Bus passes

I don't agree, Maggie. I entered the details as a man. In England. The answer was that the hypothetical man born on 14th May 1950 would have become entitled to state pension and bus pass on 14th May 2015.

I don't know how we're getting such different answers!

6 July 2010 is the date on which someone in England with that birthday would have become entitled to the free bus pass.

If you scroll just below the pension age, Ana, it gives the bus pass age. They're different for men.

Well, I've just completed the questions on your link, Maggiemaybe, giving a hypothetical date of birth for a man of 14th May 1950 and it states that he reached retirement age on 14th May 2015.

So he wouldn't have been entitled to a bus pass at 60.

We live in Merseyside and our Merseytravel website says: You can travel free on buses, trains and Mersey Ferries if you are over 60 and live in Merseyside. When you reach the State Pension age, you will be given a new national pass, which you will also be able to use on local bus services anywhere in England.
My DH got his when he was 60, even though he was working then. No doubt they'll change the rules before I get to 60!

It only took me 15 minutes to work out how to post a link from my phone.

www.gov.uk/calculate-state-pension/y/age/male

If you are on DLA, or PIP now ( is anyone yet?), you can have one before you are sixty. You can also have a carer go free.

We both have our Freedom Passes and use them frequently especially as it gives us free travel on the tube also here in London..

Yes he would, Ana. Not on his 60th birthday, but just a month or two later. There's a calculator on the GOV.UK site.

It depends when he was born. roses.

I know no one seems to want to read my CAB post, but it does set out the criteria for bus pass eligibility!

If NickiC59' DH became 65 in, say, May of this year then he wouldn't have been entitled to a pass when he was 60...

Yes, he should have had one since the age of sixty Nicki.I doesn't get sent automatically though, has to be applied for.

We live in Scotland and both got our 'bus pass' at 60. Ours isn't just a bus pass but gives us concessionary admission to council run facilities like swimming pools and gyms. It also acts as a library card. DH has never used his but I use mine for the park and ride bus when I drive to town.

PS. My DH uses his pass almost daily, as we car share. After I finish work, he goes on to his next job. I take the car home and he catches the bus. We are not allowed to use our passes before 9.00am.,so when I catch the bus on a Thursday morning I have to pay the fare. I catch the 07.26. It is very unfair, as a driver remarked to me one morning.

I got my bus pass when I was 60 yes and 9 months old. I don't know why I had to wait the extra nine months. I suppose it was to do with when I was born, and became eligible to retire. My DH got his when he was 60.

The excerpt from the CAB website I posted above will perhaps explain things, number and Greyduster.

I got my bus pass when I reached 60 - but I had to apply for it through this city's transport executive. My niece, for some reason, did not become eligible for hers until her sixty second birthday, but I'm not sure why. Both DH and I use our passes a lot, especially to use the Supertram service - I'm not that keen on the buses.

I`m 72, have had a bus pass since I was 60, as has hubby. Don`t know if things have changed now, but in Boston then you were eligible when you reached 60, even if still working.

From the CAB website:

You're eligible for an older person's bus pass from your 60th birthday, if you were born before 6 April 1950.

Women born after 5 April 1950

If you're a woman born after 5 April 1950, you'll become eligible for an older person's bus pass when you reach your pensionable age.

Men born after 5 April 1950

If you're a man born after 5 April 1950, you'll become eligible when you reach the pensionable age of a woman born on the same day.

I'd make more use of my bus pass if they hadn't changed the service so that the bus for Stockport no longer passes my door. My sister and BiL in Scotland make great use of theirs as they live on a good bus route with a very frequent service.

Your DH would have been eligible for his bus pass at 60, Nicki. My DH is 65 and has had his for 5 years. I am 60 and won't get mine until I'm 66, when I access my pension .

I think I'm right in saying that if I lived in Scotland, Wales or N Ireland, I'd already have it. Plus free rail travel in NI. And Londoners over 60 get free travel there.

I rarely use mine Sheena, preferring to use my car . My DH uses his a lot, but then that's him to a T - anything free and he's first in the queue

Same as you Ash Tree we got our bus passes when both 60..Hubby's used his, but I've never used mine

My DH had his bus pass when he was 60 - he didn't retire till he was 65, but everyone was entitled at 60 then so he thought why not? When I reached 60 the rules had changed and I had to wait till I reached state pension age, which for me was 4 months after my 60th birthday.

I live in Oxford too, and have had a bus pass from the age of 60, for which I applied on line. I have recently received a new one, valid from my birthday in a few days. My word, I have aged since the photo was taken 9 years ago! I wonder at what age they require a new one?

The County Council website says that the age of eligibility is now equal to the pensionable age for women. Between April 2010 and November 2018 this will increase from 60 to 65. There is an online calculator to determine an individual's age requirement.