Feel like a mug paying for buses in Wales

[CaptainArcher]

I live in North Wales and the cost of a daily ticket on the bus is now £7.70 a weekly ticket is £28 now…

It seems like every time i board the bus I'm the only mug actually paying, i tap on and off with my bank card. Everyone else is a pensioner using their free bus pass, or people my age (30s) have a white pass card.. Which means they're on the sick

To make matters worse, i visit across the border sometimes to the Wirral and buses are so much more reasonably.. £2 for a single trip

I can drive bus i gave up cars a few years ago to save money and live a more simpler life

My gran used to take my sister and I on bus trips like this when we stayed with her for a holiday. She did have to pay though , but is was the 1960s and Grandad was a clippie so it was probably a cheap day out.

We do indeed have free prescriptions in Northern Ireland - the argument at the time the charge was removed was that the vast majority of people getting prescriptions were exempt for one reason or another (85% from memory), so the cost of running the bureaucracy to charge the remainder was more than the charges were actually bringing in.

Nope it definitely cannot! One trip only (which I've just remembered is now £3 per trip).

There is no reason for competitiveness now. We used to have more than one bus operator, but, unfortunately, the big bus company pulled out of our area last year, leaving us with one company only. They set their fares accordingly, now they have the monopoly.

It amazes me the amount of people who think all pensioners are rich.

I've never paid any attention to whether other people getting on the bus were using a pass or paying.

I am annoyed they changed the zones locally so now it's stupidly expensive to take DS to the nearest town by bus - £10 for returns for the two of us. To add insult to injury the distance is walkable, but DS isn't always up to the walk.

Pensioners are the group in the UK least likely to live in poverty.

Don't know how pp can begrudge others a bus ride that's for fun or warmth and company. Seems pretty dismal to me.

It's just stereotypical goady nonsense isn't it ?

It is still in Liverpool and the Wirral which is where OP is travelling to.

You can add up the costs of free prescriptions, free hospital parking and cheaper Uni fees when comparing with England. Am Welsh, live in England

And my elderly relatives are living hand to mouth despite working all their lives! My mum can’t even afford heating and wears 3 layers in the house.

Ageist nonsense

Then why would you have devolution?

My elderly parents are the same live week to week. Use hot water bottles and layers instead of having the heating on because they don't qualify for pension credits but that doesn't mean they are loaded.

Anything that gets people out of cars is a good thing

I'm amazed you're able to see what people are paying with to get on! Nowadays everyone where I live just taps their card/pass and gets on - so even if they were just flashing a pass at a driver rather than tapping it, I wouldn't notice?

OAP bus passes are definitely not sent out by the Welsh government. You have to apply. They only cost if they are used. I have one to get into town as parking is so expensive but my DH hasn't bothered as he has no use for it

edited to add the word not

Where I am in Scotland,a single journey is £2 and a day ticket is £5.
An off peak day return on the train is only 10p dearer than a return bus ticket.
Train gets me into the city centre in less time than it takes me to walk to the bus stop,(station is 2 minute walk from my house).
I agree that the cost of public transport in some areas is ridiculously high and certainly doesn’t encourage anyone to swap a car journey for public transport.

I think ageism creeps in when anyone makes assumptions based purely on age. Your elderly relatives may well live like this but loads of elderly people don't. My MIL cranks the heating up to ridiculously high temperatures and has no problem paying the gas bill. I imagine lots of younger people though live like your mum and rely on wearing lots of layers to get through winter.

Statistics show pensioners are a relatively well off group in society. Does that mean that every pensioner is rich? Absolutely not, but it is those of working age with children that are statistically most likely to be suffering poverty. It is extremely ageist to dole out a valuable benefit to pensioners just in the basis that they are old and leave younger, poorer people struggling without help.

Here we go again we’re off with another let’s bash the OAP’s because they get a bus pass. Just because your grandparents are not poor that doesn’t mean every OAP can afford what they can. Let’s hope you’ve got you shit together when you’re old.

Different demographics, perhaps: I'm in the SE and I live on the edge of very affluent town.

I live in an affluent area too but it has a good bus service that's pleasant to use so it's popular. I imagine it is very area dependent but there are definitely some areas where using the bus isn't seen a slumming it.

Quite right!

We're on Pension Credit and we really value our bus passes, not to mention the Winter Fuel Payment and Warm Home Discount.

We'd be cold without this help. Not every pensioner is loaded.

My grandparents are certainly not poor. They've got a house worth half a million, tons of investments, a car, pensions, but they get sent the magic free bus white card through the door from the Labour party in Cardiff.

We live in sheltered housing and have no investments.

I was a nurse and DH is disabled, although he worked when he could. How were we supposed to amass a fortune for our retirement?

Firstly you sound rather spoilt and unkind ,yes your GDP are wealthy and presumably fit and well enough to be driving .Many Older people may be able to afford a car,but not wish or are not well enough to drive .Many others cant afford to,Younger people who have disabilities, have no choice as unable to drive or indeed go anywhere without help .Should they all stay home ? Maybe think about asking Nan and Grandad for a loan and buying a car? Otherwise get over it!

Assuming you're in England, and all the usual rules apply to you, you should never be paying that amount for prescriptions.

If you get regular prescriptions, you would almost certainly save money with a prescription prepayment certificate.

BUT! Even if it's an unexpected one-off, if you're paying three or four prescription charges a PPC can still be well worth it, and you don't have to wait for your drugs.

When you pay for the prescriptions, you MUST ask the pharmacist for an FP57 or prescription charge receipt. You CANNOT go back and get it later, it HAS to be when you pay.

Then go on the NHS BSA website and buy a 3-month PPC for about £32, and MAKE SURE YOU BACKDATE IT to before the date you paid your prescription charges.

Then when your PPC comes through (I think it's all digital now), you go to a pharmacist with your PPC and your FP57 and you'll get a refund of the prescription charges you paid.

As a bonus you'll also get free prescriptions for as long as the PPC lasts.

Edit: I'm aware this is still shit, because it assumes you have the cashflow to pay out another £32 before getting the original £40 or whatever back, but it's a useful option that a lot of people don't seem to have been told about. (Personally I think pharmacists should have to hand you a leaflet with this information if your prescription charges are more than the cost of a PPC, or they should be able to sell you an immediately-valid 3-month PPC there and then instead of the charges, but obviously that would be FAR beyond the infrastructure of the NHS and would look way too much like caring about people's welfare.)

All this faff is also a prohibitive process for many people with other disadvantages, such as lack of familiarity with the system, lack of literacy or digital literacy, cognitive or other difficulties that make this kind of admin trickier, lack of time, stressful or overburdened lives, etc. etc.