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.

Well my wealth won't be peaking when I retire and I wouldn't be able to afford many buses at a 6 pound round trip to town at present. I hope it's still there. The thing is wealthy pensioners probably don't use buses much. My Mum hasn't used one in the past 40 years.

It should certainly be means tested. My parents used theirs to go out and about in London when they visited their second home there.

That would free up funds to offer free travel to young people, who probably need it far more in many cases.

Scotland has it right. Free travel for under 21's I think? No excuse to not get jobs and such. My daughter uses public transport to get to and from her 4hrs on Sat and Sun (so 8hrs a week) job while at uni. She's 17 so doesn't even get what an adult gets as National Minimum Wage yet a bus would be priced the same as an adult. The free travel helps or she would be losing a big chunk of her tiny wages just getting there. She's needs that money for her food shop. We help where we can but she wants to contribute as much as possible.

I don't think it should be means tested. It isn't for any other age group so why should it be for 65-74 year olds?

This. I know pensioners who never use the bus. Of course that's another argument : oh look its not being used much let's bin it.

Exactly. Very few wealthy people use buses. Some do, in london bus or tube. But apart from that public transport is a no for rich people.

All posts on MN these days: My boomer mum refuses to give me money or regular childcare and has a big house.How dare she enjoy her money? Or my parents are using their money for their care? Can I scam them out of it?
Now we can add my boomer mum gets a free bus pass, the cow! Can't she just do the decent thing and die quickly?

So mean spirited and grasping.

Agreed . These people are no doubt hanging out for the inheritance too.

OP seems to have a real grudge against 65 - 74 year olds. Not quite sure what that particular age group has done to offend her!

Because some pensioners have absolutely nothing. And their health has declined so they can’t just walk to places or cycle like an ‘able’ adult who has no money. So for it to be socially fair, it would have to be means tested.

I think she sees them as richer than her. Awful.

We’re boomers. We shan’t be taking free bus passes because we can afford to pay for our travel. Makes far more economic sense to means test and roll out to qualifying youngsters to get to work.

Exist.

Means testing will cost a lot more in admin than stopping bus passes for all but the poorest of pensioners.

My dad uses his bus pass to get on, pick up a copy of the Metro, and get off at the next stop.

So do they actually use the bus? My husband is retirement age but doesn't have a bus pass because he still drives.

I presume you mean asset-wealth. Definitely not income-wise (given that a salary is so much higher than even quite a good pension), so there will be a lot of old people living in their relatively modest house in the SE which is now worth £700,000 but definitely wasn’t when they bought it and they will actually be living in fairly strained circumstances. Not even like they could sell the house and spend the money because then they will be accused of depriving their adult children of their god-given right to inheritance.

Would it not cost more to means test it than rollout as it is? And those who can afford not to use it/dont need it don’t so it doesn’t matter?

Oh goody another ageist thread! Just what we need.

Just let them be.

Since my friend turned 60 end of last year, she's taken 2 long train trips, which means she's spending money in train stations/hotels and the towns she's visited. Trips she wouldn't take before, because travel is so ridiculously expensive.

The older ladies around my mom's area also keep the local high street open, as they all come out after 930 to pack out the cafes and such. That bus pass gets them out, active and spending.

I think it probably has to go. There is evidence that it distorts the way bus services are run, causing them to be oriented towards leisure travel for old people rather than being a proper commuting service that can actually challenge car travel. If we must have free bus travel, start it much later, like mid 70s, so that at least there is the justification of getting people into the habit of bus travel for a few years before their driving skills start to (on average) deteriorate.

65-74 year olds being so wealthy as a group is due to a unique set of circumstances that probably won't happen again so it is unlikely that wealth will be concentrated and distributed this way when the rest of us reach this age.

Maybe then free bus passes could be justified if young pensioners were relatively poor again like they used to be but this just isn't the economic reality right now. Young pensioners are relatively wealthy right now and arguably the ones that are least on need of benefits such as a free bus pass compared to other age groups.

@Bumpitybumper Those who use bus passes are not the wealthy old. They are the barely making ends meet old.

I know elderly people who are well off who would never use a bus and don't have a bus pass. I will need a free bus pass when my old, battered, barely making it through its MOT car finally claps out.

This is just an elderly bashing thread.

Free travel on what? Where I live public transport non existent and a great deal of pensioner poverty. Not all areas get early travel passes and in some areas it is so poor, like in this supposedly rich County that NHS has to fund medical transport! We need subsidised effective transport for all. Please stop generalisations about age, wealth and money available to spend. Far better to target why our society is sucking wealth faster than most can cope with!

Since we now run bus services on the basis of private profit rather than as infrastructure to serve the country's needs there have to be some ways to make less well-used services are run. Bus passes for the elderly are a subsidy to the bus companies, not the pensioners.

Just wait for you to be 'old' on a meagre pension with no money for food and heating and ice on the inside of your windows in winter.

Its only then when you will know the true value of free bus passes for the elderly.

Not everyone has empathy, your post proves this hence the majority who voted YABU.