I think pretty much everyone agrees with that - the issue is not really means testing

Although i also quite like the argument that it should remain universal but be a taxable benefit which is perhaps more straight forward.

We all know pensioners who get it but don't need it and are happy not to get it.

What is a bit bizarre is that labour has chosen to make the threshold so low, causing themselves unnecessary harm in the process, when it would have been very straight forward to, for example, just say anyone with income of less than £20,000 or £25,000 should no longer get it.

The problem is that not that many pensioners voted labour so they will have calculated the risk to their core vote over this and some amongst the leadership think all pensioners are "rich" so don't mind a bit of collateral damage if they deny the "rich" a benefit they don't really need.

Posted By: Jim, Sep 11, 10:18:33