General Discussion
So how come 60+ year olds in London can get this
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/adult-discounts-and-concessions/60-london-oyster?cid=fs147
but those aged 60+ elsewhere in the country are not similarly provided for?
Free bus, tram and train travel within Greater Manchester is also available to residents aged 60+ of that conurbation.
So......say, just let's say, that the state pension age related bus pass gets the chop sometime in the near future. It won't be a universal chop though will it, because it seems that others aged 60+ and living in certain parts of the country will continue to get free travel as indeed it appears they have been doing since their having attained the age of 60.
and when I say this country I mean England not the UK as it seems that in Scotland and Wales those aged 60+ can get still free bus travel whereas those living in England have to be of the female state pension age to qualify (except those aged 60+ and living in London or Greater Manchester it seems).
You might get free stuff but would you like to live in london ?
I am not 60 but i would live here and not have free bus passes anytime.
Anyway don't think i will make 60. Lol
Edit: This post was originally a reply to a post by user Gamer that he has subsequently deleted. I will leave it here just in case anyone else might be tempted to believe the hoax viral email that Gamer posted on here.
Of course it's a pack of lies:
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/uk-pensioners-asylum-seekers-protest.shtml
I suggest that you and those who have pressed Agree on your post, read the above link. Better still, take 60 seconds to do some research before repeating that kind of nonsense.
Oh dear! All I was trying to do was bring attention to the differences in age 60+ concessions/call them what you will, in this country ( both within England and then the wider UK) and what have I seemingly started off? A tirade (and a false one at that) about illegal immigrants/refugees.
Can we stick to the subject please?
Presumably these extra travel concessions are funded from the local council tax base?
( And yes, the immigrant stuff is false, that's not how the system works - JC has provided a link that proves this )
Yes, as I understand it, local travel concessions in England are funded from local council tax. You have to be resident in those particular areas to qualify. (But note you don't have to be English to qualify - you can be any nationality. Seems the qualifying aspects are residency and age. Wonder if that will start Gamer off again?)
For Scotland and Wales, who gets travel concessions and the criteria needed to be entitled to them are determined by those countries via their devolved powers. (PS Why hasn't England got devolved powers? Another subject another thread perhaps?)
Just to reassure anyone who is worried
People benefiting from locally funded travel concessions will also be required to pay Local Council Tax and there are a mass of regulations that restrict the ability of immigrants to access any reduction in their council tax. If you work as a volunteer for the CAB you learn just how restrictive the system is.
Oh I see that Gamer has now deleted his original post. Though I found it strange that at least one poster pressed Agree on his post even after the falsehood was exposed.
If u had ever lived in London you would realise that the bus system is okay if u like waiting hours for a bus! I lived in London for over 20 years. If I had a choice between living in London and having these extras or living in Dawlish ,Dawlish would win every time.
Well for a start we dont have an underground system yet in Dawlish to benefit from that too.. .is enough drama about the new relief line..which if locals have their way will never happen.
The concession is only limted to a minimum of rail lines within the Lomdon Zone...and costs would be built into Council Tax ..bet there is not many band B and C up there lol
The deal is probably to try and get people out of their cars as is a traffoc jam constant.
Wales and Scotland don't have underground systems do they? Shouldn't think they have much traffic congestion either except in the cities and the bigger towns at rush hour.
Always seem to be loads of buses everywhere in London whenever I've been there.
from the link I gave in my first post of this thread
"A 60+ London Oyster photocard allows you to travel free on public transport in London from the age of 60 until you qualify for a Freedom Pass.
To be eligible for a 60+ London Oyster photocard, you must:
· Live in a London borough and
· Be aged 60 or over
With a 60+ London Oyster photocard you'll be able to travel free on bus, Tube, tram, DLR, London Overground and most National Rail services in London.
You can travel free using your 60+ London Oyster photocard on:
· Buses in London showing the red roundel
· Tube, tram, DLR and London Overground - and take up to four under-11s with you for free on Tube, DLR and London Overground services
You can also travel free on some National Rail services in London:
· Chiltern Railway services between:
· Amersham and Marylebone
· West Ruislip and South Ruislip
· First Capital Connect services between:
· Finsbury Park and King's Cross or Moorgate
· West Hampstead and Moorgate, Elephant & Castle, and London Bridge
· London Midland services between Harrow & Wealdstone and Euston
· Greater Anglia services between Stratford and Liverpool Street
· c2c services between Upminster and Fenchurch Street
You can travel free from 09:30* on weekdays and any time on weekends and public holidays on most other National Rail services in London and services to Dartford and Swanley. This includes the following routes which run parallel to London Overground:
· Southern services between New Cross Gate and West Croydon/Crystal Palace, or between Peckham Rye and Queens Park Peckham
· Southeastern services between Denmark Hill and Peckham Rye
(*Travel free from 09:00 on Southern services between Clapham Junction and Harrow & Wealdstone).
