Not quite as bad as it might have read - I managed to get to mid-fifties before needing any continuing medication at all - but the condition happens to qualify for exemption. Ironically, despite that, I pay for my own, getting it sent from Germany. It somehow seems to work better than the three UK makes.
Sorry, it was 65 to start with but they moved the goalposts again and I forgot.
My official 'work' retirement age is 67, as per the contract I signed in
1978...
Ha!
Yup, my 18 year old son qualifies through illness. And I qualified just after I decided to buy a prepay....but they did refund me. I got two years out of that before I really hit 60.
As i remember it the goventment limited the use of generators.
Transport act 2004 IIRC
It's a pain for the local authority, too, according to our councillor.
But hey, it's all part of bribing us with our own money, so we feel good.
In message , Tim Streater writes
And a way of avoiding paying a decent state pension.
I hadn't been on a bus for 30 years before I got my pass, trip from town took longer than walking so haven't used one since.
AJH
Nope. That's the payment that the bus company gets. I was working for one until last year that lost a significant percentage of their total income due to this, and so had to cut back on the services outside peak times, as well as lay drivers off and increase fares.
The local council can subsidise the *service*, but that's got nothing to do with the pass, and most if not all councils are cutting back on the subsidies, so if you live in a village outside town, the daily bus may well now be weekly or not run at all. If you live in the suburbs, the commuter peak hour buses will run, but off peak services will be cut to the bone.
Can't see that being a problem. Buses around here are full at school/rush hour & virtually empty the rest of the time. You quite often see a bus with only 2 or 3 people on board.
Not quite sure why they should be subsidised at all.
Depends where you live. If the buses weren't subsidised around here there wouldn't be any. And it's not as if they run empty, either, it's normal to see 4 or 5 people waiting at each stop for The Bus. It's not quite a singular service but there aren't many per day and you still have to get into town to catch 'em.
The stupid thing is the argument between Cumbria and Northumberland over the service from Alston (Cumbria) to Hexham (Northumberland). Neither council want to subsidise it as the end point is in a different county and they are only interested in transport bewteen centers within their respective counties. This really daft as Hexham is the nearest "center" with a hospital out patients department, the normal "High Street" shops, large supermarkets, etc.
They are often deemed to be "socially necessary", in that people on limited incomes without cars need to get to places like the nearest hospital or school, or even to do their shopping, as the village shop closed years ago, and is now a nice little home for a relatively rich family.
Without the (Free at the point of use for some) bus service, these people would need to move into the local urban centre, which they also can't afford, and the move would let others move in, which would go a step further to making the village yet another office workers' dormitory.
Nope. In my area they are paid 53% of the average adult fare for the company for each passenger trip carried free. The objective of the reimbursement is to ensure that operators are no worse of financially by participating in the scheme. Taken from a document on Cheshire East website but for some reason I cannot seem to be able to cut and paste from it.
Outside London services are in two categories. Commercial services receive no subsidies but your local council has no say in where or when they run. They are licensed by a District Traffic Commissioner who in our area has very cleverly licensed two different No 6 services but that's another story.
The local council has the option to enter into contracts with the bus companies to provide additional services usually out of hours and weekends or rural services for social reasons and obviously these must be subsidised. It is not only the elderly with their bus passes that benefit - early starting/late finishing workers and young people without car transport for example. The benefit of the bus pass for the elderly is that it promotes a physically and mentally healthier lifestyle thus reducing demand for other services such as health and social care. It also enables them to participate more in the local economy enabling the net contribution of some £54bn per annum which the RVS has calculated they make to the economy.
Cutting these services may well prove to be an expensive measure in the long run.
In message , Rod Speed writes
You can bet all you like but as usual you haven't a clue what you are talking about.
attend
Hum hospital appointment from here by taxi, 50 ish mile round trip plus say 2 hours waiting time:
£2.70 first 0.7 mile. £2.00/mile there after £14.00/hour waiting time 2.70 + (2 * 50) + (2 * 14) = £130.70State Pension: £113.10/week
BUT as this is hospital appointment the NHS will provide transport if there is no suitable public transport. The transport is still subsidsed from your taxes it just comes out of a different budget. In this case it moves from the councils to the NHS.
children to
subsidised
The public are no longer allowed on the school bus, at least around here.
Or if there is no suitable "safe" walking route. No pavements along the roads here apart from the last 100 yds.
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