To think that they make it purposefully impossible to apply successfully for an over 60’s bus pass?

[GreekDogRescue]

I am over 60 and have been trying to apply for my over 60’s Oyster card for some time now.

I have my passport, my driving licence, utility bills, my NI number and inside leg measurement but the online form refuses to accept the photo of my passport. It also refuses to let accept my driving licence details.

instead of asking for your passport or driving licence number like any ‘normal’ form, it wants all the tiny letters and symbols at the bottom, and they have to be put into 5 special boxes.

it says I can download a form to take to a post office but gives no details of this mythological form.

I went to a post office but they said they stopped doing over 60’s applications ‘ages ago’.

I have paid my taxes all my life and am furious that this is being made so difficult. It is highly discriminatory as there will be many elderly people who just give up. None of my over 60 friends have managed to crack it either.

I would like to sue London Transport for age discrimination 🤬

PS. I did manage to submit my passport application online but this is MUCH harder

Really? This is what I mean, and this is exactly what happened. Maybe renew isn’t the right word.

“You need to provide proof of your London borough address and pay £10 (non-refundable) for each year you have your photocard. We'll let you know how and when to do this.”

They write to you a couple of weeks before the year is up, telling you to revalidate it.

My sister is five years younger and she mentioned something about £10 charge - this too must have come about in recent years, I never paid anything. I'm 68.

You don't get a bus pass where I live until state pension age. London is different.

It's state pension age here too. Oh to get the public transport perks Londoners get.

We're being told to scrap our cars or pay £12.50 a day to drive them from August so Khan is saying we should get buses instead this is his justification to say we don't need cars. It costs £20 .

@ilovesooty Don’t take life so seriously I’m only teasing 😋

In outer London public transport is not good in all areas it's common to have to go into the centre of London via 2 buses and a tube to then come back out on another tube and overground just to get to the place that is a 30 minute drive but now it's taken over 2 hours plus just to get to work. A job taken because you could drive in a reasonable time but soon the Ulez will make it £25 a day because your shift is 8pm to 8am so that's adding 5 hours to a 12 hour shift ...

@LindorDoubleChoc I’m glad you share my pain. But don’t give up! I’m determined now and am going to get this bloody thing if it kills me. Then I’m going to start giving paid tutorials to other frustrated oldies 😎

Lol.....they don't have one in Hillingdon it's now part of the waiting area before you get into the emergency housing office

I’m hoping this thread gets picked up by the Daily Mail and sparks a NATIONAL CONVERSATION

I thought more than 4 out of 5 vehicles in London meet the ULEZ standards and there's an incentive scheme in place for scrapping non compliant vehicles.

London isn't the only place with a ULEZ scheme either. My city has one.

Can I ask why you're peeved at London transport? Is it because you don't have the same in your area?

Wouldn't it make more sense to be peeved at your lack of transport, rather than at the fact people have good transport in London?

I ask because the way you phrased it suggests you would like London transport to be less good, rather than your area to match London in a positive way.

@GreekDogRescue
Re your passport.
If you take a photo using an iPhone you can easily convert it to jpeg format in your phone settings.
Iirc you need it set to keep original format. But just Google it and check. I recently did it for a railcard.

TFL has some of the most helpful customer service people that I’ve ever come across. Perhaps give them a call for some help. They will make it accessible for you. Also this, I have called and they're always lovely.

Yep, no matter how many times they lose your application, mark it as sent but forget to actually post it - they apologise EVERY time.

No that's not true most people I know have no compliment cars and self employed with vans are really struggling. I've been offered £350 for a car that cost £4000 no 7 seaters about for under £9000.
The scrappage scheme applied to disabled and third claiming UC and £1000 doesn't get you much nothing compliant. Going inside congestion zone means you will pay that too so best part of £25 plus parking of maybe £10 just to go for surgery at Hammersmith when you're not fit enough for 3 buses and a tube at 7.00 am.
Nurses, airport workers, bus drivers, shift workers living outside the M25 will have to pay to come in or get jobs outside the M25. Towns on the edge will lose trade from people who will drive away rather than come in. With rents for 2 bed flats being over £1200 a month what's the incentive to teach, nurse, GP etc to come here?

OP - I presume you are just stirring up a heated debate about us “lucky Londoners’ who have it all on a golden plate?
Neither I or any of my friends have had any problems with getting our cards - actually mine was delivered two weeks before my 60th, TFL website is actually one of the easiest to use - just give the info they ask for, it’s really not hard.

‘This email address is already registered”.

This is a TfL oyster account thing. We have had issues with the frustrating online account system. Telling us email addresses are registered but not letting us login or reset password. And that goes for my own oyster cards and my kids’ zip card accounts. It drives me mad.

Some cards require separate photo card and Oyster card accounts. I have spent many a happy hour being shunted between the two departments on the phone.

As others have said, a call eventually usually sorts it out. And you are on hold for a maximum of five to ten mins before speaking to a human so it’s not too bad.

60 beckons for me quite soon. I hope i don’t feel ancient then!

We are pretty computer-literate here and the website is great when it works. However if it thinks you already have a card registered somewhere, it can be a place of frustration and anger! Definitely some luck involved.

The answer is in your post.

Plus, you didn't spend your entire life working unless at the age of say, three, your parents were sending you up chimneys.

You haven’t paid taxes to TfL. Tfl is unwisely using its limited income (which includes funds from government) to subsidise people who are often still in work and on higher incomes than their younger passengers. I guarantee you will have already got plenty back from your taxes, and it’s only going to increase when you become actually old.

You want to sue for age discrimination for something that is arbitrarily only given to older passengers?

I hope you get caught for fraudulently using your OH’s.

Grow up.

My 60 year old cousin who lives in the NW told me that she has a free bus pass.
Incidentally, DH is 61 and he says he gets free prescriptions.
Im sure it’s very nice for the people who get it, but surely it should be linked to OAP age 🤷🏼‍♀️

I’m peeved at how much money has been pumped into London transport.

If the north of England was connected in a similar way it would be transformative. Imagine getting a tube from Leeds to Sheffield or Manchester. The distances are similar to London suburbs. Instead we have to rely heavily on cars as we have crap public transport.

But despite ‘levelling up’ no party ever addresses northern transport. Buses are on every corner in London, and have been cut in half in many major northern cities. And then you get free transport at 60!

OP.

I have a 60+ Oyster. As do many people I know, as does your OH, and none of us have had any difficulty with the application.

Get your DH to help you.

I completely understand, I gave up on applying for carers allowance for my father. Some forms a mind bending…