Environment 
ViewsOctober 14th, 2013
The Welsh Government’s concessionary fares scheme for older people must be one of the most popular policies ever. Surveys show that 99% of older people think their bus pass is a good thing, giving them freedom to get out and about without worrying about the cost. It helps their mobility, it helps their independence and it helps their well-being. What’s more, it has one of the highest take-up rates of all “benefits”. It would be a brave Minister or indeed Government who tampered with it.
Is it time to re-think the scheme?
About 9 out of 10 older people have a bus pass. When the scheme was introduced in 2002, eligibility matched State Pension Age i.e. 65 for men and 60 for women. There was a rationale to this – retirement typically results in a significant drop in income and providing free travel helped to compensate for older people’s limited means. Shortly after its introduction, the age at which men were eligible for a pass was equalised with that for women, at 60 years old, the rationale being equality between men and women.
So far, so principled.
Ten years on, and State Pension Age is on the rise. From April 2010, women’s retirement age is increasing progressively so that by 2018 it will be the same as men’s – 65. By 2020 State Pension Age will have risen to 66. There are, however, no plans in Wales (unlike in England) to raise the age at which someone is eligible for a bus pass. The link with State Pension Age and getting a bus pass has been broken.
There are, already, hundreds of women who are aged 60 and 61 commuting to work free, thanks to the Welsh Government as well as many more men who have enjoyed free travel to work for some time.
Does this matter?
The free bus to work perk matters a great deal. It matters because there is no longer a robust rationale for offering a pass – as retirement ages increase, 60 no longer has any meaning and is just yet another birthday with a zero at the end. Why not 50? Or 55? Or 64? Rather than being compensation for loss of income on retirement, the bus pass becomes another freebie, another give-away that is open to attack.
It also matters because keeping the age of eligibility at 60 could cost a great deal. The concessionary fares scheme already costs much, much more than anticipated when it was introduced. Take up was higher, usage was higher and the rate at which bus operators was reimbursed was higher than anticipated. Offering a pass for daily travel to work, instead of occasional use for shopping or leisure, could increase costs still further.
Meanwhile, support for local bus services is being cut. Local Transport Services Grant, which underpins about 30% of Wales’s bus services, has been unchanged for many years despite rapidly rising bus costs. This year it changed to Regional Transport Services Grant, with many fearing significant cuts to come.
A concessionary pass without a bus to use it is not much use at all. Indeed the risk is that public spending on concessionary fares will be cut by slashing the services people use them on, rather than changing eligibility. This is an indiscriminate and unjustifiable way of saving money.
Public Reaction?
How would the public react to raising the age of eligibility? It’s hard to say, but there haven’t been howls of protest at the raising of state pension age generally, and the various older people’s charities – while defending the bus pass generally – didn’t protest at the increase in England.
What do you think?
Victoria Winckler is Director of the Bevan Foundation. A version of this article previously appeared in the Members’ section of the website.
I am 59. Only last year I found out that I will not be getting my pension at 62 years and 3 months, as I had previously been advised and planned for, but will receive it at 65. I have had very short notice to make alternative arrangements.
I have also had to finish work as my husband (who is also not well) and I are carers for 3 parents with dementia. I get no recompense for this as for various reasons carers allowance does not apply. I travel most days by bus so i pay to keep the service going. I was banking on getting a bus pass next year to ease cash flow.
Talking with friends recently who are 64 and 65 – they have benefited from everything – early state and local authority pensions, bus passes etc but it looks like I have just missed out for everything.
As you will have assumed from this I do not agree to the change
Thank you very much for pointing out how hard some people are being affected by the pension age rise and how valuable your bus pass would be – only a year to go on current rules. Very helpful to know your views.
As much as a battle of the generations is the last thing we need right now, I’m afraid I have to support the idea of raising the age. Since the recession began in 2008, many of the improvements in employment levels that Governments like to keep reminding us about have come from people in their late 50s/early 60s, while youth unemployment has risen by 30% in the same period. Being unemployed when you are young can lead to lower earning potential throughout a person’s lifetime, so the effects of the downturn are likely to stay with us for a long time (bearing in mind that these unemployed young people will later become essential for the tax coffers). At the same time as all this is going on, the group that receives the most from the state is undoubtedly the old. Of course this is with perfectly good cause, and I’m not suggesting that pensions should be ripped away and given to teenagers, but the nature of the balance does need to be addressed, and I’m afraid that there has to be flexibility with some of the support that older people receive.