School children should receive free bus travel before pensioners?

[Itchthescratch]

My child is starting a school where it will cost around £2k for bus travel. This school is local and one of the closest schools to us. The other schools close to us are much worse in terms of opportunities and academic outcomes. I can afford the bus fare easily but I worry that some poorer families will really struggle to send their children to the higher achieving school because of the cost.

I understand that there isn't an endless pot of money but surely it would make sense to give school children free travel ahead of other groups like pensioners? School children are statistically much more likely to suffer from poverty (child poverty is almost double pensioner poverty)and it seems crazy that we aren't supporting social mobility whilst we let all pensioners travel for free on buses.

Oh well OP, I don't think you're going to listen to anyone but let's try putting this very simply.

You chose to have children, you are emotionally and financially responsible for them until they get to 18. That's it, no more no less.

Stop whingeing about financial assistance for the decisions you made. Your child, your choice, your responsibility to make it work.

Or perhaps you think children should to take on financial responsibility for their pensioner parents? That's what will happen if you take away their independence, how could it be otherwise?

The distance has to be calculated along the nearest safe walking route. If it's not safe and the alternative is over 3 miles away, the child would qualify for free school transport.

I agree that 3 miles is quite far although where I live it takes about the same amount of time to do three miles on the bus by the time you've walked to the bus stop, waited for the bus, got stuck in traffic etc.

Yeah im sure my 90 year old DM is enjoying being housebound after finally retiring from full time factory work two months shy of 80 and working from the age of eight including harvesting after being brought up in post war Italy.

Agreed. I can run 3 miles (4.8k) in about 35 mins, slowly.

It wont take an 11 year old more than double that to walk it.

I can understand that most people use public transport in London - and some other big cities - because it's the most efficient way to get around, but it's by no means representative of the rest of the country.

don't have kids unless you can afford bus fare is an odd one

when I conceived ds I intended to return to work and bus fares were far cheaper and I assumed he'd go to a school he could walk to.
now I've been out of work all his life due to his care needs, and carers allowance being what it is, and bus fares having gone up drastically, and the closest school not being suotable it doesn't seem overly reasonable to tell me I should have known all this back then and this should have not had him

only if the council accepts it as the closest acceptable school . they often have different standards to parent.s

Enjoying old age? There are pensioners sitting in their homes right now with no means of heating them.

Pensioners, as a whole, voted for tax cutting politicians, they voted for selling off council flats,they voted for privatisations and demutualisations, they voted for brexit.

You don’t “receive” one. You have to apply for one.

Oh, come on, you think wealthy pensioners are flocking to use off-peak bus travel to go shopping? No, it's the poor and infirm. Cutting those people off from their access to the world beyond their homes won't fund many schoolchildren.

You would probably find there are assistance schemes for families who can't afford necessary transport to school. You don't need such assistance, so it seems likely you're using a bit of whataboutery to fume about old people getting something they need assistance with.

How many 5 year olds travel to school alone?

You made a decision not to send your child to the nearest school? But think tax payers should pay for travel? I get the argument about social mobility but the answer is to invest in schools and parenting so teaching staff are not managing increasingly poor, unaccountable behaviour and school life improves for all.

Don't expect people struggling with age related health conditions they can do sod all about, loneliness, worries about rising costs on a fixed income etc etc to be housebound and all that comes with that.

Pensioners are the richest they have ever been as a group. They are the wealthiest group in our society. So many pensioners are now enjoying old age in a way that previous and future generations of pensioners won't be able to. This doesn't mean everyone is rich but only a small minority are actually poor compared to other groups right now. When I was a child almost half of pensioners were in poverty, now it's dropped by two thirds and other groups are far more likely to have unheated homes.

All of England is subsidised by the City of London and the South East and pay lower taxes than those living in Scotland.

I would have sent my child to the nearest school if it was suitable. I believe all parents have an obligation to their children to do the best they can for them and to enable them to succeed and meet their potential. This includes sending them to the school that best meets their needs. The fact the state hasn't sorted out state education so that schools offer comparable levels of education isn't the fault of individual parents or children. Why should they suffer the consequences of a crap system? Why is this fair that it will be disproportionately the poor kids who can't afford to move to the nice catchments that get stuck in the bad schools?

The vast majority of pensioners can afford to pay for a bus fare. They are better placed to do this than any other group in society. The options aren't to allow free travel for everyone over 65 or force all old people to stay at home and never use public transport. They can pay like everyone else and the vast majority certainly have the funds to do so.

Do you want working age disabled people to pay on the bus as well? My pensioner husband can hardly walk he had a knee operation which went wrong and he ended up in intensive care he is just as disabled as a working age person but cannot get any benefits with a mobility element due to his age without his bus pass he wouldn't be a able to go anywhere

She is in the minority. The average retirement age in the UK is around 65 which aligns pretty much with the current state pension age. My parents and grandparents on both side have enjoyed their retirement. Of course it's relative as ageing can be cruel but they have the financial means and security that previous and future generations won't have.

Agree.

No way would I have wanted my kids walking three miles to school and back, despite the heroic stories of posters on here.

I would rather they arrived at school fresh or came home not exhausted. So they can focus on schoolwork, homework or extracurriculars. Many schools don’t have lockers. The bags of books can be heavy. What about sports kit, cricket bags etc. There are no medals for a child lugging a heavy bag to school and back for a six mile round trip. Whether they are 7 or 17. No thanks.

Disabled children already get free bus passes. Disabled pensioners could too without there being universal entitlement. This isn't about disabled people

Plus what about the fact that once again any kid with money is likely to be able to catch the bus and avoid the walk? This gives them hours extra day to do additional homework, extra curriculars or even work and earn some extra money.

Times have changed. Kids don't play out anymore and it isn't acceptable to allow children to have the kind of free range childhood that was common in the past. Most parents wouldn't find a 3 mile walk in the dark acceptable so those that have to do it will be few and far between which creates safety issues in itself.

Yes.

Except you are wrong. The state shares responsibility for children in all kinds of ways. It pays for their childcare when they're young, their health care and their education as they get older. Why is this? Because the state and society need children and healthy, educated ones at that.

The same is true with pensioners. Around 4 million adult children provide care and support to their aging parents. The state simply couldn't cope financially or practically if this wasn't the case.

Looking after our vulnerable, old and young, is a shared enterprise between private families and the state. It's in all our interests that this is the case. The question is to what extent does the state help which vulnerable group? This will change over time but it has to be informed by a groups ability to help themselves. Currently children are twice as likely to suffer poverty than pensioners. It makes sense to extend free bus travel to those that can't afford it themselves.

I really don’t see why some groups get free transport whilst I have to pay £3.50 to go 3 miles on a bus. I only say this as the car costs me 6p. Therefore, I don’t take the bus. It would be fairer / more environmentally sustainable to have systems which people pay something. Kids should learn about the cost of things. Old people should pay something even if reduced fare.