Older Person Bus Pass Query?

[cleoval]

Hi my husband is 62 years old. Ho old do you have to be to get the older person bus pass please. ?And where do you get it from. ? Thanks.

[davidsmith69]

Hi older people have to be 65 (ie pension age) before they can apply for a free bus pass. A form is available from your local council office.

[hc4361]

It's no longer available at 65, you are entitled to get it when you reach state pension age, currently 66 but rising.

You can apply online from your local travel provider shortly before you become eligible.

[margarettom]

If you live in London I think it's 60.

[hc4361]

Oh! You're quite right, it is 60 in London

[bhg481]

But the pass only works in London until you reach pension age (so it says). It works on underground too, for Londoners but not for the rest of us.

[maggiebee]

Everyone in Scotland gets a free bus pass when they reach 60.

[theshedman]

Yes pension age in England but 60 if you live in Wales. If you are disabled and living in England then you can get one earlier.

[dannyk13]

You are entitled to a free bus pass(for a man or woman) when you reach the female state pension age.
https://www.gov.uk/apply-for-elderly-person-bus-pass

[hc4361]

theshedman, pension age in Wales is the same as the rest of the UK, currently 66 but residents are entitled to the bus pass at 60

[furrypusscat]

Check with your local council office. They will tell you. I know it used to be 60 for both male and female.

[theshedman]

I meant getting bus pass was pension age in England but can get one at age 60 in Wales. As my son would say My Bad.

[Rockrose]

60 in Northern Ireland

[dannyk13]

Cleoval, Click on my link and enter your postcode to ascertain at what age bus passes are granted in your area.

[bhg481]

Also worth pointing out that they only work in the country of issue, so when we went to Scotland and Wales (from England) we had to pay on the buses.

[Old_Geezer]

Sounds like, if you don't live outside England or in the capital, then you're treated as second class, less worthy than the others. Shurely shome mishtake ?

[Buenchico]

For clarification of the above:

The qualifying age was originally set at 60 throughout the whole of the UK because that was the age when a woman could claim her state pension (with a man being treated, for the purposes of obtaining a bus pass, as if he was a woman with the same birth date).

Under a separate (but linked) scheme, residents of London who were the same age could obtain a Freedom Pass, giving them free travel on London Underground services as well as on buses.

When the state pension age for women began to rise, the governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland decided to keep the qualifying age for a bus pass at 60. However the UK Government decided that the qualifying age for a bus pass in England should rise in line with that for a woman's state pension. (Since the Freedom Pass in London includes an English bus pass as part of its validity, the authorities in London have had no choice but to follow suit, even though they originally sought to hold the qualifying age at 60).

As I was born in April 1953 (and I live in England), I qualified for my bus pass at roughly 62½ years of age (because that's when a woman born on the same day as me qualified for her state pension). However the qualifying age has continued to rise and is now between 65 and 66 (because that's how old both men and women currently need to be to get their state pension).

Applications for bus passes are handled by county councils (or by metropolitan/unitary councils where relevant).

So, Cleoval, if you're in the UK but not in England, your husband is already eligible for his free bus pass. If you're in England though, he's still got quite a long wait ahead of him.