OAP and Taxis

spezza

Good morning,

My neighbour is 96 and has had to give up his car (amazingly a few months ago). I give him a lift in most mornings to collect his paper, and he either walks or gets the bus home.
He goes shopping once a week, and finds it difficult to get all his items home on the bus and so would like to use taxis occasionally. The problem is they are approx £7 from town to his house about 2miles (tops).
Does anyone know of any form of benefit or discount that might be available to him to use with Taxis?

I look forward to your thoughts..........

Spezza

jamesd

One possible approach is to use internet shopping to order a delivery of heavier non-perishable items once every month or three. You could set up an account in his name and do the ordering for him, with him providing the payment details. Or you could show him how to do it with a computer in the library so he can take care of it all himself. The library staff would probably be happy to help.

sleepless_saver

It depends where he lives. Ask the local authority if they provide a card which gives discounts on taxi fares.

(Also could be worth looking into attendance allowance if he's not getting it already.)

Linton

Contact your local CVS - Council for Voluntary Services. The one in my area provides volunteer drivers for people who cant reasonably use public transport. They have recently extended this to include personal shopping on behalf of such people.

ilikewatch

Some local authorities offer "taxi tokens" as an alternative to an annual bus pass - may be worth enquiring about? Altern atively are there any other older people locally who might want to share the cost of a taxi?

xylophone

Could you do his shopping for him?

somethingcorporate

Pre-booking on a regular booking could save you a couple of quid per trip.