Government to slash National Express concessionary fares

2010

ceebeeby wrote: »

Perhaps one of the first things to go should be giving a free bus-pass to over 60's who don't even LIVE in this country, like all the OAP expats in Spain for a start -

If you don`t live in this country you can`t use a bus pass, so it would be of little value to anyone living outside of England.
You can`t even use it in Scotland or Wales and visa versa.

WestonDave

If they scrapped the whole concessionary bus pass thing, First Group would go bust! The whole thing has become a massive gravy train for bus companies at tax payers expense. If you get on an off peak bus where I live, the only people on the buses are free pass holders and students (because the Uni here won't let them have cars on campus). Fares are around £2 per mile (compares to the 45p per mile cost of running a car), and that all gets refunded by the local authority. So whilst pensioners get a free ride, they will keep using the buses, and the bus companies keep raking in the fees.

It clearly needs reform but maybe the solution is to peg fare rates (that the bus company gets back from the council) at the HMRC car expense rate of 45p per mile, thereby ending their licence to print money. I think the policy of giving OAP's a bus pass is sensible as it discourages them from trying to keep running a car after their reactions start to go, and helps with congestion, but the current system is bleeding us dry!

McKneff

You dont have to have 'not claimed a penny'
you use the hospitals, you use the roads, etc etc etc.

wealdroam

ceebeeby wrote: »

Perhaps one of the first things to go should be giving a free bus-pass to over 60's who don't even LIVE in this country, like all the OAP expats in Spain for a start - you should have to live in this country for at least 10 months (or so) of the year to get benefits IMHO! It astounded me when i found out they all get one!

Sorry, I don't understand... how does it cost anyone anything[1] if someone living in Spain has a free bus pass?
They can't use it in Spain, can they?
They aren't using it in the UK, are they?




[1]apart from the small admin cost of actually issuing it.

robt_2

McKneff wrote: »

Im 61, Ive worked for 45 years out of 47, brought kids up and have never claimed any thing from the government apart from child benefit

McKneff wrote: »

You dont have to have 'not claimed a penny'
you use the hospitals, you use the roads, etc etc etc.

Don't tell people that you have never claimed anything (which you admit you have) and then tell them they don't need to have claimed to make use of facilities (which I agree with).

One rule for all, not one for you and another for everyone else when you are debating.

ceebeeby

The admin cost and when they do come back to the UK for their fortnights holiday in the summer, they use the bus pass system - well my relatives and their friends do anyway and then they congratulate each other over jugs of cheap sangria round the pool about how much they take out of the UK!! They all hop back over to fleece the NHS too whenever anything goes wrong. Am I being a diddy and thinking of something different - I think I'm talking about the local bus system!

2010

Interestingly, the good people of Scotland will continue to get this concession on NE coaches BUT not for half price.
They will continue to get it, as they have always done, for FREE.

AirlieBird

Why the big fuss now? Coach operators have known about this since the Spending Review last year.

Dept_for_Transport wrote:

The current non-statutory arrangements that enable long distance coach operators to claim BSOG in return for offering a half price concession to older and disabled people will be ended by October 2011, although the industry may wish to continue to offer this on a commercial basis. This does not in any way affect the statutory national concession which offers free travel on local bus services throughout England.

blinkythefish

Good! When will the ordinary hard working people of this land get 50% discounts on petrol and travel? Never! Stop wasting our money. If you can't afford something, you can't have it. Simple.

viridens

blinkythefish wrote: »

Good! When will the ordinary hard working people of this land get 50% discounts on petrol and travel? Never! Stop wasting our money. If you can't afford something, you can't have it. Simple.

Can't agree with this. I see that you wish for the day when you will get a 50% discount. Using your logic, if you can't afford petrol and travel then maybe YOU can't have it. If you simply want a new 50% discount that you haven't paid for and has never been there, that's a different matter. Travel concessions have been there for a long time and I have paid for them. Now they are being taken away.

I realise that pensions and travel concessions etc. cost money, money I paid in tax and NI in good faith working for 45 years. Now the goal posts have been moved, and promises reneged on as pensioners and other soft targets are being robbed to recover the cash wasted to bail out banks whose 'experts' chose to invest our cash in 'emperor's new clothes' deals and more billions wasted in anti-Islam wars and foreign aid.

Pardon me for wanting what I signed up for and was promised. I paid my contributions in good faith and in expectation of some benefit. I will complain when I am shafted for reasons not of my making.