Pre budget report.Bus passes and prescriptions

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Listening to Money box on R4 today and heard that hidden away in the chancellors report was the news that from April next year the age for bus passes and free prescriptions will rise by 1 month every 2 months.
So someone who is 57 next April will not be eligible for these benefits until they are 61.5 yrs. I think it will keep rising until a new base age of 65 years old is reached.

Doc_N

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/moneybox/8408013.stm

Benefits align with women's pension age

The age at which people qualify for benefits such as free bus passes and prescriptions will rise from 6 April 2010. At the moment anyone over the age of 60 qualifies for these concessions.
But, tucked away on page 84 of the pre-budget report, the Treasury said this age threshold will rise gradually in the future. The threshold will follow the women's state pension age instead.
The same is true for the winter fuel payments. By April 2020 these concessions will be for the over 65s only.
To find out when you will qualify for these benefits in future, see the following link, and enter you date of birth and gender as "female".



http://pensions.direct.gov.uk/en/state-pension-age-calculator/home.asp


Not good news for anyone in their late 50s expecting to get a bus pass at 60.

TREVORCOLMAN

Tried the link - WOW!

It says I need at least 30 years of NI credits - I will have been working for 48 years by then!

EdInvestor

This also applies to pension credit and all other benefits where men currently benefit from EU laws which ban gender discrimination. Without those laws, they would not be eligible for any of the benefits till they reached male state retirement age of 65.

Under the new rules coming in next year, men will further benefit as they will be able to claim a state pension based on their wife's contributions, as women can do now based on their husband's record, even if they haven't paid any NI themselves.

seven-day-weekend

And the problem is......?

These benefits have always been in line with womens' State Pension age. This is rising gradually to 65. This has been known about for at least a decade.

So it has not been exactly 'hidden away'.

Doc_N

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

And the problem is......?

These benefits have always been in line with womens' State Pension age. This is rising gradually to 65. This has been known about for at least a decade.

So it has not been exactly 'hidden away'.

Not so. The increasing age for the women's state pension age has indeed been known about for some time. The change to the age for free bus passes and free prescriptions is entirely new - and was very much hidden away. Very few people coming up for 60 are yet aware of it, and it's likely to come as an unpleasant surprise.

seven-day-weekend

I always assumed that those Benefits connected to State Pension age woiuld rise in line with it.

lilac_lady

Those of us who have reached the magic age already are very lucky to get these extra benefits. It's a pity that British pensioners have such poor state pensions compared to other EU countries, but that's another topic.

EdInvestor

Doc_N wrote: »

Not so. The increasing age for the women's state pension age has indeed been known about for some time. The change to the age for free bus passes and free prescriptions is entirely new .

No it isn't.I wouldn't rely on your - or other people's - ignorance of the facts as a guideline to Government policies.

Ironic isn't it how men never question the arrival of all these freebies for retired people even though they are not retired, yet start to whinge about unfairness when they are gradually subject to female pension equalisation?:rolleyes::rolleyes:

seven-day-weekend

lilac_lady wrote: »

Those of us who have reached the magic age already are very lucky to get these extra benefits. It's a pity that British pensioners have such poor state pensions compared to other EU countries, but that's another topic.

But we don't have to pay so much NI (an 'autonomo' -self employed - in Spain has to pay 235 euros a month, regardless of how much they have earned); also we have far more reliance on occupational and private pensions than many European countries..

In the part of Spain wher I live for half the year, the older villagers do not understand the concept of my husband's Teachers' Pension. They do not understand how he could have become a 'pensioner' at only 55.

So I think it probably evens out in the end.

EdInvestor

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

But we don't have to pay so much NI (an 'autonomo' -self employed - in Spain has to pay 235 euros a month, regardless of how much they have earned)

Gosh, big potential difference.Class 2 self employed contributions in the UK are only about £10 a month.Plus there's class 4 on top based on profits, which IIRC kicks in at around the £5k p.a. level, under that you pay nothing.

Do you know how the situation works in Europe regarding married women, 7DW? It would be interesting to compare,especially given the changes coming up next year and the much maligned married women's stamp.