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 disagree with over 60's automatically getting free bus passes. Some are far to wealthy to need them. I do not include disabilities in this. I don't see why I should pay taxes toward an able bodied over 60 who owns their own property.

In London the disabled Freedom Pass is valid all day. I have one (for MH reasons) and I don't get charged at peak hours (not sure if there are peak hours any more on London buses). I'm not in a wheelchair and I'm sure a large proportion of disabled FP users aren't, as it's issued for a range of disabilities. I don't work but I do some p/t study and I need to travel quite early sometimes.

London is fairly generous with its travel concessions though - my dc get free travel as all under 16s do, and my dad has an over-60 Oyster as a 60 year old, even though they've increased the minimum age for the Freedom Pass in line with the state pension age (so he'd need to be older if he lived in most parts of the country).

Free buses, free prescriptions, taking up social housing, that can't be right.
Once they've retired and finished paying tax they aren't any more use to us.

Sally I am sure there are some that have never paid tax either

Parents get far more for having children than it costs a pensioner to have a bus pass. Plus having children is a choice, growing old is not, it will happen to you all in time.

Someone mentioned Universal Credit, this is costing a fortune at the moment because they haven't yet figured out who to give free prescriptions, eye tests etc to. ANYONE on UC is entitled to it. Whereas before, with the two different types of JSA, only certain people were.

Sorry, posted to soo.

By the time you are all old you will be kicked out of your homes if you live in a council house, there will be no free bus pass, no heating allowance, no free tv licence.

Enjoy your old age and remember who you have to thank for it.

'Parents get far more for having children than it costs a pensioner to have a bus pass. Plus having children is a choice, growing old is not, it will happen to you all in time.'

They do? You do realise how low the thresholds are now for tax credits and child benefit.

And that many people are not parents.

60 is not old.

The free bus pass and travel should be in line with state retirement age and means tested. If you are in receipt of DLA, Carer's Allowance or Pension Tax Credit you get. Simples. You go into the bus office, just like you do now to get your freebie we have to pay for, and show them your letters.

Don't get those, you stump up like everyone else.

'Enjoy your old age and remember who you have to thank for it.'

Who we have to thank for it? Plenty of people support themselves.

I am a parent and I don't get far more than a pensioner getting a bus pass so that is not true for everyone. Some parents do not get child benefit.

I have never once used my bus pass though I do use my Senior Rail Card (which is not free). I don't think free bus passesshould be available to all really but on the whole onlythe needy use them. I'dfar rather drive especially to shop.

We have ourselves to thank for our old age and our parents. The taxes we paid, the rights we fought for and the wars they fought in. We brought up a generation who are having to struggle more than we did but they are not in any sense responsible for our situation.

My point was when all the pensioner bashers get their way and the few perks they get for being old are taken away then its those same people who will be the ones going without them when they are old.

When I had my children there was no CB for the first child, it was 90 PENCE when you had 2 children. There was no child tax credit, no free school meals, no free childcare places. I was a single parent who worked to support my children with no other help so forgive me if I now feel entitled to a bus pass while subsidising other families.

The grass is always greener on the other side.

I was so glad when my dmum turned 60 and got her free bus pass and pension. Before that she had been made redundant and nobody wanted to employ over 50's. Her bus fare to sign on was £6 which left her with about £50 a week to live on. The day she turned 60 her income almost tripled, she could afford to eat and heat her house and her life started again. She could visit her family, she was more social and she was a darn sight happier then she had been before being 60.
Having a free bus pass meant that when my dc's were born she could pay to get the early bus to help me with school drop offs as she had could get home for free.

Remember that saying about not looking down on someones empty bowl unless you are going to fill it up (Something like that anyway)

Not everyone will get a bus pass, dmums friend won't as she has a car and she isn't a overly wealthy pensioner.

PLENTY do not get child benefit, these free childcare places you seem to thing are about, child tax credits, etc.

I use my Senior Railcard to collect my DGC in the school holidays from their home 200 miles away, bring them to my home and provide childcare for my DD.

I will apply for my free bus pass and take the DGC on the bus.

Isn't it great that 100,000s of Over 60s in London are still in work and paying taxes?

Op: I know it is hard being poor, I spent years living on baked beans and baked potatoes, but it isn't the collective group of Over 60s that have caused your poverty.
You could be equally offensive and pick on women who have more than one child, people who have health problems caused by their lifestyle choices, be it food, drink drugs, sex. They cost the NHS money that could be spent elsewhere.

Life is unfair and being envious of others will not make it less unfair.

bus thank you, I am out of date then. I'm pleased to hear that the government only pays for the journeys used. In that case I think that there is no big deal here. Very wealthy ppl probably barely use the bus, free or not.

Though I would like to see cheap bus travel extended to other groups.

Universal benefits are good because they are recognition of the fact that some groups, no matter what their income, have additional expenses.

Children cost money - hence Child Benefit.

And so does getting old. You can't walk as far, especially with shopping. And the day will come when you won't be able to drive. Your heating costs go up because your employer no longer keeps you warm during the day. You have to pay others to do what you can no longer manage yourself - DIY, decorating, gardening. Your glasses need changing more often and your teeth fall out. (Only the eye test is free. Dentistry is full price.) You're more likely to be on prescription drugs.

Rich parents and rich pensioners pay higher taxes. Messing around with meanstesting results in inequalities, like the shambles they created with CB and SAHMs.

Expat - how old do you think is old? I know 60 yr olds whose knees have given out. Most of the free stuff is linked to retirement age which is now 67(?) and rising. I know an 86 yr old who still goes shopping on the bus, but ime 70 is a bit of a watershed for physical decline.

paxtecum. Exactly this.

Personally, I am thrilled my mum has free bus travel. She is 75 and has worked damned hard all her life. She doesn't drive and she and my dad have always been careful with money, have lived modestly and saved a percentage of their salaries. They have never claimed any benefits other than free prescriptions as pensioners and have contributed via taxation for about 45 years. Why on earth shouldn't they have a few perks such as free bus travel?

Why shouldn't we all have perks,we've all worked hard?

Retropear, you will have the perk of free or concessionary travel , when you are of pensionable age.

Ha,ha,ha,ha,ha!

Er no we won't nor a pension or WFA.

We've lost tuition fees for our children which our parents got,CB which our parents got to the tune of 40k for 3 kids.Pension,WFA and bus passes will be next.

Because as a country we can't afford benefits for those who don't need them.

Well that is what we got told told when CB was axed for many.

Sorry we all have,are and will work hard.Pensioners don't have the monopoly on working hard or paying taxes.They should be treated exactly the same as everybody else.So if universal taxes,housing etc for younger generations are cut/restricted then the same should happen for older generations.Particularly when you take into account that the older generations have more money than anybody else.

We're not talking about poor pensioners here but wealthy pensioners of which there are many.

I feel like we've moved from council house envy on MN to benefits envy. How heart warming!

State pension.