Too Early To Call...

My take on the subject of the controversy surrounding The Winter Fuel Allowance [UK] issue remains that Gordon Brown’s annual distribution of extra cash sums to pensioners, which was instituted in 1997 [cf my post of September 12th] was less an entitlement or benefit than a regularised ex gratia payment in nature, in the gift and at the whim of a 'benevolent' government. This has over time been subsumed in the minds of the public and media into the now widely accepted view that the State Pension is a benefit. I repeat that it is no such thing. As I frequently am at pains to point out, it is a contributory entitlement, nothing more, nothing less; unlike the Winter Fuel Allowance, which was just an expedient backhander to plug a gap in pensions at the time, which inadvertently changed the narrative surrounding the nature of the entitlements. I understand the internal logic of separating the payment away from the core pension as a wholly means-tested benefit; but unless [and hopefully there is] a planned readjustment of pension payments themselves soon in the offing, I disagree wholeheartedly with the modus operandi at play. Whether this separation of the annual payment from the non-means-tested pension will mutate into a more sensible pensions policy and improved rate of remuneration remains to be seen, but I do think it was an ill-advised move against the wrong target, especially in the very early days of a parliament and with winter itself approaching.

I would prefer that they take out the 'grace and favour’ element altogether once and for all, and replace it with higher rates of pension across the board in the first place, and that those with extra requirements who need further assistance would come under the umbrella of a newly invigorated and expanded welfare state; integrating the care system with the NHS at core level, and starting at General Practice and District Health Care level. This will take at least a decade - more like a full generation - to achieve, at no mean cost. Given that the Welfare State has been almost completely destroyed by the Tories, this will also be no simple task; and Starmer is right when he says that throwing good money after bad at the NHS is not an option: neither is reducing management numbers: most insiders would argue that there are too few at present to cope with the demands placed on them: however, the issue is rather one of the quality of those managers and the extant praxis they embody. What will be required absolutely is a complete change to the governance of the health and care system, reducing outsourcing and privatisation to as close to zero as possible, removing false and arbitrary targets that are open to abuse by bad managers covering their shortcomings with paper-trails of tick-boxes; and ensuring that decision-making is clinically led at all levels, rather allowing the bottom line to hold sway over patient treatment and welfare. It will take much time and much money to achieve this, and the road will not be an easy one by any means…