to resent well off 60+ people that get free unlimited bus travel

[SuzzieScotland]

I can't afford a car, so I walk, cycle or bus everywhere.

The bus costs almost a pound a mile so it is seen as a treat for me.

A yearly ticket is 1000 or if your a student you can buy a £12 bus I'd card every year and get a yearly ticket that costs 750. This seams far too expensive.

Yet I see many pensioners who run two cars using the bus to get into town or to the airport totally free despite being well off. I think their would be uproar if a 20 pound admin fee a year was applied to these bus passes. In London a year ticket is 3k but anyone over 60 gets unlimited tube and bus despite 100000s of them still in full time work.

Just seams like the young and poor are getting a very raw deal to win grey votes.

I think all public transport should be properly subsidised for all users. And should be nationally owned so that it all joined up properly. If everyone was using it, it would be much cheaper for everybody.

But I am rather left leaning, and foreign It works in other countries, I don't see why it shouldn't in the UK too, particularly when it's so densely populated.

Perhaps they should introduce free bus travel for young men aged 18-25, then, partial, as they are statistically more likely to be involved in a RTC

Mandatory bus travel for young men, Rhonda.

I am apathetic about free bus travel for the over 60's as there are a lot of benefits to out weigh the people who could afford to pay for it themselves.

I do think that anyone claiming JSA should get free bus travel though.

OP you walk or cycle most places. Many older people can't do that. They may be fairly healthy, but have arthritis or other issues taht stops them being able to walk 2, 3 or 4 miles to get places.

Besides, old people are more likely to vote and politicians know that. If young people really want politicians to listen to them, they need to start voting and making their voice heard.

Yes, without this probably a lot of them would keep on driving longer than they probably ought to for safety's sake. Anyway, we are always being encouraged to leave the car at home and use public transport. A lot of services would probably disappear without these subsidies.

Too many probablys there.

I sometimes think a free bus pass should be for those without a car only (perhaps by checking through road tax) as it would help the environment and people could then choose which suited them the most. My MiL has a lovely time on the free buses (and coaches in Scotland) but also keeps a car she doesn't need much. It would help if people had to choose.

If it helps keep a few cars off the road as well that has to be a good thing. Pollution is sky rocketing now (no puns intended).

Now in England you get your bus pass when you get your pension. I am 59 and don't get my pension until age 66.

What a sad, silly post OP.

We have no money as a nation and have to cut back(which is what we got told as a reason for means testing CB for families who have also paid taxes for many years).Sooo not getting why bus passes can't be means tested for the hoards of wealthy pensioners out there with 1 or 2 cars who only use the bus to get back after boozy lunches.

The country isn't made of money and if we can move families out of houses,kids away from schools and cut CB then we can mean test bus passes,WFA and treat the elderly in council houses the same as young families are.

Until the above happens I for one won't be voting for the Condems,their sucking up to the grey vote at the expense of others stinks and I'm sick of the hypocrisy.

Often the problem with means testing for older people is that many of them are asset rich but cash poor. So someone might look well of as they have a four bed home, owned outright, but they might not have any usable cash for bus travel or heating etc. And then you get into territory around should we be basically forcing older people to sell their homes etc.

Ah didums.Move.Plenty of young families have to.Moving can set kids back 6 months at school.We're happily moving families out of areas and kids away from schools.

Plenty of elderly couples downsized.My parents did so they don't waste money on heating a huge house to Barbados temperatures.It didn't kill them.They're happier in a house with less stairs too.

If the elderly have money for cars,houses that are too big and several holidays a year they don't need a bus pass or WFA and we as a nation are throwing money away.

So maybe means testing is not a good idea but the flat £1 fare is.

amicissimma I think you're doing pensioners a disservice by suggesting they couldn't organise themselves enough to have their bus pass and £1 at the ready. They already have to show their pass - surely getting a £1 coin out is not beyond anyone?

Why sad and silly, maureen?

Hopalongon I agree with you about people on JSA.

My dh is retired, no pension though, he wasn't thrifty in his youth! He has a free bus pass and although there is a car in the drive, it isn't MOT'd or taxed, we just can't afford to at the moment. We haven't told the neighbours though, just the DVLA!

I am 60 and will have to wait another five years until I get my free bus pass. Meanwhile I will pay for bus fares as I don't drive.

The young and poor are getting a very raw deal but not necessarily at the expense of the 'grey' vote. Older voters are also suffering under this awful government especially the disabled and those who are ill.

I will never vote for the Tory/LibDem fuckers
PS I am not grey either! So here have a .

Totally agree about JSA. Here a daily bus ticket is more than the daily JSA amount, there was a scheme to give JSA free bus travel but due to local councils budgets this was cut everywhere apart from London where they get it has of price.

Someone upthread said that it keeps fares down for other passengers...it doesn't.
Fares around here are more expensive than ever.

I personally think that free passes should be allocated to those on pension credits.
This would be the easiest way of means testing.

Apparently we're all in this together. No we're not.

most well off pensionersreally cant be bothered to go by bus. As one myself my dh and I have a slightly below average income but we have a car so we use it. In my experience it is the poorer pensioners that are on the buses and good luck to them.

I like how so many are assuming that older people are rich when statistics suggest otherwise.

YABU, OP - it will cost more to means test it.

I agree with the person who said it encourages them to take public transport instead of driving. I thought it encouraged the older generation to get out more. It certainly is an incentive for my mum plus she often takes my kids out on the bus too. If she had to pay, i'm sure she'd drive instead or not go at all. I've heard that the it would cost more to means test everybody than it would to just give everybody a pass but not sure whether that it true or not.

Its actually pushing up prices in many places as councils only pay 40-70% of standard fare prices.

The airport bus costs 18 but this is free for people with free bus passes and charged per journey with smart cards. The people that pay 1000 a year for a bus pass with the same company still have to pay the 18 for the airport bus.