Bus passes

It's just a rumour.

In our area (West Yorkshire) the senior bus pass also entitles us to 50% off local off peak rail fares. Which isn’t of much use to me, not having a station nearby, but will be a good perk for those who do.

I have a senior railcard too but that takes a third off the fare. It's worth having but the free bus pass is wonderful.

We are well served with buses. There are 5 serving our town. The nearest railway station is about 10 miles away and I usually take the bus into Edinburgh to catch a train. We once had a rail service but not since the 1960s.

grannysyb

My DH lost his freedom pass last year, and had to pay for a new one, the expiry date is '29, we live in hope!

I lost my bus pass and had to pay for a new one £15 which is quite reasonable I think..
In North Devon, we only get bus use not train..

I don’t think I’ve ever used my bus pass

Elegran, I was told it is that the devolved governments have different arrangements with the bus companies. Although we apply through our local authority, the pass is valid throughout the country ie Scotland, England, Wales or Northern Ireland.

Wheniwasyourage, maybe your friend spends half her year in Scotland? We were told that we might be considered ‘resident’ if we spent at least six months in Scotland. In the last two years we have only spent about three months living in the flat. We hope to spend more time this year, having ended some commitments that kept us in the south. We didn’t spend enough time working out how to live in two places!

If you don't want to feel guilty at getting a bus pass when you would hardly ever use it, remember that it only costs anyone anything for the journeys that you take If you only use it occassionally, it only registers occassionally in the annual list that goes from bus company to local authority, and thence from local authority to the government. There is no wastage, so you can keep it in your purse and just use it when you need to. Millionaires might even find it useful to have in their wallets for when they are slumming it in rundown areas with more buses than taxis!

Whiff

I live in the north west men and women get a bus / local rail pass at 60. When I was 66 last year I had a disabled pass so I can use buses and local trains at anytime and not wait until 9.30am. I need to renew it in 5 years. I was 61 when I moved here I would be lost without it has given me freedom to travel long distances. If I still lived where I did I wouldn't have had my bus pass until I was 66 and there is no local trains to have.

Transport here is wonderful. And the council has no intention of taking passes of people .

Men and Women eligible for bus pass at retirement age. 60 only applies to London. A Senior railcard is applicable from 60, but there is a charge for a 3 year pass.

London is the only area in England where bus passes are given to 60s and over, the same applies to all Scotland. I've another 4 yrs (63) before I get mine living up north.

No, bus passes are staying. However, there is an online Petition to bring the rest of England in line with London for equality for free bus passes for 60 year old and over. It's at over 10,000 signatures to get it to the M.Ps. But it needs to get 100,000 for the Lords to debate. Be nice if they knew what was happening outside their bubble.

Whiff

I live in the north west men and women get a bus / local rail pass at 60. When I was 66 last year I had a disabled pass so I can use buses and local trains at anytime and not wait until 9.30am. I need to renew it in 5 years. I was 61 when I moved here I would be lost without it has given me freedom to travel long distances. If I still lived where I did I wouldn't have had my bus pass until I was 66 and there is no local trains to have.

Transport here is wonderful. And the council has no intention of taking passes of people .

60 in the North west? I think it’s older than that before you receive a free bus pass.

If you have concessionary bus pass and don’t use it, it costs nothing. The local authority refunds the bus operators for the number of journeys made and central government refunds local authorities.

Concessionary passes provide an income for bus operators on daytime services that might otherwise generate little income and be cut altogether - which ends up serving nobody.

I wrote upthread about the economics of concessionary bus passes. Passes encourage people to travel into towns and cities and spend: cafés, markets and shops, cinema tickets etc, putting money into the economy that might otherwise not be spent and increasing tax yield.

There is a strong argument too for government spending to promote social welfare for people who might otherwise be isolated and lonely. This is one of them.

Providing bus passes also reduces car use which is another good thing - less wear on roads, less pollution, fewer cars vying for precious car parking spaces.

The millionaire argument always comes up as it does with the Winter Fuel Payment. Chances are someone super wealthy isn’t going to be travelling on a bus. (For all we know they might not have bothered to claim their State Pension so the WFP argument becomes redudant anyway.)

Older millionaires are often only paper millionaires with the wealth concentrated in the value of the home. You can’t pay a bus fare with a brick any more than you can pay a heating bill with a brick.

The average income of a single pensioner after housing costs is considerably less than a working person even on one on minimum wage.

I see universal benefits for pensioners as a reward for the poor State Pension after a lifetime of work. There are three million women who had to wait up to six years longer to get their SP and with that their bus pass and WFP.

