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

Another thing that the previous generation got given, subsidised by the working population, which we have to pay for again by removing the whole service. Bus prices have gone up horrendously over the same period that universal free bus passes have existed for. Oddly (and slightly off-topic), when you get a train and a bus covering the same route, the bus is usually more expensive now: yet train prices are a known national scandal, and bus prices never get mentioned.

Myself and DP are severely disabled, no pension paid into, we're worrying about far more than a bloody free bus pass (that we wouldn't be able to use anyway).

My DPs are 75. Both drive, never take a bus.
I think perhaps it shouldn't be an automatic right, when many don't need it.
I appreciate that cars are not great for the environment, but empty busses aren't great either.

What are your plans for funding the rest of your retirement?

Local Authorities (and other similar agencies) always say this kind of thing, about any kind of funding. I would not take it too seriously. In the Health Service it is called "Shroud-Waving".
If local 'bus services have to be reduced to some extent, I expect we will all manage somehow.
My local 'buses in the middle of the day always seem to be half-empty!

No doubt this news will please many on here then.

mzolobajluk.wordpress.com/2019/02/04/pensioners-now-to-be-sanctioned/

I do find it sad that you’re presumably mid 30’s and looking forward to a free bus pass in 30 years.

So OP, no citation for the impending life expectancy catastrophe?

Lots more to be worried about in 30 years than a fucking bus pass.

Tbh yeah. There’s nothing wrong with looking forward to retirement one day. I can totally understand that, the daily grind of work wears thin and retirement definitely appeals - no work, days doing whatever you like, do some volunteering, decorating the house, gardening etc. But you’ve said you have no pension. So sorry to say it but you have absolutely nothing to look forward to. Even if the state pension stayed at its current level and with the current retirement age (it won’t) you’re fucked. You don’t own a home and have no savings. You will almost certainly have to work through your retirement or you won’t be able to live.

So yeah, looking forward to a retirement with no home on a tiny state pension when you’re in your mid 30’s is really sad. I’d really feel for anyone who is looking forward to living in poverty in 30 years time.

I'm sad for thinking about retirement, do fuck off

If you can't afford your heating, don't you think the money could be better spent than giving all pensioners, however wealthy, bus passes and winter fuel allowances?

Miss you said you didn't beleive anything +10 years in the future, so what s the point? Also no one used such dramatic world's, just a falling..

I can afford my heating just not that and paying into a pension. Will be much easier in retirment - council tax support, housing benefit and pension tax credits are a dream amount to me.

Just because I'm worried about one aspect that doesn't mean it's my only worry so boring people keep saying that.

It’s not so much that it’s your only worry. It’s just a really odd thing to prioritise being concerned enough about to start a MN post on when you don’t have a pension at all.

Old people shouldn’t get anything free.
HTH

They're not getting anything free. They've paid tax and national insurance for 40 plus years to get them.

HTH.

They're not getting anything free. They've paid tax and national insurance for 40 plus years to get them.

Plenty of them hardly worked outside the home at all. HTH.

@Bluelady that’s assuming they have worked and earned enough to actually pay tax

Pretty hard not to. If they've earnt too little to pay tax, they're welcome to what they get, paid for from the vast amount of tax I've paid during my 45 years at work.

I would not be upset to see bus passes go during this current economic climate. There are more pressing matters the money could be used for

So you really think that scrapped benefits savings go to more worthwhile "pressing matters"?

Hahahahahahahahah

If they didn't work outside the home, their husbands did.

HTH

I can afford my heating just not that and paying into a pension. Will be much easier in retirment - council tax support, housing benefit and pension tax credits are a dream amount to me.

Really, and I mean this kindly, and of course I don’t know your circumstances, but you’re only young. You’ve got plenty of time to try and change things in your life so that your aspirations aren’t about state benefits in retirement. Life passes you by quick enough as it is. Not to mention the very real risk that everyone will be expected to have their own pension and that all these things may go the way the bus passes might too.

Taumaa Many women were prevented from doing so as well as being prevented from having a mortgage at the time unless they had a male co signer. And you want them punished for following the social norms of the time.

Maybe in 30 + years you could be punished for for follwing the social norms of this era.

It only takes a reframing of the narrative That is all it takes.

Be careful what you wish for!

@Bluelady
We all pay tax and insurance.
Everything should be means tested in this day and age, aside from nhs, and pensions.

Good luck with that. Means testing costs more than it saves.