To think that £16 tickets for over 60s at the Olympics are unjustified

[Milco]

I've never posted on AIBU before and usually don't get so het up about things, but this is really annoying me!

60+s will be entitled to buy £16 tickets for the games, compared to a cheapest ticket of £20 for a younger adult and a "pay your age" scheme for 16s and under. So for a family to go to the games, it will still be pretty expensive - out of the reach of many I suspect. This seems particularly sad given we won the games on the basis that it would inspire a generation of children/young people to get into sport.

Anyone older than 59 gets a discount. Yet according to this (reliable source I think), pensioners are less likely to be living in low income households than the rest of us, and significantly less likely than children (16% of pensioners vs 30% of children). Quite a few 60+ people aren't even pensioners yet.

The 60+s are the baby boomer generation, who, as has been documented elsewhere, benenfited massively from the post war economic boom, in many ways to the detriment of future generations. They are likely to have very small (if any) mortgage, better pensions than the rest of us will ever get, and few dependents (assuming their poor DCs have managed to get themselves a job/somewhere to live)

I'm sounding like I have a big axe to grind but actually I love my parents and their 60-odd year old friends and I'm comfortably off myself.

BUT it just seems mad that as a country we seem to think that just because you are 60/65+ you need lots of extra support and perks. That would be great if we could afford lots of stuff like that, but we can't.

In the current financial climate it is totally unfair for this generation to have such protection when children and families, and young adults, are taking so many hits. In the case of the tickets, at least start the discount at 70 or 75 years of age. 60 isn't even old!!

There. Rant over. What does everyone else think. Am I being unreasonable?

Yes. The tickets wouldn't be any cheaper for a family even if they let pensioners in for free.

YANBU. My mum lives in Canada and she can't believe the perks that over-60s get here. She thinks the free nationwide bus pass is the most absurd thing ever.

And you're right - 60 is not old!

I can't really understand the rationale for charging over 60's less. TBH it's under 60's who are more likely to have children to pay for so we're having to pay for full price tickets, plus for children. It might be fairer to say if you're also buying tickets for children, you get to pay the reduced adult price (if that makes sense). Surely that would incentivise people to take children along. My DH has been told he's not allowed any time off over the games so he doesen't even have the option of going.

I'm not sure if that's true though, Hocuspontas. I think that the organisers have a target they have to make from ticket sales (to balance their budget overall) so if they could get more 60+s in at, say, £20 a go, they could afford to give more discounts for families (or indeed any other group)

That's my understanding of it, at least.

My mum is over 60 and wouldn't be able to afford to go if there wasn't a discount. But then she doesn't want to go anyway, so I guess I don't really mind about this. I think you're generalising a little too much, but I shall think on it. :)

Yes Taintedpaint, you are right .

There will be lots of 60+s who are not well off. But I can't see the justification for treating them as a generally disadvantaged group, seeing as the stats tell us that they are typically better off (or at least less likely to be in poverty) that everyone else.

Lots of 60 year olds are still working. It should be retirement age for concessions.

YANBU I might get my MIL to buy the tickets and then get her to take the children, if she can fit it in between saga cruises.

Okay, I have thought about it.

I think I stand by what I said. Too much of a generalisation. Elderly people have worked hard for many years (for the most part, although I know I'm generalising myself now ) and they deserve a bit of a treat in the form of a discount.

Out of curiousity, do you feel the same way about disability discounts?

I agree, nymphadora. I don't have any issues giving concession tickets to the retired. But how many 61 year olds are retired?

yanbu for all the reasons you have stated. i know some over 60's who are living on very little and need all teh help they can get, but i doubt tehy would spend £16 anyway on these tickets (teh ones i know anyway) as £16 could get them so much more that tehy actually need. but i also know 60 year olds who still work the same as when they were 40 only their mortgages are now paid off and their dchave grown and left home, got married etc. these 60+ year olds are, compared to your average family, very well off.

Some tickets used to say "un-waged" didn't they? I wonder if that doesn't happen now because of people resenting the discount for the unemployed?

It does seem crazy that the over 60s are so well off as a group and yet the most likely to be given non-means tested grants and discounts. If that is true, it's just how it appears to me.

I thought they'd be free too, for some reason I thought you'd register and it would be a lottery as to what you'd get to see.

No idea where I got that impression though.

really maryz, i didn't know that was how they did it.

Isn't it because they are the most likely to be able to attend, given term time schooling etc. So economies of scale say they can go for cheaper, and they do need to fill the seats.

FWIW I think £16 is TOO MUCH for a ticket for anyone. Maybe the pensioners that CAN afford it though can take the kids

And anyway haven't we already bought our tickets through our taxes? We don't pay to walk on our pavements.

Wow - what a mean spirited lot. I have no problem with pensioners getting concessions.

what is mean about looking at something logically?

How's it logical?

Buys a few votes. :)

Fills a few spaces.

60+ have generally "filled out a bit", and therefore stadia will look fuller, than say giving tickets to all those non-voting kids.

YANBU

the discounted tickets (for children as well) are highly unlikely to involve any of the big, popular finals. They want bums on seats, on the less popular events

that's what we are saying nancy, it is illogical that statistically the over 60s are the most well off but that they are getting the discount. we are looking at it logically and asking why that is.

Glad to see this has stimulated some debate . It's a good point about bums on seats - for pensioners at least (rather than over 60s in general). But wouldn't that be better achieved by offering heavy discounts to everyone at off-peak times/unpopular events?

Taintedpaint I definitely don't feel the same way about discounts for the disabled. By and large (though big generalisation here) they are a financially disadvantaged group (more difficult to work/do high paid work).So discounts are appropriate.

In contrast, per the stats in my OP, even pensioners (not just over 60s in general) are better off than average so I really can't see much justification for discounts. I think it is really a relic of an earlier age when there was a lot more pensioner poverty and 60 was actually old!

I don't think this is about being meanspirited - just being fair. It would be great if everyone could get a discount but given they can't I think it's right to think about who most deserves one.