The issue of travel costs for workers came up in another recent discussion about the rise in the capped single fare. Season tickets make bus travel considerably cheaper for regular users.

There are a number of schemes to help jobseekers with travel costs.

The best present I ever got was my bus pass when I was 60. I am in Scotland.

I thought that it could be withdrawn at any time but it has proved so beneficial to the health of the older generation and to the health of the economy as well as keeping some cars off the road and buses on that I can't imagine it would be in anyone's interest to take it away now.

I'm 76 now and use my pass several times a week. I have been all over
Scotland, including the Hebrides and Orkney.

The youngsters now have free bus
travel up to age 22. Our own young ones are well behaved but I have been bothered woken by large groups of loud youngsters eating chips etc.
I believe that some of them are a bit of a problem.

People on pension credit should also get one

They already do. They have to be of bus pass age to get pension credit.

Fartooold
Indigo8 I totally agree with you! Round here couples have a car each but still zoom round on buses using their passes.

Good for them. Fewer cars on the road makes for less congestion and less pollution in our grandchildren’s lungs.

I’d certainly like to see free bus travel and a decent bus service for all, for so many reasons, but seeing as that’s not likely to happen any time soon we should at least encourage those who have it to use it if they can.

Indigo8 I totally agree with you! Round here couples have a cat each but still zoom round on buses using their passes. I would rather children had the passes. People on pension credit should also get one. I am ducking the bullets!

Litterpicker

I would like to see the bus passes being made valid UK wide. At the moment we have to pay bus fares during the several months each year we (DH & I) we spend in Scotland. We own a one bedroom flat there and pay council tax (willingly). Our council tax was increased last year by 100%. It seems unfair that we cannot have a bus pass to use while there.

I think the problem is the way that bus companies are compensated for the fares they are not getting from the holders of bus passes. The bus computers note the number of times that a busfare goes through as a pass, and the compensation amount the following year is based on that number (I don't know how much they get per use). It works well when the issuing council is the same one as where it has been used, but if people could use them anywhere in the country, it could get complicated working out how much each company would get from each issuing council.

I find it anomalous that all you have to do is be over retirement age to get a free bus pass. You could be a multimillionaire and still get it.

I find it odd that the people who need free bus travel most ie. those who have to travel to work every day, or are job seeking and have to travel to interviews are not eligible but people who no longer work can have free bus travel. School children have to pay half fare until they are 15 then it is full fare where I live.

I know I shall be shot down in flames or ignored but I afraid that's how I feel.

My DH lost his freedom pass last year, and had to pay for a new one, the expiry date is '29, we live in hope!

And why not? The vicious contempt that Starmer and Reeves have visited on the elderly is unbelievable for a "Socialist" party.

Other the WFA, how else have pensioners directly been penalised by the Labour Party??

mae13

Indigo8

There are no immediate plans to withdraw bus passes for people of pensionable age in England.

Is this thread yet another opportunity for like minded people to have a pop at Keir Starmer and the Labour Party?

And why not? The vicious contempt that Starmer and Reeves have visited on the elderly is unbelievable for a "Socialist" party.

No reason to spread invalidated scaremongering stories though. Imo

Litterpicker

I would like to see the bus passes being made valid UK wide. At the moment we have to pay bus fares during the several months each year we (DH & I) we spend in Scotland. We own a one bedroom flat there and pay council tax (willingly). Our council tax was increased last year by 100%. It seems unfair that we cannot have a bus pass to use while there.

Litterpicker, are you sure you can't get a Scottish bus pass? I have a friend who lives mostly in England but owns a flat in a Scottish city, where she often spends time. As she pays council tax, she has a Scottish bus pass.

I live in the north west men and women get a bus / local rail pass at 60. When I was 66 last year I had a disabled pass so I can use buses and local trains at anytime and not wait until 9.30am. I need to renew it in 5 years. I was 61 when I moved here I would be lost without it has given me freedom to travel long distances. If I still lived where I did I wouldn't have had my bus pass until I was 66 and there is no local trains to have.

Transport here is wonderful. And the council has no intention of taking passes of people .

Indigo8

There are no immediate plans to withdraw bus passes for people of pensionable age in England.

Is this thread yet another opportunity for like minded people to have a pop at Keir Starmer and the Labour Party?

And why not? The vicious contempt that Starmer and Reeves have visited on the elderly is unbelievable for a "Socialist" party.

I’ve got a bus pass but almost never use it, so it wouldn’t bother me if it went. However I think a lot of pensioners rely on their bus pass because they don’t have a car, and for that reason I think it should stay.