Fuming that they are talking of taking away pensioner bus passes and the triple lock

[jdoe8]

I'm still 40 years before I will get these, but I think we need to fight to keep these for future generations.

For many people they will have left school at 16 and worked until they were 65. Now after all those years of paying their taxes they aren't getting much back so the very least we need to do is allow them to travel and guarantee that their income will rise every year.

If you don't use your bus pass though, how much is it costing?

Surely those who run a car aren't suddenly going to stop when they get a bus pass?

Would it cost much/any less if they had to be applied for?

Why are pensioner's always seen as saintly types who worked hard all their lives? If we're to believe the press that there are loads of places where people never have jobs then somewhere there must be pensioners who never worked a day.

To put a spin on it from another point of view, the bus companies are not making enough money, for years they have been struggling to break even and if the council stop OAP passes, the council saves money to use elsewhere and the bus companies get more money to run a better service.

No, I think it's great. Pensioners hold an astoundingly disproportionate amount of wealth in this country at the moment and had huge amounts of public spending on them from the cradle which is one of the reasons there is nothing left now.

We're in a situation where poor younger people and the companies that employ them are shelling out to make rich pensioners even more comfortable. I would like to see any perks for pensioners means tested. I find it distasteful that somebody whose just returned from their sixth holiday of the year gets free travel when a young family struggling to put food on the table and pay the rent have to pay through the nose.

My dad has built up enough pension to still be a higher rate tax payer. It is frankly crazy that him and my mum get free bus passes.

And yes, they do use them. Why drive into town and pay £4 parking when you can pop on the bus for free?

I think you make a good point about road safety. Also less cars on the road.

Arf, you're not prepaying anything if you spend it on something else.

Boo hoo the poor baby boomers are finally getting the same treatment that young people have been getting since the Tories came in.

I really cannot bring myself to give a fuck about this. Good, I am glad maybe they will start to see sense and vote for someone who actually cares about people who are struggling.

I am sick of being treated like a second class citizen whilst the baby boomer generation get fawned over by the politicians.

And there are a hell of a lot of pensioners who have hardly worked a day in their lives out of the home. And plenty 'young' pensioners around 65/70 now who were given crazy early retirement at like 50 to move them out from education or local authority.

Pensions - don't know enough about it to comment, really.

Non-means tested free bus passes, TV licences and fuel allowances - utterly ridiculous and should be stopped. I feel the same way about all non-means tested free benefits.

Will there still be state pensions when I retire in 40 years?

Pensioners now on average earn more than people of working age.

www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/pensions/11944141/Pensioners-are-9-a-week-better-off-than-those-in-work.html

The triple lock is unsustainable and benefits like free bus passes should be means tested.

But they won't get more money unless the pensioners actually pay for a ticket, which, if they don't have a bus pass, some of them won't be able to afford to do.

I realise that makes not a lot of sense - what I mean is, they won't necessarily make money out of the pensioners - if they can't afford to travel by bus by paying for a ticket, they just won't use the bus at all.

The triple lock is ridiculous and unsustainable.

We spend more on pensions than on the NHS, but the reason the NHS is so overstretched is because people are living far longer, with associated conditions.

Actually, perhaps that's the plan? NHS can no longer afford to treat all it does at present, ceases to treat a few major conditions (e.g. cancer, dementia, diabetes)... no more problem of a huge pension budget...

If you are actually genuinely forty years from 'pension she's, you had better start scrimping now. There won't be state pensions for anyone under 40, probably anyone under 45 tbh. Pension age will be about 75 in any case. Many will just die before reaching it. It will be means tested, and effectively a benefit for those on minimal income.
People aged 40-45 now will be the first generation to have a lower life expectancy.
People aged 10-20 now have far more to worry about than pensions though- they won't have worked or paid NI, to have built up their stamp- automation will have eradicated so many jobs.

"And yes, they do use them. Why drive into town and pay £4 parking when you can pop on the bus for free?"

Yes, I suppose it depends where you live.

By the time my dad has got to the bus station, he's in town anyway!

Ils have sporadic service where they are.

talkshowhost97 the bus companies SAY that but its not actually the case My Bus company Southern Vectis (IOW) charges my local council 48.3% of a standard fare, the standard fare is £4.50 single, so that's £2.33 per journey yet the same company the go ahead group only charges £2 per single for full fare paying customers on some routes on the mainland , so here they are actually getting more revenue for pensioners passes.

People are being naïve to think that if all pensioners paid their fares bus services would improve and fares would go down, having been in a meeting where a rep from Southern Vectis stated in front of a whole room 'we are NOT a public service we answer to our shareholders' I know full well that would not happen here

Means testing is all very well but a pensioner would have to be means tested on what the Bus companies would charge a pensioner if the passes were withdrawn and NOT on the amount they currently get from their councils, and it would have to be done at a local level because of the difference in the bus companies tariffs, the only way of getting round that is if the Government set a standard fare across all the bus companies which all bus companies would have to agree to and of course if that standard fare is cheaper than the payments they get from councils at the moment then THATS when you will see services cut and fares rising

I find myself in the rare position of agreeing whole-heartedly with BillSykesDog.

And thanks for the link, Amateurish.

Abolishing the free bus pass will affect the poorest pensioners, as they are the ones who actually use the bus.

It won't make much difference to most rich pensioners because they are much more likely to drive, or take cabs, etc (or have people able to drive them).

Making any provisions, including benefits available to pensioners, means-tested often means that the people who need them most, the very poorest, won't get them because they don't apply out of shame.

My husband is and always has been, self employed. As a young man, he prudently put a proportion of his wages into a pension scheme. A pension scheme that went spectacularly bust some time later. So his pension is gone and he will probably have to work, if he can, until he drops.

I have a final salary pension and we have no mortgage. But, my lump sum helped out my children and is now gone. So we are now living on my pension, which is considerably less than average wage. We haven't had a proper holiday since 2008. We don't have weekends away, we don't smoke, rarely have a drink and shop in Lidl. He never buys new clothes and if I buy any, they're from a supermarket.

We're not yet hand to mouth, but the few savings we have left will soon be gone and then we'll have to move. I am grateful for what we have, but I know we're not the affluent pensioners people are so resentful of.

I also thought of driving. If you make it easy to catch a bus people are less likely to drive if they feel like they're starting to be less steady. If they have to jump through hoops to get the bus pass, they're more likely to continue driving right up until the point that they really can't any more. A bus pass might be cheaper than running a car but it's much less convenient - it has to be a gain somewhere to encourage people to use it. And for the sake of all road users it's better if people whose sight and reaction times are failing stop driving sooner rather than later.

Means testing sounds sensible but often ends up costing more!

I think bus passes should be means tested.
If my DM (85) had to pay for bus fares she would feel it financially as her two outings a week would cost her just over £14, and she receives basic state pension plus a minute amount £120 per month from my late father's contributions. She only just manages to pay her overheads, council tax, food, insurance etc as it is.
Having to pay transport would discourage her from making the effort to go to town, which is the only time she gets a little bit of exercise and sees something different from her usual routine.

I'd like to see a system where bus passes are means tested on both financial and medical grounds.

Bit like blue badge bus passes I suppose.

It's not in the interests of public safety to be incentivising elderly people suffering from dementia, visual impairments or arthritis that affects their ability to slam on the brakes to get back behind the wheel of their cars.