OAP bus pass

[malagabob]

Could be in for some flak here but, theres talk of stopping the free bus pass for OAPs to save money. Dont disabled on motability pay no road tax, free servicing no parking fees, maybe the country could save a lot there.

[EDDIE51]

My wife gets DLA. She gets the mobility componant at the higher rate and the care componant at the middle rate . If we want we could swap the mobility part for a free car. It is £51 per week. The care part is £49 a week if you take the car you still get the care part. Some smallecas do no take the entire payment, the cheapest car (a Kia ) only uses £30 of the mobility payment so you could have a small Kia and still keep £20 a week. You get a blue badge for parking, the bus pass is seperate and you can have a bus pass as well as the mobility payment or car. You can also get a disabled persons rail card free, this gives 1/3rd off fares as long as you travel 'off peak'. Then there is the National Express £10 anywhere fare on the coaches this is run by National express and is available for anyone male or female over 60 or blue badge holders. You could go from Cornwall to Northern Scotland for £10 and back for another £10. There is a lot of stuff out there apart from the government benefits . CAB are the best place to go for advice.
Forgot to add, if you do not want the free car , you get free road tax for your own car . This is not taken off the mobility payment it is in addition to it.

[pastafreak]

lol-jno-I'm a OAP (God how I hate that term!!)...I use the internet for some shopping,but I sure as hell will not be tied down to using it as my only means to spend the loads of dosh I have under my mattress. ;-)

[sunny-dave]

Means testing every single 'benefit' is just plain wrong and will eventually lead to the 'haves' refusing to continue to pay into a system which only supports the 'have-nots' and/or 'will-nots'.

The basic old age pension, winter fuel allowance and bus pass are just about the only payments which I (and many thousands of people like me) will ever receive from the state when they retire.

I have been prudent enough to make my own arrangements to support myself when I (eventually) reach retirement age, and will have no entitlement whatsoever to means tested benefits. If you then take away the few bits and pieces which the state *has* promised to give me back from the payments I have made over the years, it won't break the bank - but it will leave a horrible taste in the mouth, and make me bloody determined to pay as little into the system as possible in the future.

There has to be a perceived fairness in social policy - we are getting damn near now to the point where the 'net contributors' like me are beginning to refuse to believe that the system is anything approaching fair. Nibbling away at the few remaining payments that we get back is fundamentally unfair and asking for trouble ...

< rant over - pass the wine > ;=)

[seadogg]

The only way this think tank could reduce benefits specifically for better off pensioners would be by means testing. Once again we would be nobbled for being thrifty and therefore comfortably off

[Ann]

Sunny-Dave well said, you have hit the nail on the head, OH and I have been saying precisely that for ages. Looking back we regret many decisions over the years - being prudent, not having loans, putting our money in ISAs, missing holidays to save more for old age etc etc - it has now come back to haunt us, as we can't get any benefits at all and worked for over 40 years non-stop. Some friends of ours were spend, spend, spend, had everything they wanted but could not afford, went bankrupt, pleaded poverty, were accepted for benefits including free housing ..... and have come up smelling of roses! Are we jealous? You bet we are!

[bednobs]

so you don't get a pension ann?

[Ann]

I get mine but OH is not old enough yet and didn't have a works pension, that's why we saved.

[sunny-dave]

I think (from previous posts) that Ann and her OH are stuck in a nasty 'gap' where they are too young for a pension, cannot find work, but have too many resources to be eligible for benefits.

[sunny-dave]

Apologies Ann - should have waited for you to answer for yourself

dave xx

[Ann]

Yep - spot on Dave! No wonder I'm a bit cross :(

[beckersjay]

Why don't they charge a reasonably affordable amount for a pass giving free travel? This would raise revenue and also deter people who apply for the passes when they have no intention of using them. They could always make them free, say, to people on pension credit so as not to disadvantage the poorest pensioners.

[Craftypig]

I think its disgraceful that senior citizens do/will have to pay bus fares. Most, if not all public transport companies are subsidised in one way or another by Metro, I should know I used to be a bus driver for First. Whether they are rolling in money or not, they should be allowed free bus travel, god knows, they have paid for the privilege all their working lives.

[jno]

I don't think people who apply for passes without intending to use them are much of a burden on the exchequer, beckersjay

[beckersjay]

Bus passes have to be paid for by the local authority whether they are used or not jno.

[jno]

oh, I see, fair enough, beckersjay.

[Ann]

I'm a bit puzzled - on our buses the driver looks at the passes and records how many OAPs on his bus. Surely he would only claim back fares from the local council for the ones who travelled? Therefore if an OAP has a bus pass they never use its not costing the tax payer anything - just a bit of admin time when they were issued. Am I wrong in thinking this?

[beckersjay]

Ann86 - only just seen this as haven't been online recently. I can only speak for London but here the local council pays a set - quite high - amount for every bus pass issued regardless of usage. I assume the rules are similar elsewhere in the country. This was one of the reasons they introduced the rule that you had to apply for the pass in person ather than by post because people who were house- or even bed-bound were applying just because they qualified.
I do know several people who have had the pass for years and have never used it - and each of these costs the council a considerable amount of money.

[beckersjay]

According to one London council website, each Freedom pass costs the council around £380 - flat rate not dependent on usage.