Do you want to discuss boring politics? (50 Viewers)

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MalcSB

MalcSB

Well-Known Member
wingy said:
It's actually surprising to me that it wasn't available to them previously TBF?
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Before they came in to power, Rachel Reeves was saying everything is so open book that they wouldn’t be able to claim not to know the financial position . Get in to power and there is suddenly a black hole (well, after agreeing huge pay rises for train drivers etc). There advisors should surely have told them this would be the comsequence. It will be interesting when the sums are finally done to see what the net take for the treasury actually is. Same with the winter fuel allowance with hypothermic pensioners blocking hospital beds and consequently A&E and ambulances at huge cost to the NHS and social services.
 
shmmeee

shmmeee

Well-Known Member
MalcSB said:
Before they came in to power, Rachel Reeves was saying everything is so open book that they wouldn’t be able to claim not to know the financial position . Get in to power and there is suddenly a black hole (well, after agreeing huge pay rises for train drivers etc). There advisors should surely have told them this would be the comsequence. It will be interesting when the sums are finally done to see what the net take for the treasury actually is. Same with the winter fuel allowance with hypothermic pensioners blocking hospital beds and consequently A&E and ambulances at huge cost to the NHS and social services.
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I dunno this is the claim for everything now. Cutting it actually costs money, whether it’s tax breaks or free hamster coats for the homeless. They can’t all be true or the best thing would be zero tax and limitless spending.
 
fernandopartridge

fernandopartridge

Well-Known Member
shmmeee said:
I dunno this is the claim for everything now. Cutting it actually costs money, whether it’s tax breaks or free hamster coats for the homeless. They can’t all be true or the best thing would be zero tax and limitless spending.
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Cutting the WFA I'm fairly sure will have a net financial benefit some way below the headline saving, but will still be a saving in cash terms if a massive massive waste in political terms.

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MalcSB

MalcSB

Well-Known Member
fernandopartridge said:
Cutting the WFA I'm fairly sure will have a net financial benefit some way below the headline saving, but will still be a saving in cash terms if a massive massive waste in political terms.

Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk
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I guess that will depend how many eligible people claim the pension credit, as encouraged by the Government. Only 249 questions to answer, but there are supposedly 880,000 eligible who do not claim, the average claim being £3,900 per year. If they all claimed it would cost £3.4 billion per year. Therefore it would take less than half those eligible to wipe out the “saving”..

Add in the NHS costs referred to accrued by those just outside the pension credit eligibility - a poorly thought out policy. No surprise there though. Competent - my arse.

The number of excess deaths this winter will make for another interesting calculation.

Edit. Forgot to add in that those 880,000 pension credit eligible pensioners would also get the winter fuel allowance, adding £264m to the bill. Age UK need to have a drive to support applications, it’s the sort of thing my wife used to do (and brilliant at it) when she worked for them.
 
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chiefdave

chiefdave

Well-Known Member
MalcSB said:
I guess that will depend how many eligible people claim the pension credit, as encouraged by the Government. Only 249 questions to answer, but there are supposedly 880,000 eligible who do not claim, the average claim being £3,900 per year. If they all claimed it would cost £3.4 billion per year. Therefore it would take less than half those eligible to wipe out the “saving”..

Add in the NHS costs referred to accrued by those just outside the pension credit eligibility - a poorly thought out policy. No surprise there though. Competent - my arse.

The number of excess deaths this winter will make for another interesting calculation.

Edit. Forgot to add in that those 880,000 pension credit eligible pensioners would also get the winter fuel allowance, adding £264m to the bill. Age UK need to have a drive to support applications, it’s the sort of thing my wife used to do (and brilliant at it) when she worked for them.
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Latest figures I can find are from 2 weeks ago and at that point 40K had signed up for pension credit since they announced they would no longer give WFP.

The application process is needlessly overcomplicated and IMO could easily be automated. Clearly they know how much you are receiving even if it's a private pension. I had to do some stuff for my Dad and without me telling them the person from the council I was dealing with had all the details of his private pension including when and how much payments were.

Any time you have to deal with any sort of benefit you're just left thinking the cost of all the needless administration must be huge, probably a bigger cost than a lot of the actual payouts.
 
B

Brighton Sky Blue

Well-Known Member
chiefdave said:
Latest figures I can find are from 2 weeks ago and at that point 40K had signed up for pension credit since they announced they would no longer give WFP.

The application process is needlessly overcomplicated and IMO could easily be automated. Clearly they know how much you are receiving even if it's a private pension. I had to do some stuff for my Dad and without me telling them the person from the council I was dealing with had all the details of his private pension including when and how much payments were.

