Carers allowance vs Attendance Allowance

margaretclare

seven-day-weekend wrote:

You keep on saying this Margaret Clare. Why are they useless? I know loads of pensioners who can't drive!

Also, not everyone can afford a car.

Well, the AA is helping us to afford a car! If I was under 65 it wouldn't be a problem - my daughter recently got herself a new Renault Megane, very fancy, on her Mobility Allowance so don't try to make me feel guilty because not everyone can afford a car. She has exactly the same problem that I have with the hip joints so it has really nothing to do with our age, except that before I was 65 I couldn't claim it - was too mobile then. I did have Mobility Allowance back in 1983 but then lost it because, with the second hip replaced in 1987, I was mobile again.

I should have qualified the statement 'bus passes are useless'. To explain yet again, all last year I could hardly walk to the front gate, let alone to the top of the road to catch a bus. DH has been the same - the 3rd knee replacement on the same knee in as many years, 2003, 2004 and now September 2006, he is just about getting back to walking, but if we hadn't had the car neither he nor I, together or separately, would have gone anywhere.

There are a lot of disabilities which don't fall within the guidelines of 'needing help', and the type of help given - like the blanket issue of bus passes to all - may not be of help to everybody. There are many areas not so far from here, and this is a big residential conurbation, where there are NO buses at all! So there are people who have bus passes, would use them, but there isn't a bus to use them on.

Incidentally, my GCSE Maths course on Wednesday evenings would be very difficult by bus - college is a former school and it's a long walk from the town centre. I wouldn't like to attempt it in the dark carrying a heavy bag, even if I could walk that far, which I can't.

In addition, I don't like the hints and suggestions which seem to be coming my way - that because 'many pensioners can't drive', I, being a pensioner, should not drive. Also that because 'many pensioners can't afford a car' I am somehow in the wrong because I prefer to keep the car, as though there was some kind of stereotyped lifestyle for pensioners and I am not fitting into it.

The car is just too darned convenient, we can make decisions 'on the hoof' of where to go - going by bus would need a lot of complicated planning.

Of course, the day may come when we can no longer drive or afford to keep the car. In that case, it'll be taxis, which is what the old lady across the road used to do - she no longer goes anywhere now.

Margaret

seven-day-weekend

Margaret, I certainly didn't intend to make you feel guilty about having a car. We intend to have ours for as long as we can.

You actually meant that the bus pass is 'useless' to YOU, because of your disabilities,. OK, I accept that. But please don't give the impression that they are useless to everyone.

If I'm in the UK when I'm 60 I shall find mine extremely useful (even though I can drive) and I'm sure many others do too.

I think it's quite patronising to call them useless.

seven-day-weekend

I just meant precisely what I said.....that many pensioners can't drive. That is cetainly no reason why you shouldn't.

But conversely, because you can and do, is no reason to call peoples' bus passes, which may be their lifeline, 'useless'.

Where I live in the UK, there is no way many of the pensioners would be able access the city centre without the bus. There is nowhere in the centre to park the car and the bus takes you straight into the centre

margaretclare

seven-day-weekend wrote:

I just meant precisely what I said.....that many pensioners can't drive. That is certainly no reason why you shouldn't.

But conversely, because you can and do, is no reason to call peoples' bus passes, which may be their lifeline, 'useless'.

Where I live in the UK, there is no way many of the pensioners would be able access the city centre without the bus. There is nowhere in the centre to park the car and the bus takes you straight into the centre

In many instances the bus passes ARE useless, either because people can't walk (as in our case) to the bus stop, or because there are no buses.

There are people who live in the Belfairs area of Leigh-on-Sea who had their local bus withdrawn last year. They'd love to be able to catch the bus into the centre of town, but they can't. Taxis or nothing. Another bus service, within a few miles of where we live, is about to be withdrawn. People live in a village which has 2 pubs but no shop. They will be completely stuck, and yes, they were waving their bus passes at the local paper's cameraman only a few days ago.

