National Concessionary Travel Pass.

[searchlight]

How are bus companies reimbursed when you use your pass? My pass says concessionary travel funded by HM Government and my local authority.
Thanks for any reply.

[heathfield]

Answer's here...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/politics_show/7844371.stm

[searchlight]

Thanks for the link. Very interesting.

[dunnitall]

Might help the coffers if it wasn't free like now but every journey cost just 50pence. Wouldn't be too much of a hardship for a lot of people I think and at least they would recoup some of the expense.

[New Judge]

In 2011/12 local authorities in England spent £1.109 billion on concessionary fares. In the same year the government provided more than eight times that sum for "Overseas Development" (a misnomer if ever there was one). By 2015 they aim to spend eleven or twelve times that sum.

So how about this: instead of screwing pensioners out of a paltry 50p every time they get on a bus the government cuts its "Overseas Development" budget by about 10%. Wouldn't be too much of a hardship for a lot of people I think and at least they would recoup some of the expense of pouring money down bottomless pits.

[dunnitall]

Agree with you NJ in fact there should be no money going to other countries from our coffers afaic.

[factor-fiction]

I don't think there's any chance of any party stopping the free travel passes for pensioners. Some have talked about means testing it but i think that's a non-starter too.
But if every suggestion about reducing public expenditure is met with diversionary suggestions to cut the expenditure on Overseas Development instead , I think there's no chance of making meaningful savings.

[New Judge]

No, but it's a question of scale and priorities, factor.

There are about £11bn of meaningful savings to be had by abolishing overseas aid entirely. It rarely goes to the intended recipients and even when it does some of those recipients have highly dubious credentials. However, even if every penny was wisely spent on worthy causes I would contend that the government needs to prioritise its limited resources towards those people who have contributed to the nation's funds in the expectation that they will receive certain concessions when the time comes. The government, on behalf of the taxpayer, is essentially borrowing about £11bn p.a. (the repayment of which has to be funded by the said taxpayer) to give away to foreigners. You could not devise a more ridiculous scheme if you tried. After all, would you run a bank overdraft to enable you to give some money away to strangers? Good luck to you if you would.

Meanwhile a debate surfaces from time to time as to whether 10% of that sum can be found to fund concessionary travel for older people here. Mr Cameron has only recently abandoned his plan to have the overseas aid budget written into legislation. I have never heard of any plan to have the concessionary travel scheme for pensioners similarly protected.