Pensioner's 'perks' under review.

SailorSam

Sapphire wrote: »

No, this is not the case. Anyone who has a free travel pass in London can only travel free after 9.30 a.m., that is outside the rush hour. Before that they pay the standard amount for travel, like everyone else.

It's the same here 9.30 monday--friday, but anytime at weekends. I believe you couldn't use them after 11pm, but i think that has changed now.

jamesd

GibbsRule_No3 wrote: »

I have the 60+ card in London, that I paid £20 for but my understanding is that it cannot be used on the Railway until after 9.30 Monday - Friday and all day weekends. Has it changed since I got mine then?

For some rail lines there is access before 9:30, but not most of the national ones. See the map and list for specifics.

GibbsRule_No3 wrote: »

where I live if I want to travel into London before 9.30 I'd get the bus to Richmond and use the Tube rather than rail.

The only rail I see that's free at all times from Richmond is London Overground and of course tube. The links further out are in the after 9:30 colour. So I think no change for your particular journey.

nickcc

SailorSam wrote: »

And the guide also told us stories about how in the dim & distant past, when tickets weren't given out, the men on the toll booths would just hold their hands out as motorists drove past.
But then that happens everywhere, and not just in this Country.

Living and working for some time in the North East we visited the managers office of the Tyne Tunnel, every wall was covered with cctv screens and seperate mini screens showing every vehicle and fee paid, talk about big brother and lack of trust doesn't come in to it.

I can remember the tales of revenue collectors going home with pockets full of cash, bet they were singing "o happy days" as in all honesty I would.

p00hsticks

Tammykitty wrote: »

A woman born on the 5th April 1953 - retired on 6th March 2016 (And receives the old state pension).
A woman born on the 6th April 1953 - retired on 6th July 2016 (And receives the new state pension)

Woman A will have received £1,547 by the time Woman B retires.
Woman B will be getting £36 a week more - so after 42 weeks, will have caught up with want woman A has received in total, and will continue to get £36 a week more.

I susepct you are misunderstanding how the transitional rules for the new State Pension work. It's likely that, assuming both women have similar working histories, they will receive very similar, if not identical, weekly amounts.

If they were both previously 'contracted in', then woman A is likely to have additonal SERPS/S2P as well as the basic £119 under the old rules

And if they were both previously 'contracted out' then woman B would have a deduction made to the £155 under the new rules.

jamesd

GibbsRule_No3 wrote: »

BTW does anyone know how much child benefit costs the country

About £11.7 billion a year. The most expensive part of the welfare budget is the State Pension at about £92.1 billion a year and the total benefit and tax credit budget is about £217 billion a year.

The core purpose of Child Benefit is to keep children out of absolute poverty at a time when things from poor education to poor food and medical care can have life-long adverse effects in health and income.

The unemployment benefits that seem to incense more people than others costs about 2.4 billion a year.

jamesd

Tammykitty wrote: »

My parents, have both started to receive there state pension in the last year or so - neither of them are receiving over £155 - ... so both are entitled to the full state pension.

Neither is entitled to or receiving the full state pension. That is about £280 a week at the moment. That is composed of the full basic state pension plus the maximum achievable earnings-related additional state pension, protected at an above £155 level by the transitional protection rules that give the higher of the old and new calculation amount.

Tammykitty wrote: »

A woman born on the 5th April 1953 - retired on 6th March 2016 (And receives the old state pension).
A woman born on the 6th April 1953 - retired on 6th July 2016 (And receives the new state pension)

If both never worked and both received 35 years of NI credits then the first would get the basic state pension at about £119 with no earnings-related addition while the second would get the maximum single tier pension at about £155. In the more real world both probably did some work for a while and the first of them would have a higher starting level than just eh basic state pension.

Under the rules that just ended a person with a full working life on low pay would get about £190 a week in state pension. So your father getting less than £155 implies that he must have been contracted out for most of his working life. Which in turn means that he's getting the missing bit of the state pension from his workplace pension schemes instead, or has a personal pension pot.

Similar applies to your mum. Her state pension is so low given 30 years of working that she pretty much has to have been contracted out at some point.

p00hsticks

GibbsRule_No3 wrote: »

BTW does anyone know how much child benefit costs the country

You mat find this a useful summary of how the welfare budget is spent
http://visual.ons.gov.uk/welfare-spending/

xylophone

The core purpose of Child Benefit is to keep children out of absolute poverty

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_benefits_in_the_United_Kingdom

"Effective from 7 January 2013, Child Benefit, a universal benefit since its introduction, became means tested - those earning more than £50,000 per year would have part of their benefit withdrawn, and if earning over £60,000, would receive nothing at all. The charge was based on individual, not household income, hence two earners on £49,999 would receive full child benefit, while one earner earning £60,000 would receive none."

I wouldn't call a household income of £99,998 per annum absolute poverty!

And as for the absolute nonsense of the one parent/two parent situation...defies all logic and justice!

post 11

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/71346903#Comment_71346903

Cardew

One of the best pensioner's perks was free entrance to Lords yesterday to see Middlesex beat Yorkshire to win the County Championship!

harz99

nickcc wrote: »

Presumably if you don't use your pass then there is no charge on the taxpayer. Just because you receive one doesn't mean that you are using it and costing the taxpayer money, perhaps you could confirm this is the case ?

The only cost to the taxpayer would be the initial administrative time to start with and the costs relating to the physical card (production/postage etc.). These are repeated at renewal.


Usage of a pensioners travel permit, depending on where in the UK you are and what mode of travel, will cost either the flat payment which operators receive for accepting each use, or the actual fare forgone for the journey made (or a percentage thereof).


This why on some buses you just pass the card over a reader and may or may not get a ticket, whereas on others you have to state your destination and receive a ticket showing both boarding and destination points.


In my county area we can use the bus before 0930 M-F on payment of a flat 50p for each journey per person.


London is totally different in the way it treats it's OAPs, some might think that was vote buying by the various Mayor's and political parties!