I REFER to your front-page report on increases in bus fares, particularly with regard to the young and the unemployed (“Bus passengers ‘held to ransom’ with fares hike”, January 9).
How can it be remotely equitable that many over 60s, who can afford to pay for bus travel, are able to travel all over Scotland for no charge while children and the unemployed are faced with paying hundreds of pounds extra each year ?
The costs of the over-60s subsidy spiral upwards with more people coming within its compass as the years go by, largely because of improved quality of life. The time is long past for the mechanism to be at least reviewed if there continues to be serious resistance to means-testing due to administration costs.
There are a number of possible was to address this, for example raising the age of qualification to 65 or to the individual’s age of entitlement to state pension; disallowing entitlement at 60 to those in employment; or having a small minimum charge per journey.
It is a dereliction of responsibility by our politicians to continue to provide subsidy to many who can afford to pay (no doubt a very popular measure among our senior citizens) at the expense of our young, their parents and our unemployed. Life is not fair but sometimes steps can be taken to make it a bit fairer.
Ian W Thomson,
38 Kirkintilloch Road,
Lenzie.
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