I’m 60, please don’t give me a Freedom Pass
Free travel for the over 60s is a perverse incentive for older people to lead more sedentary lifestyles and it’s paid for by people who need the money more, says Guto Harri
I’m not in denial. I know today is a big birthday and I’m getting on a bit, but I’m happy and grateful to have made it to 60. I’d also like to thank friends who sent me generous gifts over the last few days. There’s just one I won’t be using.
It came via email from TFL last Friday – a short robotic message telling me that they’d created a photocard for me. Having hit this golden age, I’m now invited to travel on London’s buses, tubes, tram, DLR, overground, and most National Rail services in the capital for free after 9am on a weekday and anytime on weekends. This could save me considerable money.
I’ve decided, however, not to take my 60+ Oyster card. In fact, the more I’ve thought about it, the more outraged I am at this extravagant giveaway. Yes, there are plenty of people my age who are slowing down, struggling perhaps to make ends meet or becoming economically totally inactive. But most are not. In fact, many of us are far better off than we were 10 or 20 years ago, not to mention when we worked flat out in entry-level jobs travelling to and from employers who expected us in the office every day.
Higher fares
It’s not free either. Free for me means someone else is paying for it – someone half my age perhaps, earning a lot less, shafted by the punitive accumulating interest on their student loan, struggling hard to slowly build up a deposit for their first flat. Why on earth should they be asked to subsidise my travel?
I know from having worked at City Hall that free or concessionary travel for various groups means everyone else has to pay considerably higher fares. Giving every pensioner a Freedom Pass costs well over £370m a year. The 60+ Oyster card adds a chunky £120m more, and across the UK, the cost of those kinds of freebies is fast approaching £2bn.
Again, I recognise that many need this, and incentivising an older person to get out and about is noble. But the incentive for me is perverse. As much as practically possible, I try to walk or cycle around London, using my legs rather than parking my backside on public transport. TfL and the Mayor are actively encouraging me to become sedentary.
Forgive me if this sounds like virtue signalling. I’m not a saint. Far from it, and I understand game theory, so the impact of my self-denial here will be utterly irrelevant while others pile in to pick up their free passes and set their alarms a little later so they can ride around all day without spending a penny.
But this unwanted present on this big birthday is a stark reminder of the overarching approach to public spending that has crippled us, whilst encouraging an entitlement – even from those quite comfortably off – to pass on as many of their bills as possible to the overburdened taxpayer.
Guto Harri is a broadcaster and former director of communications at No 10 Downing St
Central government – as I see it – needs a fundamental overhaul. Deep down, everyone – surely – realises that the benefit bill should not dwarf defence, education, transport, and infrastructure. The triple lock is ludicrous when it automatically awards hefty rises to pensioners at a time when their kids and grandchildren are struggling so much. Debt interest payments should not drain money that’s needed to build things worth handing over to the next generation rather than passing them an ever-deeper black hole.
So can we please join the dots, re-consider spending priorities that are neither wise nor fair, and think before we demand— or indeed claim— a universal benefit we may not need, that someone else is picking up the tab for it.