Cameron protects OAP benefits till 2015

seven-day-weekend

margaretclare wrote: »

We used to have a half-fare pass available here for £12 a year. You paid your £12 to get the pass and then could pay half-fare unlimited times. Even then, I used it maybe a dozen times in 10 years. I've never understood why that had to be replaced. Even on basic state pension that's pennies. If people on basic i.e. with pension credit got it free then they wouldn't lose out at all.

I use my bus pass all the time, sometimes seven days a week. I would not want to bother having to pay half-fare, I wouldn't want to have to scrat around for the change (and even at half fare it's 90p each way to the city centre).. If I had to pay I'd much rather pay all at once (like Chesky suggested) and then be able to get on and off the bus as many times as I wanted.

pollypenny

Since Tesco opened in our town, shops in the outlying villages closed one by one.

I know many pensioners who would find life withput their bus-pass very difficult.

Of course, these villages tend to have only an hourly or two hourly bus service anyway.

Farway

I think the bus pass issue does depend where you live, if in London or a big city probably very useful. If rural, like one bus every Wednesday, then maybe not a big deal to lose it

Personally I use the pass maybe a couple of times a week, but it's loss would not be a problem for me, I would either walk or use my car

WFA, has got me thinking. I do not really need it and the debate has got me pondering, perhaps I should donate the £200 to a local age related charity?

Roger1

chesky369 wrote: »

Perhaps one way around the bus pass issue would be to issue it free to those on benefits and make an annual charge for pensioners not on benefits - say £50.

Yes, that would be one way. Another way would be to leave well alone!

After all, even Bonkers Boris has promised that the Freedom Pass will be 'free' to over-60s as long as he's Mayor of London. More responsibly, it should be available to those of retirement age, and the disabled as at present.

It's not free, of course, it's paid for from taxation. I have been paying tax for over 50 years and continue to do so. I'm lucky that I have made no great demands on the State and the Freedom Pass is the only tangible benefit I receive apart from free prescriptions (which I get anyway for other reasons). I've paid more than enough for this!

OTOH, along with everybody else I'm paying for young persons' passes. Ever tried to catch a bus just before schools start and just after they chuck out? More than once I've been left standing at the bus stop as the bus whizzes by, full of kids. While I wouldn't want the practices of my day - no bus pass unless living more than 3 miles away - to prevail today, I wouldn't want kids of school age to ride bikes in London's traffic so can see the need for buses, but free?

The winter fuel allowance is another matter. I can see that it should go to UK residents and not those who have moved to warmer climes. (Not sure about retirees in Sweden or Finland, though. ) Means testing would probably cost most of any perceived saving, so let sleeping dogs lie - or abolish it and give us back our over-65 tax allowance.

Murphymycat

What about the free swimming for over 60s. This has been stopped, don't know if is just our area or every where. Our pensioner sessions at our local swimming pool were always busy. Less swimming = less exercise = less fitness = less health
= higher NHS costs

How much did the govt really save in taking this away

JillyCornwall

Murphymycat wrote: »

What about the free swimming for over 60s. This has been stopped, don't know if is just our area or every where. Our pensioner sessions at our local swimming pool were always busy. Less swimming = less exercise = less fitness = less health
= higher NHS costs

How much did the govt really save in taking this away

Free Swimming ended with us about 12mths ago...now the pool is being run by a private contractor & the fee has gone up by 25%..I now only swim once a week & the once full pool is empty!

Rupert_Bear

If they decide to means test the bus pass I do not think this is a bad thing.
There are too many pensioners who live in the city who just get on the bus
because some are too lazy to walk.

I have a bus pass but never use it because I prefer to walk, cycle or can use my car.


OFF SUBJECT.

And don't get me started on these so called benefit people who go to the PDSA rather than pay for their animals to have vet care. In my City the amount of Year 12 cars parked outside of the PDSA is terrible.

seven-day-weekend

Rupert_Bear wrote: »

If they decide to means test the bus pass I do not think this is a bad thing.
There are too many pensioners who live in the city who just get on the bus
because some are too lazy to walk.

I have a bus pass but never use it because I prefer to walk, cycle or can use my car.


OFF SUBJECT.

And don't get me started on these so called benefit people who go to the PDSA rather than pay for their animals to have vet care. In my City the amount of Year 12 cars parked outside of the PDSA is terrible.

......and the problem is....?

I do walk, and can drive, but I actually think going by bus is greener than going by car, especially if going to the City Centre.

Jennifer_Jane

Murphymycat wrote: »

What about the free swimming for over 60s. This has been stopped, don't know if is just our area or every where. Our pensioner sessions at our local swimming pool were always busy. Less swimming = less exercise = less fitness = less health
= higher NHS costs

How much did the govt really save in taking this away

Having the free swimming saved me over £200 annually. And that will have gone up when I need to renew in August. So I loved it and was grateful, but felt it should be your own responsibility to look after your health, not the Government's.

By the way, Labour always said that it would finish in July 2010 (I think it was 2010), when the Con/Dems came into power they simply stopped it from April 2010. I heard a commentator on Questiontime describing the removal as 'shoddy', but Labour were always going to have stopped the scheme a few months later.

For my own pool, we still have the regulars that go, I hadn't noticed a reduction in attendance during the public swim (as opposed to the swim for the oldies) that I go to.

Farway

I think the free swimming was linked to local council, we never had it here so therefore never used it or missed it