To worry that free bus passes won't exist in the future

[Downtroddenhousingass]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6685043/Half-bus-routes-scrapped-650million-blackhole-boom-free-passes.html#article-6685043

Looks like they are already having issues with funding them now. I've still got 30 years until I get mine.

The scheme might be gone by then I'm worried

Don't worry we'll all have been wiped out by a natural disaster or nuclear bombs by then.

Isn't there an argument that making bus passes and winter fuel allowance means tested benefits would cost more in admin than it would save? I'm sure I heard a politician say that. No idea how true it is.

It's time to means test the free bus pass, free tv licence and winter fuel. It's ridiculous that a 75 year old with £35k in pensions gets these handouts (oh wait - the word "handouts" never applies to pensioners, does it...)

Young and middle aged people need to ensure that they're planning financially for retirement. There won't be much support when we get to that age. It is easier said than done though! Our taxes definitely shouldn't be supporting today's wealthier pensioners.

I’d worry about lack of buses more than travel on them being free, as above. I agree that once services decline below a certain point people can’t rely on them and then there’s evidence they’re not being used ana a justification to cut. Buses are frequent in London and well used but there’s the population density that just doesn’t exist in rural areas.

My (wealthy) parents love their free travel and they could easily afford to pay. But they’d be mighty pissed off to lose that perk and yes they vote in all elections (as do I actually).

I can’t worry about whether I’ll get free travel in 30 years though when there’s so much more to worry about now and in the middle distance.

Poorer pensioners are already identifiable via "pension credit". I'd suggest abolishing all the free stuff and increasing pension credit. They can then afford a bus pass/tv licence/extra fuel if they need them.

The free passes should be entirely means tested and/or pushed to 70. My parents are almost 70, have their own cars, are comfortably well off and that will never change. Even they ask why the hell do they need a free bus pass? They only ever use it because they can and for the novelty value ffs.

My mum’s former boss years ago tried to decline the winter fuel payment because he didn’t need it. There was no mechanism for him to opt out. He donated the money to Age Concern.

As above they should be means tested. Rather than worrying about this now, can’t you start to pay into a pension enabling you to have less worries in 30 years? Take control of your own destiny rather than relying on something that may or may not exist?

I was shocked when DH got to 60 and automatically got free travel in London and free prescriptions. He can afford both. How can the country afford that?!

Pensioners as a class are better off than almost every other age group. Many of us have benefited from generous final salary occupational pension schemes, guaranteed annuities, tax free investments, and are sitting on masses of housing equity with our tiny mortgages long since paid off and our kids grown up and off our hands.
Free bus passes, tv licences, winter fuel payments etc could be far better targeted to young families living in poverty, or kept for the minority of pensioners who only have the state pension as sole income. And I speak as a pensioner myself!

Means testing costs more than it saves. I've got a bus pass and never use it because it takes ten times longer to get anywhere by bus, none of my friends use theirs for the same reason. My winter fuel allowance was donated to the local food bank.

There are lots of pensioners for whom a bus pass is a life line, they'd never go anywhere without one. And who would never put the heating on if they didn't get help with their fuel. Not all pensioners are as fortunate as I am.

Someone has to actually pay the bus companies for carrying all these passengers OP. It's costing hundreds of millions of pounds a year. Hopefully this universal benefit will be withdrawn and become means tested. By the way, I'm guessing your motivation in starting this thread was merely to provoke reaction because I cant see that anyone would actually be in their 30s and thinking about bus passes.

I think that many people get them and never use them (parents included). Even paying the administration cost for processing an application/producing the freedom pass must cost £. And I know of relatively comfortably off relatives who have used them just because they can.

I doubt it costs much at all, it's all done online now. It must take a minimum wage admin person about two minutes to produce the laminated card.

Freedom cards must cost Londoners a fortune, though. Obviously the better the public transport, the more people will use it.

Totally agree about bus passes for teens. We have just paid £400 for ds2's buss pass and later in the year will be doing the same for ds3. My elderly dad uses his buss pass a lot since giving up driving ( which he sensibly did when he realised he was becoming unsafe), but he could easily afford bus fares. if the buss pass was taken away. They should be means tested. I see quite a lot of elderly people in my job with savings in excess of 100k. Why do they need a free bus pass ??

We'll be lucky if there are buses at all at this rate, this year alone we've lost our weekend service and it's reduced from hourly to 2 hourly in my area. I was hoping to drop to one car this year but nope will need 2 still, and yet I'm told I should be using public transportation more, but it's not available when I need it 🤷‍♀️

Look on he bright side OP, if all you have to worry about is a non existent bus pass in 30 years time you must be doing ok.

Means testing surely wont cost more if receipt of bus passes is dependent on already receiving other benefits.

I doubt it costs much at all, it's all done online now.

It isnt the cost of the card, it's the cost of reimbursing the bus companies. A third of journeys arent paid for by the passenger.

Another poster suggested the admin cost was £££. I was replying to her. RTFT.

My parents both have a bus pass, here you can also use them on the trains after 0930 as long as you travel in the local authority area. I thought bus passes could be used on buses all over the country? There was an article in a local paper a few years ago about how one nearby city was losing out, as pensioners were travelling to said city from surrounding towns/villages to then take a bus to a seaside town (outside the local area) and spending their money there but the city was having to fund the journey as the journey started there.

Some councils give you a choice; my friend lives in a rural area with only a couple of buses a day and her council let you choose between a bus pass or they will pay for a Senior Railcard. She chooses the railcard as her children live all over the country.

Bus passes are valid over the whole of England.
They do t need to be means tested if they aren’t used they have no cost to services.

they have already added five years before you can get a buss pass used to be 60 for women same as pension, now you cant get a bus pass till you are 65 for women and 66 for men, im 62 still working till im 66 and still have to pay all my bus fares to work because i cant get a free pass , so its heading the way of a few years from now there wont be any new buss passes issued, i bet they do it just before im due to get mine

According to 99% of people on here there won't be any buses after Brexit, so we won't need to worry about passes.

Means testing doesn’t apparently cost more than it’s saves for CB. There should be the same rule and a similar method for bus passes.