Would it have been more cost-effective to have put the money spent on universal bus passes, into subsidising the bus services, keeping them running where they're struggling, providing a bus service where none exists? Most of the people affected had a half-fare pass anyway - I had one which I'd used a handful of times in 10 years. Would they have preferred to pay half-fare and know that there was a bus, rather than have a free bus pass to use on a bus service which is withdrawn?

In a city centre it is different, if you live close to a bus route, if you can walk to the bus stop, and if you can get straight into the city centre, that's ideal. If I lived in London, for instance, I wouldn't need the 'Chelsea tractors' that people seem to need there! But even in parts of London it's not so easy. My DH'S cousin was in Northwick Park Hospital, they live at Wembley, and his wife couldn't get to see him except when the sons took her by car.

Margaret

margaretclare

quill wrote:

One issue that I can see with bus passes is that you need to be fairly able-bodied to get on a bus! My father couldn't manage that. Shame it's not more versatile like vouchers to use towards bus fares or taxis.

Yes, I agree with that - it's the point I've been trying to make. The old lady across the road from us could not manage to walk to the bus stop either - she used to have a taxi every Tuesday morning regular as clockwork (market day). Now she doesn't seem to go anywhere.

It is NOT patronising to point out the obvious. I wonder if any research has been done to show who actually uses the free bus passes out of all those who are entitled to them? Could that money have been put to better use as I've pointed out - by subsidising a bus service where none exists or where one is about to be withdrawn? Or vouchers towards taxis?

Margaret

seven-day-weekend

I agree that ideally all centres of population should have a bus service.

I still don't think that for those people who can't get anywhere any other way their bus passes should be classed as 'useless'.

It might be a good idea to have a taxi voucher instead of a bus pass if there are no buses or if people cannot access the bus.

In my home city there is a free door-to-door bus service for people with mobility problems. You ring them up and it comes to your door and takes you where you want to go.

My 78-year-old BIL (who has Parkinsons) uses it frequently now he can no longer drive. He uses the normal buses too, using his buspass.

seggy1

Margaret the old saying after your hip replacements you should have not got to much better .

Ted_Hutchinson

seggy1 wrote:

Margaret the old saying after your hip replacements you should have not got to much better .

On average they (On average they last 10-15 years) last 10-15 years what Margaret said was "If this second revision of hip replacement should fail again - or even if the opposite hip replacement, which is now 19 years old, should fail - I'll be back to square one"
I think she'd be mad to hand in here AA on the basis that for a few weeks she's been able to manage a little better than previously. One frosty morning and a slip on the ice and it won't be back to square one, it'll be far more serious. I'm not sure how old Margarat is, but one thing is certain and that is she isn't getting any younger.

margaretclare

seggy1 wrote:

Margaret the old saying after your hip replacements you should have not got too much better.

Well, no, actually I was told that they were meant to restore me to near-normality and they did - for a while.

During all of 2005 my left leg was getting shorter and I couldn't drive - couldn't reach the clutch pedal. Couldn't have walked to the bus stop either. Couldn't walk down the garden - I can now. As Ted says, there's no telling how long it will last - may be as well to hang on to the AA if I'm allowed to.

Margaret

Ted_Hutchinson

seggy1 wrote:

Margaret the old saying after your hip replacements you should have not got to much better .

On average they (hip replacements ) last 10-15 years, what Margaret said was "If this second revision of hip replacement should fail again - or even if the opposite hip replacement, which is now 19 years old, should fail - I'll be back to square one"
I think she'd be mad to hand in her AA on the basis that for a few weeks she's been able to manage a little better than previously. One frosty morning and a slip on the ice and it won't be back to square one, it'll be far more serious. I'm not sure how old Margaret is, but one thing is certain and that is she isn't getting any younger. Falls are a major cause of disability and the leading cause of mortality due to injury in older people aged over 75 in the UK.