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frankenbike
@Maj
labour has had their heart set on this policy for a decade in one fashion or another, so it's no wonder it's one of the ones we get to hear before the budget, as it's really unrelated to any of the current balancing. they tend to love a lil' means testing which usually cuts accross most peoples interests but with old people we tend to get excited by what it feels like to weild the misery axe rather than be under it.
in the current day the policy saves 1.5 billion. even if you want to claim back winter fuel payments from scrooge mcduck pensioners who are scrounging them, you can do it in inheratance taxation and general asset/capital taxes from end of life transactions. netting you way more than money saved here. you could even use the fuel allowance bung as political cover in doing that.
doing this of course would annoy the actually wealthy people, as well as industry who'd have a lot more to lose than a retired woman who maybe won't take the extra trip to the south of france this year. you also miss out on the the greater treat of this policy, as with all means testing policy. that is, creating "winners" and "losers" in state funding to better divide voting blocks into in and out groups. in turn building conesent, or silencing criticism, for wider reductions in state benefits or investment.