Any time you have to deal with any sort of benefit you're just left thinking the cost of all the needless administration must be huge, probably a bigger cost than a lot of the actual payouts.
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Unless it’s a universal benefit of course.
 
chiefdave

chiefdave

Well-Known Member
Brighton Sky Blue said:
Unless it’s a universal benefit of course.
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It's kind of funny to see some of these arguments as they're basically making the same argument that is made for universal basic income.

Pretty sure those on the right of the political spectrum who are arguing against withdrawing WFP would be up in arms if Starmer or Reeves suggested bringing UBI in.
 
B

Brighton Sky Blue

Well-Known Member
chiefdave said:
It's kind of funny to see some of these arguments as they're basically making the same argument that is made for universal basic income.

Pretty sure those on the right of the political spectrum who are arguing against withdrawing WFP would be up in arms if Starmer or Reeves suggested bringing UBI in.
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The most common seems to be ‘why should a millionaire get a payment they don’t need’ instead of ‘why should a pensioner not get a payment they do need because of beauracracy’.

Besides, nothing currently stops millionaires using NHS services, they just don’t need them.
 
MalcSB

MalcSB

Well-Known Member
Brighton Sky Blue said:
The most common seems to be ‘why should a millionaire get a payment they don’t need’ instead of ‘why should a pensioner not get a payment they do need because of beauracracy’.

Besides, nothing currently stops millionaires using NHS services, they just don’t need them.
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The have paid for them though, the same as those using private education are paying twice.
 
MalcSB

MalcSB

Well-Known Member
chiefdave said:
Latest figures I can find are from 2 weeks ago and at that point 40K had signed up for pension credit since they announced they would no longer give WFP.

The application process is needlessly overcomplicated and IMO could easily be automated. Clearly they know how much you are receiving even if it's a private pension. I had to do some stuff for my Dad and without me telling them the person from the council I was dealing with had all the details of his private pension including when and how much payments were.

Any time you have to deal with any sort of benefit you're just left thinking the cost of all the needless administration must be huge, probably a bigger cost than a lot of the actual payouts.
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There’s £168million to knock off the “savings” already.
 
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W

wingy

Well-Known Member
www.bbc.co.uk

Mortgage rates unlikely to return to low levels, says Lloyds boss - BBC News

The boss of the UK's biggest lender says mortgage costs are unlikely to fall to levels seen in the past decade.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

A signal to the future maybe,more to the end of the article meta seems to be saying it's the banks own fault for not sharing info with them to prevent the fraud that is committed on their platforms, couldn't make it up could you then they can get involved in emptying your account tout suite!
 
MalcSB

MalcSB

Well-Known Member
wingy said:
www.bbc.co.uk

Mortgage rates unlikely to return to low levels, says Lloyds boss - BBC News

The boss of the UK's biggest lender says mortgage costs are unlikely to fall to levels seen in the past decade.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

A signal to the future maybe,more to the end of the article meta seems to be saying it's the banks own fault for not sharing info with them to prevent the fraud that is committed on their platforms, couldn't make it up could you then they can get involved in emptying your account tout suite!
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Two interesting articles, first describing how bad Revolut is in terms of reimbursing fraud victims and the second Revolut expecting Meta to help reimburse victims

www.theguardian.com

I’m a victim of scammers. But Revolut says ‘no’ to a refund

The company seems to hold me entirely responsible for the fact £40,000 was stolen
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

 
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shmmeee

shmmeee

Well-Known Member
Reading more on Ozempic. Curious as to whether those who are against are also against nicotine replacement therapy for quitting smoking? The morally upstanding method is only cold turkey surely?
 
MalcSB

MalcSB

Well-Known Member
chiefdave said:
is this more PFI seeing as it worked so brilliantly in the past 🤦‍♂️
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I’m not sure how it can be PFI as such as the water companies are private companies - who should be making the investments themselves rather than paying huge dividends to shareholders.
 
W

wingy

Well-Known Member
shmmeee said:
Reading more on Ozempic. Curious as to whether those who are against are also against nicotine replacement therapy for quitting smoking? The morally upstanding method is only cold turkey surely?
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Oh yes I've done it thanks 13 yrs and now,any other questions?
 
W

wingy

Well-Known Member
Locally the council has had to close the, not sure charity that is around to advise people of their benefits rights, making huge apologies , not sure how sincere y, meanwhile Tim Sawdon seemed suggest that if people haven't got the means they should go without , not sure that applies to water, good job they haven't privatised the mixture they call air nowadays!
 
Sky Blue Pete

Sky Blue Pete

Well-Known Member
wingy said:
Locally the council has had to close the, not sure charity that is around to advise people of their benefits rights, making huge apologies , not sure how sincere y, meanwhile Tim Sawdon seemed suggest that if people haven't got the means they should go without , not sure that applies to water, good job they haven't privatised the mixture they call air nowadays!
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Whorton hears a who
 
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