We did not do impact assessment of winter fuel payment cut, No 10 admits

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/sep/12/no-winter-fuel-payments-impact-assessment-was-carried-out-no-10-admits

Posted by reddit-suave613

23 Comments

  1. That’s okay, I’m sure the data will be in sometime around April/May next year. Maybe you will get it right next year. /s

  2. PrestigiousGlove585 on

    That’s not how it works, that’s part of the process. The assessment is so bad, it’s better to say they did not do one. It has to be …..very bad.

  3. TurbulentBullfrog829 on

    Streeting sounds like an idiot. Firstly saying that pensioners will be better off this winter because of a likely rise in their pensions from *April*. And secondly in the days after a big NHS report where he says the NHS needs to be more preventative rather than just treating people after the fact, he is comfortable admitting that he has no idea whatsoever about how many pensioners may have increased health risks due to this policy. No idea of the impact this treasury decision will have on his department. The mind boggles.

  4. Xenozip3371Alpha on

    Ok… fucking WHY NOT?!?

    Seriously, there are people whose entire fucking job is to check these things, why were they not used.

  5. TravellingMackem on

    I told you all before the election, Labour will somehow find a way to continually be worse than the Tories. This is just the start. Enjoy your car crash.

  6. It was a cheap political play against a demographic they know will not vote for them next time. A full-spectrum impact assessment would have exposed it for what it was.

  7. Silver-Potential-511 on

    They certainly knew what they were doing, that they have introduced a new cliff edge into the benefits system. For the messed up implementation, the Chancellor of the Exchequer knew (or should have) what she was doing. You might as well call her Rachel Thieves or Rachel Freeze.

    They also thought that they could get away with it because they are so called socialists.

  8. Stock_Inspection4444 on

    Pensioners got a £950 increase this year and £450 next year, all well above inflation. Think they’ll be ok

  9. ThewisedomofRGI on

    5 years from now they will be booted out and the next lot of clowns will be voted in. This country nevers learns.

  10. 11M got it – 1M will still get it.

    The argument should have never been about it being means tested (it should). The argument should be where do we draw that line.

    Why is a rich pensioner getting a grant a poor single mum of 3 isn’t? Or a person with a disability so severe they can’t work?

  11. beIIe-and-sebastian on

    Starmer is just the grown up boring technocrat and detail oriented forensic leader we need they said. Turns out he governs with vibes and feels without evidence backing policies.

    Dont ask the question you don’t want the answer to I guess.

  12. Rachel reeves is on video during a parliamentary session in 2014 stating how she is going to remove the WFA from some pensioners and means testing it for the rest, the cut off is 231 pounds a week, the labour party voted for its removal, they’re disgusting and every bit as bad as the tories.

  13. Are impact assessments normally done for this sort of thing? I don’t recall hearing about any assessments when Osborne and Cameron cut everything years ago, nor do I recall anyone kicking off about the lack of assessments either.

  14. You can agree with the policy or not be sympathetic, but christ you have to at least admit the current Starmer regime is just proving everything that has been warned about him.

    He won on the basis that the tories shit the bed, people did not vote labour because they loved labour people voted them cause they hated the tories.

    and now the centerist who has broken promises in the past he made is now just making some of you wake up to his incompetency

  15. Ok_Implement_9947 on

    It is not means testing satisfactorily if just people on pension credit qualify for help with the winter fuel allowance. There are hundreds of thousands who live just above the £13,000 a year cut off point. I can see how this group have the potential to suffer this winter. Taxing the rich would yield money from rich pensioners too. That would be fair but removing help from 10 million pensioners and helping just the 1.5 million of the bottom seems a pretty rough tool. It’s about choices and someone pointed out that thankfully the junior doctors are back at work with their pay rise to look after the elderly this winter should they suffer from the lack of adequate heating or food.

  16. CaterpillarLoud8071 on

    Do they need to? What is the impact assessment going to show for removing a £200 one off payment to people receiving state subsidies of £1000 a month and a rise of £800 a year just a few months ago? How about an impact assessment on the public finances of keeping the triple lock?