Means test pensions?

[Diasi]

I like Diasi's suggestion of linking the freebie to Pension Credit. Makes sense to me.

I hope you don't think I'd suggest or support such a move. As fortyone said, I copied & quoted the the article from the BBC website link that he posted.
 
The only sense it makes is for people not to save or to make any provision for their old age.

If the free TV licence scheme is too expensive, it should be stopped for everyone.

If it happens it'll be the thin end of the wedge as the precedent to make all pensioner related payments means-tested.

[brian54]

They should cut state benefits for people who have not bothered to save for a pension and leave people who have saved alone.

[fortyone]

[Diasi]

They should cut state benefits for people who have not bothered to save for a pension and leave people who have saved alone.

Of course the flip side is to keep giving everything on a means-tested basis & end up with a generation where no one has saved or made any provision for their old age.

[Ashy]

If they stopped throwing money at the eu and foreign dictators they could pay for it several times over.

[Ashy]

Of course the flip side is to keep giving everything on a means-tested basis & end up with a generation where no one has saved or made any provision for their old age.

Or they have found a way to pass the means test.

[fortyone]

I reckon that's why they change the notes every so often. £20s next folks. Time to unstuff the mattress unless you preferred £50s but they are often a bugger to change.

[crabbyob]

if you dont pay for sky you cant receive it
how many might be broken-hearted NOT to receive the one eyed news we get from the BBC... stick the licence and the whole old boys club as far up as it can go..

[Ashy]

I think we had a petition last year to abolish the BBC. No harm in trying.

[prestbury]

My thought on this.

The IMF report is pointing the finger at the UK. Surely cost of pensions is rising in most 1st world countries, therefore has the IMF commented on the pensions in such countries which generally far exceed UK pensions.

With regard to other pensioners so called 'perks'
Television licences for the over 75's should be means tested in some way or just issued to holders of pension credit.WFA again should only go to those on pension credit as should free bus passes.

I found it embarrassing when I qualified for both bus pass and WFA at 60 when I was working in a well paid job until retirement at 65. Of course I could have refused them but Isuspect I would have  been one on my own.
The WFA just goes on wine, women and song. Anything left gets wasted.

[crabbyob]

then again we could just tighten up the tax laws so the self employed paid what the tax-law says they should pay...

[Diasi]

My thought on this.

The IMF report is pointing the finger at the UK. Surely cost of pensions is rising in most 1st world countries, therefore has the IMF commented on the pensions in such countries which generally far exceed UK pensions.

With regard to other pensioners so called 'perks'
Television licences for the over 75's should be means tested in some way or just issued to holders of pension credit.WFA again should only go to those on pension credit as should free bus passes.

I found it embarrassing when I qualified for both bus pass and WFA at 60 when I was working in a well paid job until retirement at 65. Of course I could have refused them but Isuspect I would have  been one on my own.
The WFA just goes on wine, women and song. Anything left gets wasted.

I certainly wouldn't miss the WFA or free TV licence or the bus pass which I don't use, but that doesn't entitle me to suggest they should be means-tested.
 
Your view is quite valid if everyone not in receipt of Pension Credit was loaded.

Your view fails on the fact that a person can miss out on Pension Credit by being £10 over the limit so that £10 would cost them £200 WFA, £145 TV licence & whatever the value of the bus pass is.

[brian54]

then again we could just tighten up the tax laws so the self employed paid what the tax-law says they should pay...

Builders are the worst for not paying tax and several I have come across don't pay in to a pension.

[Ashy]

So long as our government hands out billions to third world dictators and tens of billions to the 29th Parasite Regiment I think older people and pensioners should be left alone and helped where possible.

Also I get the feeling that local councils don't know what to waste it on next with their pavement nibs, community murals, one-way schemes, cycle sheds, tiled road  junctions and the like, whilst the pavements are like a skating rink because of the leaves that have come off their trees.

[fortyone]

The bus pass actually costs nothing. If there is going to be regular public transport which all governments insist is the case it needs subsidising or the service levels and prices would mean it was unusable. If you look at passengers on most off peak busses about 80% or more are using bus passes. If there were no free passes then most of those passengers wouldn't be on the bus and a subsidy would be needed to make up the shortfall. It costs virtually the same to run a bus with no passengers as a full one.