Options
Should free bus travel be means tested... (merged)
tghe-retford
Posts: 26,449 Forum Member
✭✭✭
...or even scrapped entirely? I was spitting bullets when I heard about this earlier in the day. A report made by Oxera for the Local Government Association has called for bus passes to be made means tested, just as some benefits are now. If you can drive, have access to a car or can afford to pay the fare, they suggest you should lose your bus pass and pay up.
Here is a non Daily Mail link to the story:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8186848.stm
Three obvious conclusions I can give that make this a non-starter and obviously show they haven't thought this through:
It comes just a day after a request was made for the Welsh Assembly to scrap all free bus travel.
I hope this idea doesn't come to fruition. So, should the elderly and disabled pay full fare to travel?
Here is a non Daily Mail link to the story:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8186848.stm
Three obvious conclusions I can give that make this a non-starter and obviously show they haven't thought this through:
- Means testing people would be a bureaucratic nightmare, meaning those who cannot travel independently or afford to pay the fare for a bus will end up not travelling. How likely is it that someone will fill in a complicated form just to get a free bus pass? You'll probably see it costing as much or even more to administer such a scheme than it would to keep the status quo.
- The majority of people I see who travel are elderly people, and from what I heard on the radio earlier today, many are only taking the bus because it is free. If they charge the elderly to ride on the buses, then they'll stop using the buses and return to driving by car. Therefore, adding to congestion, CO2 emissions and worst of all, reducing income for bus companies. These companies will have to ask their remaining passengers for higher fares, pushing them into cars too - ultimately, services will have to be reduced or axed, and companies could even fold.
- This suggestion threatens to alienate elderly voters, who do go and vote in elections. If Labour thought they were going to be pounded in the elections next year, then let them introduce this idea... We know this country is in dire straits financially and we face having to cut costs in every single aspect of life, but this is just robbing Peter to pay Paul.
It comes just a day after a request was made for the Welsh Assembly to scrap all free bus travel.
I hope this idea doesn't come to fruition. So, should the elderly and disabled pay full fare to travel?
0
Comments
I am entitled to a free bus pass because I'm mentally ill - and it's an incentive to get me out.
Ohh right.. I'm with you now
Fair enough.
I drive anyway.. I only have the bus pass as a formality because someone in the psychiatric hospital I was in said I should apply for it and gave me the forms and took the photo
I've just got mine and I f-ing love it!
Looks like they are looking into it.
I do, however, think that the system needs looking into again and maybe the free system replaced with one that uses nominal charges, especially in these difficult financial times!
That is not ageist (before anyone starts) just my opinion and a practical idea!
Prior to April last year when a national scheme was introduced individual local authorites had their own schemes. Some allowed unlimited travel, others had off peak restrictions and many had limited voucher schemes. By standardising the scheme nationally those authorites who were previously the most stingy have found they had the biggest financial hole to fill and the government provision was not sufficent, so they are complaining.
Locally I have not heard a peep out of my local PTE as the national scheme is almost identical, in terms of coverage, to the one it replaced.
And from http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4355868c-827e-11de-8cc2-00144feabdc0.html:
I'd rather see them means test child benefit. :rolleyes:
After all, no realistic person can doubt the need for spending cuts, so why not cut freebies to those able to pay?
Hysterical rubbish. Consideration is being given to withdrawing a free service that wasn't free until very recently from people who can afford to pay, and who only ever qualified because of unfair age discrimination, and suddenly it's "oh, they hate the old people".
I LOVE how "means tested" in one case is lauded as a sensible, prudent and fair thing to do and in outhers its an "outrage"
You want to know what unfair means tested is? My Dad is chief of a public service and so I don't get any help towards university fees. Despite paying for them myself. :eek:
We'd all love free passes. Why should people be awarded them purely on age grounds?
I've always thought it wrong that one adult person should be means-tested based on another person's income. Means-test students on their own income and savings by all means; I'm sure if Emma Watson or Daniel Radcliffe want to go to uni they'll be well able to pay for it themselves. But not on their parents.
So why wasn't this made clear in the article? I thought the Daily Mail was a national paper..........