Dispelling the myth

COVER's editor, Paul Robertson, is relishing the Government bashing kiddies and grannies.

Clouds and their linings have crept onto the agenda again. Today the coalition government has announced that child benefit and the pensioner's winter fuel allowance are in the frame for doing their bit in reducing the welfare bill.

Either ending or means testing these two is going to get the attention of a few people who would have had a more nonchalant attitude to other benefit cuts, such as the Employment and Support Allowance or Incapacity Benefit.

While an "I'll be alright" attitude prevails for many of us in unemployment or sickness terms, kids and grannies are a different matter.

We are now going to be treated to opposition images of blue cheeked pensioners calculating whether they can feed the moggie or put another bar on the fire (do people still have those?) or single mothers getting really good cheekbones as they forgo lunch in order to feed the little one.

This is a good thing.

These benefits are universal, so really should have come into the frame a lot earlier. I suspect that Cameron stating explicitly that winter fuel allowance would not be cut in an argument with Gordon Brown pre-election had something to do with it - 100 days is obviously the Government's estimate of our memory span, which is something to bear in mind for future announcements.

Never the less it's all grist to our mill in getting over one of the greatest barriers to people taking a responsible position on their financial protection. Disproving the false belief that there is a meaningful state safety net is exactly what the protection market needs.

It's not the poor labouring under this misapprehension, nor the wealthy, who can survive on their own resources. It's the middle ground who form the bulk of protection's likely market that are going to benefit most from the over-emotive arguments we are all going to be treated to over the next few days.