Labour’s raid on winter fuel payments has already cost the taxpayer £380m after a surge in benefits claims, analysts have warned, substantially eating into the £1.4 billion saving claimed by Chancellor Rachel Reeves. The Telegraph has the story.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves claimed in July that stripping the winter fuel allowance from some 10 million pensioners would save £1.4 billion a year, citing a £22 billion “black hole” in the public finances.
But analysis suggests a surge in pension credit claims following the Chancellor’s announcement has already wiped out the higher benefits bill budgeted for by the Treasury.
Last year, the Government paid out £5.5 billion in pension credit to 1.35 million households, which Sir Steve Webb, former Pensions Minister, said would make a “dent” in the revenue from the winter fuel raid.
But the furore around Labour’s decision to restrict winter fuel payments to only those in receipt of pension credit spurred thousands of retirees to claim the benefit for the first time.
Mel Stride, the Shadow Chancellor, told the Telegraph: “Labour’s approach to the increased poverty it is creating is to encourage more pensioners to apply for pension credit. But that is substantially eroding the savings.”
Since Ms. Reeves’s announcement in July, claims to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) surged to an average of around 9,500 a week, compared to a previous level of 4,000, according to DWP figures.
Sir Steve, now a partner at pension consultants LCP, said the previous level of activity kept the pension credit caseload stable, balanced by an inflow of new claimants and an outflow of pensioners dying.
He added: “There is no doubt that the surge in applications for pension credit will reduce the savings from this policy, potentially costing the Government more than £200 million per year in benefits for pensioners.
“But even allowing for this cost, the Chancellor will still see a meaningful saving from taking winter fuel payments away from around 10 million pensioners”.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) budgeted for an additional 95,000 claims in the financial year, assuming an average annual cost per pensioner of £3,800.
It anticipated a surge in applications triggered by the announcement would cost £370 million a year, but analysts Policy in Practice said Labour had not accounted for so-called ‘passported benefits’ linked to pension credit, such as council tax support and free prescriptions.
The company said the true average cost for a pensioner is likely to be £6,800 a year, and that Labour had therefore already spent £388 million on additional benefits. Any further claims in 2025, it said, would eat into the £1.4 billion of savings claimed by Ms. Reeves.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Twenty Labour councillors have quit the party and formed an independent group, accusing Sir Keir Starmer of “abandoning traditional party values”, citing concerns including the decision to strip 10 million pensioners of their winter fuel payments and proposals that would create new “mega councils”. The decision of the councillors on Broxtowe Borough Council in Nottinghamshire means Labour has lost control of the council, with its number of councillors down to six from 26.
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The good news is that these signatories have had the balls to challenge the government and PayPal, the sad news is that their are relatively few of them.
The non-signatories can hang their heads in shame for their cowardice.
Over to you Liz.
Good morning my fellow Sceptics.
Morning, one and all.
The fight continues. It spreads into everything. Shows what we’re up against, and that we are onto them and their lies and corruption.
PS Never-in-a-Month-of-Sundays did I think I’d say this (let alone write it here under my name), but 911 was a put-up job. Better late than never, eh?!
Yes, I only realised this about 9/11 in the last year, having had my eyes opened generally during the Covid thing I became able to see the evidence clearly, 21 years after the event! Am in awe of the people who’ve managed to keep spreading the word for so long.
James Corbett has recently released the third part of his excellent False Flags documentary, centred on 911. Part 1 is here:
https://www.corbettreport.com/interview-1744-false-flags-watch-along-part-1/
You can find parts 2 and 3 later on his site.
It goes back much further than 9/11. The keystone was the arrival of Benjamin D’israeli into British politics. The type of politics we have now began with him – and it was he who helped launch the Rothschild empire, integrating it into British politics.
Think twice about what you were taught in school about the world wars – you were reading the victor’s version of history.
I like to go back to my 1906 encyclopaedia where possible. Any particular aspect of history? And do I need an earlier or alternative source?
Everyone had better get on to the 911 false flag.
It is the keystone to awakening. It’s incredibly obvious yet causes normie to Gale their eyes at you when you tell them to look at any number of “problems” with the story, like building 7.
I literally had this happen at dinner last night.
Do you know that September was originally month seven in the Roman calendar? It’s believed that the twin towers represented one and one, and building seven was actually number nine. 911 – or, September 11th.
Next you’ll be telling us OCTober was the 8th month.
Mockery is the sincerest form of flattery. In the time you spent writing your comment, you could have checked for yourself. September was originally the seventh month in the Roman calendar.
my point was that the clue is in the name. SEPT=7, OCT=8, NOV=9, DEC=10
It’s illegal. Please stop smoking it.
