There are rumours floating around that the London Mayor or some advisers are thinking about the ending the Freedom Pass for pensioners. Whilst initially this may make financial sense; in the long run it's a big mistake.
The freedom pass allows eligible retired people the chance to travel for free on the London transport system. There are approximately 1million freedom passes issued to pensioners.
Whilst removing the freedom pass will save a small fraction of revenue for London transport in the long run it will actually be detrimental to the economy. When pensioners travel into the centre they visit museums (buy tea and coffee there), galleries and shops. In short they spend money. The pensioners that have the pass do not have a huge amount of disposable income. By removing the freedom pass we would effectively be placing a 'tax' on pensioners visiting the centre. A majority would simply not bother to go to the centre and those that do would be unlikely to spend money (or as much as they would do if they had free travel). The net effect of removing the freedom pass would be to remove needed money being spent in the capital's museums and stores.
A more troubling issue is that pensioners who's income is very minimal would be loath to travel unless necessary. This would have a negative psychological effect which could result in increased ailments putting a further strain on the NHS.
I am not an old age pensioner, but I see it as a mistake morally and financially to remove the freedom pass. We pay a lot to travel on our transport system. More than anywhere else in the world. I would hope that some of the money I spend goes to subsidise the transport for pensioners.
