Ending of age allowance for pensioners in budget

Newly_retired

I don't see how it will help anyone for me to give my bus pass back.
If pensioners don't use the buses because they have to pay, bus services will diminish and everyone will suffer.
Using the bus is a great way for older people to get out and about, with all the health and social benefits that brings.
I don't need my WFA but I give it to a homelessness charity, who I am sure make better use of it than if it went into some black hole in the Treasury's coffers.
I could manage without the £10 Christmas bonus, so they can cut that one with my permission!
Like others, I might be glad of this extra cash one day. I had little enough when the children were young and there was a mortgage to pay. It's good to reap some rewards in later life.

clemmatis

zygurat789 wrote: »

Apparently not. I read something which said that baby boomers were born from 1946 - 1954, when in fact the birth rate fell from 1945 up to 1954. What does that make all those born in 1945?

The UK's postwar baby boom was brief and peaked in 1946. There was a second one in 1964, a third in 1990. The US one was longer, perhaps because America didn't face postwar austerity in the same way.


I'm a real baby boomer!

Errata

margaretclare wrote: »

I thought I made it clear - I gave my bus pass back simply because I never used it. It's not essential to have it. I don't know why I ever applied for it in the first place - probably because I was *told* it was something I should have.

Using the bus would not be a great way for me to get out and about, and there would be no health or social benefits. Most of the places DH and I have been to recently haven't been on a bus route. Maybe if people think 'oh right, I'll go to xxx today, there's a bus directly to it, I'll do that'. We are too used to doing things on the spur of the moment. There is a word for it which I've forgotten, it implies being adventurous and deciding on the spur-of-the-moment, making chance discoveries which bring delight.

I think the word you've forgotten is "car"

dzug1

margaretclare wrote: »

I thought I made it clear - I gave my bus pass back simply because I never used it. It's not essential to have it. I don't know why I ever applied for it in the first place - probably because I was *told* it was something I should have.

Using the bus would not be a great way for me to get out and about, and there would be no health or social benefits. Most of the places DH and I have been to recently haven't been on a bus route. Maybe if people think 'oh right, I'll go to xxx today, there's a bus directly to it, I'll do that'. We are too used to doing things on the spur of the moment. There is a word for it which I've forgotten, it implies being adventurous and deciding on the spur-of-the-moment, making chance discoveries which bring delight.

Serendipity may be the word you were after.

But giving your bus pass back in seems a bit OTT - there might once in a blue moon be a reason to use it and it's not costing you anything in the meantime.

Dunroamin

pollypenny wrote: »

Well said, MC.

We are the same, fine now. However, just one of us would find it difficult to manage. The C tax and heating mainly.

Of course, I will get half of OH's occupational pension. He will only get 2% up to 1987' then half afterwards. This is equal opportunities Teacher & Police pension style.

You only get half of a (male) teacher's occupatonal pension for post 1972 service - it comes as a shock for many teachers' widows.

zygurat789

margaretclare wrote: »

No, the word I wanted which I couldn't think of, was 'serendipity'.

If it ever happens that we can't use the car, for whatever reason, it's likely that by then we'll be too infirm and unable to use the bus either.

I'm being serious when I say that someone I know had the same thoughts.
Unfortunately driving a car is a fairly complicated exercise involving dexterity and all sorts of other human skills which decline as we get older. Keep a look out for those minor incidents, hitting the gate post etc that never used to occur and heed the warning. An accident in a car can prove fatal, on a bus it's not that serious.
The person I know, oh yes, her new car was full of dents and scratches
well before she went into a nursing home.
I think that using a buspass instead of driving a car becomes the responsible thing to do after a certain point. Trouble is we are the least able to judge our own certain point.

Roger1

zygurat789 wrote: »

According to Google there are 12,000,000 pensioners, so, according to your figures there are 10,500,000 pensioners paying 45% tax.

Of course not. If it makes you happier, reread my post and substitute '40% or more'. (My figures also came from a search, so perhaps you would want to compare search results?)

Maybe IDS has a point!

:rotfl:

Roger1

There's one aspect about giving back bus passes that I don't understand. I had to apply for mine, and I'm pretty sure that that's standard procedure. Surely those who do not want or need one should simply not apply?

Thanks to the current Mayor of London, IDS will become eligible for the London-only over-60 travelcard next year, assuming that he also lives in London. Will he apply? I imagine not.

Also, when is individual bus travel funded? On issue of the travel card or journey by journey? I thought that local councils supported by central government paid a fee upfront but may be wrong on this.

Errata

It's funded journey by journey, which is why hotspots like Torquay and Scarborough suffer because those bussing in are doing it from a number of districts and then bussing out from a single district.

Newly_retired

I mostly use my bus pass when I am doing my voluntary work in town. So I don't have any expenses to claim for my journey - saves the charity some money too.
DH has a bus pass he uses about twice a year. Recently he used it to avoid needing to park in town for a whole day event, but when it was time to go home, he was so exhausted that he took a taxi home - not much saving there, then!