I have it on good authority that all the people who allegedly died are actually alive on a Pacific island, living in a sort of witness protection programme with rather splendid accommodation prepared months in advance, and protected by the US Marshal Service.
A very welcome development …. but only 42 members of Parliament out of 650 MPs and 800+ members of the House of Frauds is disappointing.
It demonstrates how little regard the vast majority have for democracy and free speech.
You only get a true measure of organisations such as PayPal when they overplay their hand. We can now see exactly how truly hideous they are.
Or how supine and spineless they are. Not sure which is worse.
An important point. This has only been noticed becaus the insidious agenda slithered out of its normally well-hidden pit.
The good news is that now you Pommies have Jacob Rees-Mogg as the relevant minister. The son of the bloke who wrote “Who breaks a butterfly on the wheel?” The tide is turning.
This is gearing up to be a very interesting test of how far the state has been captured by the oligarchy.
On the one hand, this seems like an open and shut case of an intolerable abuse of power that if left to stand sets a chilling precedent that bodes terribly for free speech and liberty.
On the other hand PayPal cannot back down because to do so would be conceding that there are instances that they don’t have a right to shut you off or that their review process is flawed, which opens a massive can of worms.
Now that a significant group of elected representatives has waded in to force the government to address the issue we shall see.
We shall see who the state ultimately stands for. If PayPal is allowed to get away with this and continue in the same way, we’ll know the state is fully captured by the oligarchy. If rules are set so the likes of PayPal aren’t allowed to carry on in this way, we’ll know the state still serves the people at some significant level.
Intriguing.
The FSU is no small fry either.
They have picked a battle with a David that has a bloody big set of sling stones.
Hear! Hear! But PayPal is just one of the Gorgon’s heads. Plenty more needs to be done but it is a start. Policing next…article in DT today interviewing new head of College of Policing – they’ve suddenly realised that they should be getting back to basics, like solving “proper” crimes and avoiding political issues. Who knew???
The State doesn’t like competitors. Paypal might well be thrown to the wolves by the powers that be.
Whilst the declaration from MPs is welcome it’s ruined a bit for me by lockdown fascist Gove being a signatory.
Yes it’s not all that many MPs, but there’s some big-hitters there, and I’m surprised they’ve picked up on this and done anything at all.
Even though it might not seem it I think this country does have a fighting chance of pushing back against the “progressive” corporatist authoritarian groupthink. Truss could turn out to be sounder than Tory leaders of recent memory – that she’s aware of the problem is at least a start.
Someone has to lead the way in sticking up for the values that most people hold dear – truth, fairness, family values and free speech – and it’s probably going to be us – again.
I can’t be the only one who thinks the likes of Gove have put their names to this is because they are desperate to foist a cashless society on us and know that PayPal’s actions in demonstrating the danger it would represent to “dissidents” will make it far harder to achieve.
Looks like Toby Young wasn’t just talking when he said PayPal have “picked on the wrong guy”.
Now I definitely don’t agree with everything Toby Young says, believes or has said. But I’m very grateful to him for setting up LockdownSceptics (now The Daily Sceptic), where his voice – and many others – could be heard. it gave me hope, back in the dark days of lockdown.
And whether I agree with him totally, partially or violently disagree with him on everything is irrelevant anyway: it’s not the point. No-one has the right to shut down legal speech, however much they disagree with what is being said. So, let’s see this campaign get bigger and bigger!
Silver lining: Seemingly this story is everywhere now. There will be people being introduced to the FSU, the DS and UsForThem, who had previously never heard of these organizations through the various press releases. Plus this is good publicity, as it could mean people take pity on the victims of unfair political censorship, increasing public support for them.
It needs to be determined whether PayPal is acting on its own or in collusion with a wider cartel of banks and the payment processing duopoly that is Visa and Mastercard.
Several content creators ran into the same issues with Patreon. After some investigation it was determined that the policies Patreon had in place for certain political content were not its own, but were demanded of it by the credit card payment processors and its banking relationships, without which it could not exist.
The next question one should ask is whether the government can ever be the correct avenue to hold a banking cartel to account. Particularly our government – since it pretty much exists to protect the interests of the Anglo-American world’s banking cartel in the Corporation of London. I’m sure the Remembrancer would have a few words in the Speaker of the Commons’ ear if the conversation strayed into areas the banking cartel wouldn’t like.
Is Trudeau on the Board of PayPal? Just asking.