An end to the free swim for kids and over 60's

meerkat2007

bristol_pilot wrote: »

Good. I see plenty of over-60s living in large houses, driving around in Mercs, on good salaries etc yet they get free swims, bus passes and winter heating fuel allowance etc. One over-60 I know lives abroad in the tropics but still gets his winter heating allowance! It's really about time this profligate spending by the previous govt was put to an end. Those who use a service should pay for it. Simples.

Fine, I can look forward to a reduction in my taxes when I no longer have to pay for kids to be educated - great!

bristol_pilot

lol - that would be very nice but realistically state school education, NHS, police, defence and the like will always have to be paid by the taxpayer (unfortunately)

tanith

bristol_pilot wrote: »

Good. I see plenty of over-60s living in large houses, driving around in Mercs, on good salaries etc yet they get free swims, bus passes and winter heating fuel allowance etc. One over-60 I know lives abroad in the tropics but still gets his winter heating allowance! It's really about time this profligate spending by the previous govt was put to an end. Those who use a service should pay for it. Simples.

And I see many pensioners struggling with just a state pension and very little else once they retire....... might be a few rich pensioners where you live but many struggle with paying day to day bills and a free swim once a week is one thing they look forward to without having to skimp to afford it.....

margaretclare

Lane swimming is no good for me. I need the shallow pool! I go to adult beginners' swimming once a week and for practice on Friday 2-3 pm. This is at SwimmingTales, but it is not free. https://www.swimmingtales.co.uk

~daisy~_2

at the leisure centre i work at we have free swimming for over 60's and under 17's - they arent restricted to certain times and as far as we are aware this scheme is funded until the end of march 2011 - think there will be uproar if they revoke it before then as alot of ppl know its until next year
we get paid a certain amount from the local council but i believe it doesnt cover the costs of the actual amount of swimmers - we have registered hundreds for this scheme even at our smallish centre

tanith

~daisy~ wrote: »

at the leisure centre i work at we have free swimming for over 60's and under 17's - they arent restricted to certain times and as far as we are aware this scheme is funded until the end of march 2011 - think there will be uproar if they revoke it before then as alot of ppl know its until next year
we get paid a certain amount from the local council but i believe it doesnt cover the costs of the actual amount of swimmers - we have registered hundreds for this scheme even at our smallish centre

Daisy the scheme is supposed to continue to April next year but this lovely new government have scrapped the funding from the end of July, I guess it will be up to individual councils wether they continue allowing the free swimming or not and fund it themselves my guess is most will not .. its a damn shame..

Hannah_10

bristol_pilot wrote: »

lol - that would be very nice but realistically state school education, NHS, police, defence and the like will always have to be paid by the taxpayer (unfortunately)

Yes but that's the whole point of it. We do have an issue with public health at the moment. Have you any idea what it costs to treat an alzheimers patient over the course of their decline? It is enormous! One of the biggest factors in preventing alzeimers has been found again and again to be regular healthy excercise. People with fit lifestyles are at a seriously reduced risk of developing it at any given age. Having a fit lifestyle has also been shown repeatedly to slow the progression of the illness.

So, keeping alzheimers as the example, if I, as a politician, look at the bill for allowing every over-60 to swim for free, how does it compare if X percent then reduce thier risk of developing this incredibly expensive burden of a disease as a result? Someone did the sums and found that, you know what... when we look at the health improvements from rather cheaply encouraging the financially riskiest portions of our society into healthier lifestyles we find we make an overall saving against the cost to the NHS.

That's why free swimming for older people makes financial sense to the country.

It's not a new idea to push healthier living intitiatives to reduce the NHS bill. We've been giving poorer famillies free milk for babies for at least my lifetime (I drank it when I was little).

Errata

I agree, it is a shame but the bald fact is that the country has run out of money and cuts have to be made everywhere.

Hannah_10

Errata wrote: »

I agree, it is a shame but the bald fact is that the country has run out of money and cuts have to be made everywhere.

It's almost like we've forgotten that the same tax payers who subsidise the swimming also pay the NHS. We're going to generate a tiny sum from swimming fees and then spend a huge sum on healthcare and disibility benefits instead. That makes no sense at all except in the exceptionally short-term... Which is good for Messers Cameron and Clegg as they badly need to start impressing the public as fast as possible.

Think about it, if you were my carer (I am disabled) and you could either pay a few quid a week for me to swim on a regular basis for the next four years, or you could stop paying for swimming but in three years time you've got, say, a 30% chance of getting a therapy bill in the thousands or tens of thousands, what would you opt for?

If you were thinking of the long term and the whole picture you would, of course, pay for me to swim.

If you were in dire need of every penny you could get to produce a very rapid budget sheet to impress the people who gave you your job (but aren't sure of your competance) then what?

Savvy_Sue

Errata wrote: »

I'm struggling to understand the logic behind this. If the pool is open and staffed it doesn't matter if there are 60 pensioners enjoying a free swim at the same time or none, the overhead costs are the same.

I'm not so sure about that, apart from the cost of the extra showers, doesn't the water need more chemicals and checks etc if it's used more?

I wonder if GPs should be able to 'prescribe' swimming as they can slimming clubs and gym sessions?