scotland wide travel - free for over 60's and disabled

tootles_2

Well GREX9101, I just hope that you have a VERY GOOD pension scheme.............with your very jaundiced and predjudiced veiw you are going to need it............

margaretclare

teedee123 wrote:

GB actually jumped on the "bandwagon" as it was agreed by the Scottish Parliament it says free buses in Scotland but its really only local authority buses,when you think of the population of Scotland it will not cost that much.

It can cost a lot here, though (Essex, England). Southend council for example - last week's big budget meeting decided on £11 million of cuts which includes some services to older and disabled: cost of meals-on-wheels to go up, a cut of £20,000 in a subsidy to 'Club 60', an older people's club which is said to be a lifeline to many people who go nowhere and see no one. But at the same time that council has to pay £1 million to the county for this free travel scheme because it has been ordered to by the Government.

A neighbouring town, Basildon, has seen queues of pensioners 'round the block' all rushing for the free passes. It's thought that many will not use them but only want them because they're 'free'. For every one issued, whether used or not, costs a set fee which the council has to pay to the bus companies. One councillor said that previously 11,000 people held passes but the rush to take-up indicates that all 34,000 elderly people in the district could apply.

I've had a half-fare pass for some years now and as long as I'm still able to drive and afford our little car then I wouldn't use a free pass. For some months now I haven't been able to walk as far as the bus stop at the top of the road - getting better now, thank goodness!

What would REALLY help would be what my daughter gets. She has the same mobility problems as me, hip replacements at a relatively young age, and she gets DLA with mobility component, which enables her to buy a new car on Motability. I can't get that - after 65 it's assumed you either need the bus pass or you can't get about anyway.

I won't rise to grex's comments, except to say - it doesn't apply to all of us. I might start slagging off teenagers, but I don't because they're all different. All older people are not the same either. I have very little in common - apart from age-group - with many of them.

I did what I said I'd do - I dropped my bus-pass back into the council's letter-box yesterday, with a little note referring to the lady I spoke to on Friday. We discussed it and I told her that was what I wanted to do.

I don't expect free this, free that, concessions here there and everywhere. But then I'm not poor - I'm still saving, a lot of people I know have no possibility of saving.

B and I earned our pensions and we get them each in our own right, not as a 'pensioner couple' We both worked from age 16 to 67. I know of many people who're struggling to survive on just the very basic state pension, something like 5 grand a year. There is no way in the world that I could survive on that, not at all. You might say, younger people are poor too. Yes, but they have the possibility of getting a job/a better job/improving their situation some way. Once you're in your 70s that possibility doesn't exist.

Aunty Margaret

lilac_lady

To Grex9101 - youth is a temporary state. No I'm not a pensioner but I don't grudge them free transport.
To margaretclare - I admire your principles.

margaretclare

Hi Lilac_lady

I don't grudge anyone the free transport, or free anything else IF they really use it and if it makes a difference to their lives. It's certain that a lot of pensioners (usually older women on their own) are living below the poverty line. A recent report from Age Concern was called 'Just above the poverty line' and this IMHO would be the very worst place to be, because they would be just too well-off to claim any of the means-tested benefits, but not well-off enough to really 'live' as opposed to just survive.

I'm not rich but neither am I poor, I do have quite a bit of disposable income a month as your other thread asks. I have enough to be still saving £156 net a month into a stakeholder, £100 a month into my Yorkshire BS cash ISA, and approx £300 into a savings account (which I sometimes raid for use).

I also tip £85 a month into our joint account, B tips in £125 a month and he buys the groceries and pays for petrol, car insurance and other car running costs. The joint account is kept just for all the household bills - gas, electricity, water, home insurance, council tax (that's the biggest - £94 a month), phone and TV licence. This all adds up to just short of £210 a month, which is why we worked out those amounts from each of us to go into the joint a/c. B gets more money than I do which is why he pays more, but he also is able to save, usually at the end of each month when he has spare money in his current account. He transfers it into his FirstDirect e-ISA where it gains more interest.

Best wishes

Aunty Margaret

Pegs_2

If Devon is anything to go by, the district councils are funding the free bus passes and the county council is organising it for all of them. The card here is called Devonwide and I think it is a wonderful idea that all pensioners should apply for.

So if you can - go for it - look at your council web site on how to apply.

Why do I think it is wonderful?

Wonderful for pensioners.
(No hidden agenda - I have over 20 years before retirement!!)
All people over 60 qualify. No postcode lottery. No means-testing. Just send off your form and back comes your card - simple.
Isn't it great to have a perk just for being old. For most old people, life is about counting the pennies not about golf and spending the winter in Spain.

Wonderful for society as a whole ( that's you too grex ).
More people on buses equals less cars, less congestion on roads, more room in carparks, less fumes, less burning of fossil fuels etc etc etc. Bus companies get credited for these "free rides" so these bus passes are subsidising bus routes (especially rural routes).

Being part of a society means playing and paying a part in that society. I have no children, but happily fund the state education system. The last time I was in a hospital I was being born, but I happily fund the NHS. And I shall happily fund these bus passes too. I benefit because the people I interact with everyday benefit. That is life.

I shall now sign off, get a drink and read the Beano.

Romanysaver

CIS - it is good to see that reason prevails - Durham County Council has decreed that free travel is available to the over 60's countywide!! Thank goodness!
As for those who are against the facility, just a thought, it does mean that this will help keep some cars off our massively overcrowded roads! Pity it doesn't apply to the train, too, as it does in Scotland - the number of visitors to Newcastle from over the border is ginormous, and no wonder! However, it does help the N.E. (God's own country!!!) economy.

grex9101

lilac_lady wrote:

To Grex9101 - youth is a temporary state. No I'm not a pensioner but I don't grudge them free transport.
To margaretclare - I admire your principles.

I'll start off by giving away the fact that I'm not a teenager-I'm too articulate; was that not a clue?

Anywya, I HAVE provisioned for my old age, both with a pension plan, and my investments.

And I DO grudge the elderly everything they TAKE from the hard work I do. For the most part, they haven't bothered their shirts about saving properly, or indeed working past 65 (as i fully intend to do).

The only reason they are getting all these concessions is because the government want to win votes. If the over 65s were denied the right to vote, we'd see policy changing rather quickly. This is a fact of life.

In summary, you may not like what I say, but at least i'm honest about it. Old people deserve all they get-if they haven't set aside enough, then tough. Their bad for not provisioning.

And I will continue to deny any old person any benefit which I can legally have recourse to. I'm not working to support them, why the hell should I ?


PS Oh, and Pegs, why should I have to STAND on a bus full of old codgers, when i'm bloody paying for them as well as myself? Am I now living in communist Russia? If they don't contribute, they have no rights.

al_yrpal

Personally, I think all English pensioners should be entitled to free travel all over Scotland, after all we have all subsidised Scotland for years.

blossom30

al_yrpal wrote:

Personally, I think all English pensioners should be entitled to free travel all over Scotland, after all we have all subsidised Scotland for years.

NORTH SEA OIL, NEED I SAY MORE!!!!!

grex9101

shrewdal wrote:

NORTH SEA OIL, NEED I SAY MORE!!!!!

Agreed, Scotland actually subsidises the rest of the UK.