Chancellor statement

[Blackcat1]

They live in a dream world

[XWP29]

Evening standard and from my 85 year old uncle!

From January 2024

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politic ... 30694.html

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has said the cost of living crisis has left her “increasingly short” financially, despite her £86,000 a year salary.

'The Labour MP has said she “winces” at her bank balance each month with her mortgage, gas, electricity and food bills all adding up

She made the confession during an interview on Friday when she announced that her party would fight to allow people to have greater financial freedom and pay less in bills. '

"Whether it's the mortgage, or the gas and electricity bills, the weekly shop, or all of the money we all spend over Christmas, it is putting a huge toll on family finances and I think very few people are not feeling the effects of that today.”

Ms Reeves earns £86,584 a year in basic salary from being an MP but would be on closer to £150,000 if Labour was to get into power and she was to become chancellor.

“I'd like people to have more of their own money in their pockets to spend in the way they choose,” she told GB News. “To do that in a way that's affordable, sustainable and fair you've got to grow the economy.”

I am not 100% sure but I think she is lacking empathy!

"She should try it on the basic state pension " says my uncle Ken !


(Oh ! It's not only Tory MPs who make errors of judgement

Labour MP Lauren Edwards made one of the most contemptible errors of judgement on so many levels )

RR politicians huh!
Maybe they’ve listened to this academic since that publication?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... servatives

[EGDR]

My mum and mum in law both got the payment when they were alive, they didn't need it and gave it to the grandkids. Its an automatic payment to all pensioners as I understand it, perhaps if they made it a benefit that has to be claimed it would cut down a lot of payments as those like some on here wouldn't claim it as they don't need it. The problems start with means testing and all the admin and associated costs that go with it. Limiting it to pensioners who are on additional benefits (again if I've understood correctly) is a straightforward process, is there an appeal process if you lose the winter payment?

Essentially the winter fuel payment was originally designed as something that would have been means tested, but in the early 2000s the infrastructure for all of that means testing and keeping track of incomes did not exist in anywhere close to the way it does now. So implementing the means testing would have cost more than simply paying it to everyone. Now, however, with pension credit, and a much more unified and computerized DWP system all of the means testing data already exists and does not incur the additional cost that made it uneconomical to begin with.

[XWP29]

My mum and mum in law both got the payment when they were alive, they didn't need it and gave it to the grandkids. Its an automatic payment to all pensioners as I understand it, perhaps if they made it a benefit that has to be claimed it would cut down a lot of payments as those like some on here wouldn't claim it as they don't need it. The problems start with means testing and all the admin and associated costs that go with it. Limiting it to pensioners who are on additional benefits (again if I've understood correctly) is a straightforward process, is there an appeal process if you lose the winter payment?

Essentially the winter fuel payment was originally designed as something that would have been means tested, but in the early 2000s the infrastructure for all of that means testing and keeping track of incomes did not exist in anywhere close to the way it does now. So implementing the means testing would have cost more than simply paying it to everyone. Now, however, with pension credit, and a much more unified and computerized DWP system all of the means testing data already exists and does not incur the additional cost that made it uneconomical to begin with.

Interesting, can you provide a link where this a fact, reason I ask is I read a newspaper report recently saying that the DWP/SS computer system still cannot cope with this and that’s the reason that eligible pensioners still have to claim.

[EGDR]

Interesting, can you provide a link where this a fact, reason I ask is I read a newspaper report recently saying that the DWP/SS computer system still cannot cope with this and that’s the reason that eligible pensioners still have to claim.

Something along these lines was mentioned by a previous Conservative minister in the DWP, whether his thoughts are entirely accurate or not I'm not sure.

Pension Credit is the main qualifier for the WFP. Pension Credit itself did not exist in 1997, when the WFP was introduced. When those who are eligible apply now, all they'll need to do is demonstrate that they're in receipt of one of these qualifying benefits. When the WFP was introduced most of these did not exist so there was nothing on any system to provide a quick eligibility check, every pensioner would have had to submit their financial accounts and prove their financial need for the WFP, which would've taken a significant amount of money to process.

If I remember correctly, Alastair Campbell spoke about the WFP originally intending to be means tested in an interview several weeks back, but I'm not sure of which interview it was.

[iainpeden]

Stuff what the chancellor gets paid; Farage gets over £1m a year for his GB News work - in addition to his MP salary.

[Pune]

Stuff what the chancellor gets paid; Farage gets over £1m a year for his GB News work - in addition to his MP salary.

Hope he pays his fair share of tax

[Hurn]

Stuff what the chancellor gets paid; Farage gets over £1m a year for his GB News work - in addition to his MP salary.

Farage was already doing GB News and other things before he went back to being an MP, so he's just openly made his earnings clear.

You can hardly blame the bloke for making a living while he was out of Politics.

[plmc135]

Farage had not been an MP prior to the latest General Election.

[Hurn]

Yes my mistake, shouldn't have said 'MP', although the point was he was earning his money away from politics, so it's hardly fair to start getting angry over what his earnings have been since then.

[baz1]

Farage had not been an MP prior to the latest General Election.

formally MEP

[Mike Bridge]

And i believe Farage is on a £70k per annum pension from the EU. an organisation he says he hates

[Hurn]

I believe he's still a few years away from getting any EU pension.

[baz1]

it will soon be Budget time i would think all the labour voters can't wait to hear what benefits are in store for them? i have just come to the conclusion what means tested benefits actually is it is a means of testing someone to see how mean they can be treated!? just been reading some interesting articles, Keir Starmer accepted £20,000 from Lord Alli for Glasses and Suits and since the 2019 General Election more then almost any other MP Starmer accepted £76,000 worth of entertainment/clothes and freebies from UK doners now the question is what are your benefits going to be for those who voted labour

[James Cutting]

As a Labour voter, I know I won't be getting any benefits because I don't claim them, pretty naff statement.

What about all the donations the Tories got, well in to the millions, and the millions wasted on PPE during COVID? Never batted an eyelid then. There will be tough tax hikes for most, seeing as they need to recover the billions thrown away before them this year. But when this happened for the past 14 years, it rarely got a mention. Constantly taking donations. But it's okay, it wasn't Labour that did it.

Just find it quite funny, how Labour have done similar to Tories and everyone is up in arms about it, but were silent as a mouse beforehand. Can't have your cake and eat it. They are all as bad as each other, no matter what muppet we have.