View the 60+ London Oyster photocard map to see where and when you can travel free on National Rail services.
60+ London Oyster photocard map
Emirates Air Line
Show your 60+ London Oyster photocard to pay the discounted adult Boarding Pass fare."
That all sounds great ..maybe move there but I'm staying in Devon lol
Those rail lines are only along the same route as the Underground.
Not sure what you point is ..we dont have an underground system in Devon to offer concessions unless you want the concession to stop countrywide. I remember Gordon B bringing it in at the end of an awful budget before the election.
The point I am making is that there is no consistency throughout the countries comprising the Uk with regard to aged 60+ free public transport travel and then, following on from that, no consistency within England.
Now, this might not be an issue if the pension age for women was still 60 so that both men and women wherever they lived in England would be eligible for free bus travel if they so wished to take advantage of it. But that is no longer the case, is it? With the rise in the state pension age for women so too is the age at which a person becomes eligible for free bus travel. And on top of that there have been mumblings from some of the political parties that state pension age eligibility for free bus travel may, in the none too distant future, be restricted to those who need it most (whatever 'need it most' means). And should that prove to be the case then we would have even greater anomolies re age/free public transport travel/where in the country(both Uk in general and England in particular) older people lived.
and if you read this link http://www.tfl.gov.uk/info-for/media/press-releases/2012/october/mayor-restores-free-travel-for-60yearold-londoners-with-the-60-london-oyster-photocard
you will see that it was London Mayor Boris Johnson (that's Conservative mayor of London, Boris Johnson by the way) who brought in the London aged 60+ scheme.
All Councils are different ..take refuse for example, some have garden collection, some mix with recycle. Some Councils support and fund rural transport and some dont. Cornwall have cut back support on rural routes.
It's very possible when Labour get back in power next year that they that started the over 60's concession countrywide will end it, so that will solve the problem.
Remember their outgoing words 'we have no more money!'
Ah yes that note that Liam Byrne left. Sounds remarkably similar in message to the note left in 1964 by Tory Reggie Maudlin to James Callaghan and the incoming Labour government "Good luck, old cock ... Sorry to leave it in such a mess."
So, devolution and localism = lack of consistency on many things not only throughout the UK but also within the countries making up the UK = postcode lotteries on what is provided and what isn't.
United(?) Kingdom.
Re Liam Byrne's note, leaving such a message is a Treasury tradition dating back to the 1930's. And of course it got blown out of all proportion by the Daily Mail after it was leaked by one of its Tory cronies.
Wonder what Danny Alexander (this government's Lib Dem Chief Secretary to the Treasury) will say when he leaves office next May.
Thoughts anyone?
"Meep meep?".
I thought to myself "Lynne, what is Flo going on about?". So I did a search on those words. And now I know.
The expression spitting image comes to mind. (Such a shame that programme no longer exists).
Spot on Flo.
I shall forevermore refer to Danny Alexander as meep meep.
P'raps we should call him Beaker then?
http://www.lbc.co.uk/which-cabinet-mp-looks-like-beaker-25304
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1313700/Now-Clegg-likens-Danny-Alexander-Beaker-Muppet.html
But to return to the original topic of this thread (aged 60+ free travel concessions and the variations of such provision around the UK).
Seems those aged 60+ get free bus, train and ferry travel in Merseyside 'n all.
http://www.merseytravel.gov.uk/Tickets/concessions/Pages/60+.aspx
I am all for free public transport for retired people wherever it can be introduced , helps them keep healthier and less likely to incur NHS costs!!
However, I would say that the age should be 65+ to keep it more affordable and closer to modern expectations of retirement age.
would that be free public transport for all those of state retirement age or only for those of state retirement age who are "most in need".
Not sure that is a distinction that needs to be made.
- If you make it universal then firstly it is cheaper to administrate.
- Assuming 'most in need' is a financial reference, then those most in need would make greatest use of it.
- Those not most in need will probably be disposed to swan around in cars anyway. So I would see it as inherently self balancing, to some extent at least.