One of the Mail's more intelligent (limited competition admittedly)
writers, Tom Utley, has a column re the wastefulness of giving
people like him free travel. I thought it was only available after
9.30 but so as to exclude those in most regular jobs but on
checking the 9.30 rule now only applies to overground rail, not
buses or the underground. Since when?

I think it was 09:00 in London until Ken Livingstone promised to scrap
the limit in an attempt to win the 2008 mayoral election.

It does seem unduly generous
also unfair to those whose main PT is rail (remember LB Bromley's
challenge to Fares Fair because they had no underground in their
borough)


In the interests of terminological exactitude (which of course
guarantees I won't get it right) the 09:30 rule applies to National
Rail other than the London Overground - a cruel trap for an ageing
traveller who mostly starts with the latter but very occasionally
marches into Hackney Downs too early

ageing_policy_wonk_stuff

I also regret Boris's election promise (spot the pattern!) to give free
travel at age 60 rather than letting the threshold continue to rise with
pension age. That handed a big stick to those who want to introduce a
means test.

But Tom Utley (like so many) is a wee bit one-sided on a means test for
universal benefits generally:

a. he slides over who will and won't be entitled. It's easy to talk
of "wealthy pensioners", much harder to define them. (And I wonder how
Mr Utley would defend eg instant Freedom Passes along with other
benefits for elderly immigrants but not for pensioners retiring on a
modest pension after 45 years working in a London old folks home?)

b. many old people *still* don't claim means-tested benefit: check
the DWP's figures; so the benefits don't reach many of their (alleged)
target population. Does he know/care?

c. the admin costs are high unless free travel is "passported" off
another means-tested benefit such pension credit. That creates an (even
bigger) trap where those who work, contribute to a pension and save end
up worse off than those who do bugger-all: hardly "incentives to save
for our old age";

d. any trade-offs like "greater tax incentives to save for our old
age" are too bloody late for those already there;

e. there's an exisiting system for dealing with "who's wealthy?"
called the tax system, and taxing the benefit of Freedom Passes etc
would be more rational - but still complicated.

That said, I'm resigned to a means test being introduced after the
election as the media (led by the BBC) have spread the meme that
universal benefits for pensioners are unfair to the young and
unaffordable.

/ageing_policy_wonk_stuff

--
Robin
reply to address is (meant to be) valid