To think free bus passes for the old should be abolished?

[Bumpitybumper]

Statistics show that on average wealth peaks at age 65-74 in the UK, why then do we give these people free bus passes? It makes absolutely no sense at all and is just an unnecessary expense. The idea that 'young' pensioners are a relatively poor group of people is completely incorrect and it only serves to enhance the already massive intergenerational wealth gap between baby boomers and everyone else.

60+ cars cannot be used before 9am Monday to Friday. Some routes it is after 9.30am.
So unless you start after 9.30/10am you would have to pay t9 travel into work.
Just waiting for another thread this time wanting to stop free prescriptions to those aged 60-65.

I actually agree with free bus passes and would, if I could, extend it to everyone.

My problem is that, on MN, disagreeing with things that older generations want or say is described as ableism. It isn't. People are allowed to disagree with you, and with policies designed for you. I've seen many, many older posters on here posting against policies benefitting younger people (often on the basis that they weren't available to them when they were young). I've never seen a young person accuse them of ableism. Because disagreeing with a policy isn't ableist.

It's an attempt to shut people up, and it needs to be called out, because it harms proper discussion.

I'm an older boomer, in my late 70s. DH is older. We own a small house in a fairly inexpensive area. Our joint income is around £20k, no big savings pot, we get no means tested benefits, are we well off? We no longer get the WFA, although when one of us dies, the other will probably get Pension Credit, so will then qualify.

We have an old car, but I've used my bus pass to get to the hospital today. I have a blue badge but the hospital parking is so limited I don't risk taking the car. DH rarely uses his pass, he is in quite poor health so it's mainly on hospital visits. Similarly, I use my pass to get to town, mainly due to the difficulty of parking. I think I'm in a similar position to many of my age.

I really value my pass. I also have a paid for rail card, I use it to visit family, none live locally.

Gosh there seem to be a lot of millionaire cruise taking pensioners with mansions and Mercs who take the bus simply to spite the exchequer

My daughter could claim travel back from the NHS when she went to her university work placements.

I think means testing them would be fair - in fact, maybe just means tests and make them available for people at any age who need them.

Or free public transport for everyone wld be ideal if we could afford it - would do wonders for the environment as would take loads of cars off the road!

'Cheap' day tickets are almost £6 where I live, and you can only use it on one operator - so if your bus to town is a Stagecoach, and you need an Arrival for your onward journey, that's £12.

I do agree that benefits like this were introduced at a time when the elderly tended to be less well off than working people though. But we need to look to future generations where it won’t be the case that the older demographic happen to be a generation that has lucked out financially compared to the others, rather than just abolishing everything that supports them.

This is ridiculous! The nature of the system means that your generation has paid for the generation before it. A generation that had far fewer people that lived less long and had access to less expensive healthcare. Put simply you had a relatively large generation sharing the burden of a smaller generation resulting in a lower cost per capita.

The amount you paid into the system does not reflect how much it will cost to support your generation in old age. If it did then you would have all paid a lot more tax during your working life. I don't say that to be cruel, it is just a fact!

Also everybody went to school, why on earth wouldn't they pay tax towards repaying the burden they have put on the state? Education benefits the individual, not the parents. It's the gateway to jobs and careers that last a lifetime. That's true irrespective of whether you have children yourself or not.

@Bumpitybumper
I am in my early 60s and I have paid tax, mainly at a higher rate, and so have paid for those older than me to have free bus passes, prescriptions, tv licences and winter fuel payments and I have no objection to that at all.
You seem very jealous and ageist.

Another bloody selfish post!!!
I'm 60, but have had a disabled bus pass since tickets were issued 40 years ago
You do realise older people can be isolated and a bus ride breaks up the day and helps with loneliness
They've already lost their winter fuel payment, and you begrudge them a bus pass too?? FFS This country has gone to the fucking dogs

I am surprised by the assumption that if you're a wealthy pensioner, of course you wouldn't use the bus but I probably shouldn't be as Mumsnet is often incredibly car focused

I know lots of wealthy pensioners who use the bus regularly. Two main uses - to get into city centres, it's often hard to park and a lot of city centres are highly pedestrianised; and secondly to go to the hospital as hospital parking is often really limited

I think the elderly should get free bus passes and that deprived of this is the disadvantage of the elderly.

I think under 16s should get it free tbh.

@Pippa12
I agree wholeheartedly with your comments. My GD has to take a train and a bus to get to school and it costs £850 a year. I'd gladly give her my bus pass which I don't need and rarely use.

In Scotland the under 21s can get free bus travel anyway ?

So them having the bus pass is irrelevant as they aren't using it, so it's not costing anyone anything?

What about free prescriptions for over 60's for medication which literally keeps them alive???
Do you think killing them off is a good idea to save money too!!!
I've cost the nhs literally 100's of thousands as I was born with a disability and have had countless surgeries.
Perhaps I should have been drowned at birth( My DM actually told me this)

Exactly this. It's not just about getting to the shops. Isolation and exclusion are massive issues for all ages but particularly for older people, who may have lost their partner or have no family nearby. It makes far more sense to invest a few quid a day on bus journeys than have to pick up the pieces that are the result of loneliness and social exclusion which can lead to poor health, making existing conditions worse and creating new issues.

Your mother is not a typical pensioner.
More 'I'm alright Jack' attitude.

This sounds like a really good argument for rolling free public transport out to everyone!

I'll repeat again, I am not ageist or jealous.

I agree with the 2 child benefit cap. It's not because I'm jealous of parents with more than 2 kids or because I hate people of child rearing age.

I think we should all pay a bit more income tax. I don't hate people or working ages and I'm not jealous of them (I am one!).

I have loads of opinions about taxation and benefits. They are based on my own beliefs about how public money could be best allocated. If you pay for something then you're not funding something else. That's how these things go. I don't think a free pass given to the wealthiest group in this country is a good use of public money. How is this ageist? This term has been bandied around on this thread repeatedly and yet nobody has been able to justify its use. You might disagree with me but it's so dangerous and lazy to try and shut down discussion by suggesting that taking something away from old people is automatically ageist.

Scotland does alot of things better than England! (Not sure what happens re this in Wales or NI)

YABU. Free travel for older people is proper preventive care; it helps to encourage people to stay mobile, move about, visit bricks and mortar businesses, be in social contact. Having to walk to and from bus stops, etc. may seem like limited exercise but lockdowns showed us what happens when older people no longer have even that limited scope of movement.

If you're cross that bus pass holders are (on average) richer than the young, then the answer is extending the bus passes to other age ranges too (which would also take more cars off the road and might get more isolated people out of their houses).

I'd be in favour of extending free bus passes to, say, under-25s, who are arguably some of the people who have it toughest at the moment.

It should be means-tested, same as free prescriptions.