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.

Actually i think you're right, also while we are at it lets make them all retake their driving tests. Hopefully that will keep a few more of them off the streets as its really annoying for instance when they go to the bank at lunchtime. Don't they know that's the only time taxpayers can go to the bank. They could go anytime. If we can keep them indoors we cut their pensions too and their winter fuel allowance for the hell of it. After all i have to pay for gas and i work! That's not fair.

Then we can give all the money we have saved to the bankers to gamble or to the mps to claim even more luxuries on expenses. Brilliant.

And that is also total rubbish about children having less exercise, there have been many study's that show the opposite.

Obtuse? Maybe but it really pisses me off when people have a go at the elderly and talk about taking away the few perks they get. I don't mean people my age - just retiring now, I mean those in the 70s and 80s, many of who are really struggling on a state pension and nothing else.

Too proud to claim "charity". A shame many younger people don't feel the same way.

Actually i think you're right, also while we are at it lets make them all retake their driving tests. Hopefully that will keep a few more of them off the streets as its really annoying for instance when they go to the bank at lunchtime. Don't they know that's the only time taxpayers can go to the bank. They could go anytime. If we can keep them indoors we cut their pensions too and their winter fuel allowance for the hell of it. After all i have to pay for gas and i work! That's not fair.

Then we can give all the money we have saved to the bankers to gamble or to the mps to claim even more luxuries on expenses. Brilliant.

Ms your just starting unhinged arguments that no one is suggesting.

grennie, there are lots of reasons why children don't get as much exercise as previous generations, very few, I'd guess, to do with the cost of public transport.

In any case, in my area, children are charged for from the age of five, so public transport is not a cheap option for a low-income family.

morgause:

"It really pisses me off when people have a go at the elderly"

"Too proud to claim "charity". A shame many younger people don't feel the same way"

Suzie - Are you in the UK? Children on average do get less exercise.

Rhonda - In the past loads of kids used to walk to and from school. Many are now driven or go on the bus. That does make a difference to levels of exercise.

I come from a very poor family and we walked everywhere. I am not advocating poverty, but we certainly got plenty of exercise.

grennie, children used to walk to school because they generally went to the local one. Roads were safer and there were fewer cars.

Now parents have a "choice" where to send their child they can drive them to a school they perceive as better. In some LAs taxpayers still pay for children to be bussed to a school out of the area because of their parents' religion.

Anyway, I digress. As I said, in my area, taking the bus is not a cheap option by any means for a low-income family.

Here a return ticket for me & my 2 children costs £10 - not cheap at all!

Most pensioners left school at 15. Hardly any of them had the chance of further education, so the fact that it was free then didn't help them. They have had fewer benefits than subsequent generations.

The younger ones, ime, aren't swanning around on cruises or propping up the bar at the golf club. They're doing childcare, supporting elderly relatives or volunteering.

Pp have said free travel should only be for those on pension credit. I don't qualify for that, nor should I. But when I was helping to care for my DM and travelled from one side of London to the other for 5 years, my freedom pass saved me £1000 p.a. I couldn't have done that without it.

The social benefits of free travel for the elderly are widely underestimated.

I have noticed that bus fares cost a bomb these days. I was calculating bus fares back from my mothers recently for me and the boys and it came to pretty much the same as a taxi.

I'll start using buses when they're no longer filthy uncomfortable things full of horrible people.

bigdog, please don't.

That would be one more horrible person on the bus and none of us would want that.

bigdog - Then you are well off enough not to need to use buses.

HTH

The money saved on axing bus passes would be tiny. The Government doesnt pay for each bus pass, they give a lump sum to each bus company. Bus companies claim, probably rightly, that the real cost would be significantly higher.

Yes bus tickets are very expensive. That is what happens when you privatise buses.

1.1 billion is not tiny!

I would love to know why no-one seems tempted by the £1 flat fare for pensioners!

I'd also love to know what pensioners would think about it.

I'm not proposing withdrawing pensioners' bus passes, btw, grennie.

I think that the current age of 60 is too young but I think it is good for older pensioners (over 70) to have free bus pass whatever their income. They are more likely to need transport than younger people as many find it difficult to walk even quite short distances. Also, I support any initiative that helps stop older people from driving.

1 pound flat rate is a great idea. I don't think people value stuff if it is free, that's why when you adobt a cat you have to pay a fee.

Op, there are two things you take for granted til you don't have them any more, your mum and your health. According to a friend anyway, but be glad you aren't disabled or 60 with poor health, well off or not.

I do think we have a very odd system of public transport in the UK. You know what really does cost a fortune? Having your own car costs a fortune. But it's so normal, we hardly notice that we all have one (well, I don't but you know what I mean).

I would vote for more, cheap, subsidised public transport for all of us, and more car sharing.

I will just add that I have a visual impairment and can't drive and due to not being a UK resident (I have UK citizenship, no residency) can't get benefits or a travel pass. Believe me, having free transport would be very helpful.