it would help plug the fiscal hole left behind by the previous government. Not only is that pitch not being accepted by the population they’re trying to convince, it also is a very short-sighted view.
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Either way, that doesn’t fit the whole narrative about the fiscal hole that they keep trying to sell. That’s why I’m saying they’ve made a complete mess out of this.
Yes and no. I agree they have made a mess of it. But without that hole it could be argued that the government would have found the additional funds for the most vulnerable pensioners without saving money through means testing the winter fuel allowance so overall costs would increase by £1.4bn rather than stay the same overall.
i cant comment with any authority on the UK but the problem in Aus with all these energy bonus’ etc etc, is not that the end user gets a bit of relief, its that they shouldnt need it, way too much wastage of monopolised public money…
it truely is just a massive transfer of wealth from public to private…with the biggest insult being they give it to us first and act like its doing us a favour
Haven’t seen a mic drop like this since Seth Meyers at the Correspondents’ Dinner…
Donald Trump says he’s a friend of the blacks, but unless ‘the Blacks’ are a family of white people, I bet he’s mistaken.
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Knowing that the UK is run by the Tory press, Labour needed to play this perfectly to come out of it positively.
The thing is, DWP have been pushing to close the pension credit gap since 1st September.
I don’t recall when the Reeves announcement of the WFP first came out, but I doubt the pension credit push by DWP happened overnight and probably is weeks in the making. So unless Reeves got the question about WFP before she was ready to announce, Labour probably should have got ahead with the pension credit story first before announcing the changes to WFP.
They have been pushing to close the clap for at least several years. I think the WFP announcement just gives it better attention now.
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Ok. I thought it might have been a change proposed by Labour.
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It’s not beneath them, it’s above them.
That run down flat now costs more than the end goal used to
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What do you mean? Is the amount of the winter fuel allowance changing? I’m confused here.
One sitting Labour MP, Jon Trickett, voted for the Conservative motion opposing the cut.
A further five independent MPs also backed the Tories - John McDonnell, Apsana Begum, Richard Burgon, Ian Byrne and Zarah Sultana.
A total of 53 Labour MPs didn’t vote in today’s motion - including Cabinet minister Hilary Benn and veteran Labour MP Diane Abbott.
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Gutless self preserving twats.
But not all politicians are the same 
That’s five Labour MPs who backed retaining a benefit for people who absolutely don’t need it. Well done boys. Good process. 
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I’m finding it exasperating how fucking stupid the left is being, including large swathes of the Labour Party, over the Winter Fuel Payments.
They seem to have fallen into the trap of thinking that all benefits are good and any benefit cut is a betrayal of socialist principles.
Not when it’s funnelling money to people who don’t need it.
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I think it’s worth noting that the principle is very different from the implementation. I think only 66% of eligible people were claiming pension credit. In some cases, some people are ineligible to do so, but are living in situations where heating costs can be really high. It’s not hard to see how this could tip some over the edge into having to choose between food and heating.
You never had Conservative MPs abstain.
Ever.
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They have a system of pairing off, so that if an MP has a prior engagement then they will be allowed to miss a vote if an opposition MP is also missing.
Given the size of Labour’s majority, it is possibly difficult to find pairs, but also less necessary.
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