Why I Won’t Vote for Andy Burnham

by Les May

IN a few weeks time Andy Burnham will be soliciting my vote in an attempt to persuade me to re-elect him as Mayor of Greater Manchester in the poll to be held on 7 May 2020.  He will be wasting his time.

I have voted Labour all my life, but I will not give my support to any candidate who promotes policies which deliberately discriminate against people on the basis of their sex.

Burnham has been pursuing a policy which does just this since 2018 when he introduced a scheme to issue bus passes to those born between October 6, 1953 and November 5,1954 and hence too young to qualify for an English National Concessionary Travel Scheme (ENCTS) pass, BUT ONLY IF THEY WERE FEMALE.  He now proposes to extend this to women born between November 6, 1954 and April 5, 1955.

However you care to wrap it up this is deliberate, systematic discrimination on the basis of a persons sex.  Imagine the outcry if Burnham introduced a scheme offering bus passes to people in this age group, but insisting that only those who were white would be eligible.

Men and women in that age group received exactly the same notice that the age at which they would become eligible for a State Retirement Pension and hence an ENCTS pass was being raised to 66 years. Does being a man make someone less deserving than if they are a woman?

Burnham needs holding to account for this.  The majority of people doing the ‘grunt work’ in our society are men. Feminists don’t seem to have been quite so enthusiastic about getting more women into these kind of jobs.  Perhaps it is time for men to press their unions to ask Burnham for some answers.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/transpot-free-bus-pass-women-17693595

https://tfgm.com/tickets-and-passes/womens-concessionary-travel-scheme

https://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/services/freedom-pass/tfl-60-london-oyster-photocard

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Sauce For The Goose

by Les May

WHEN my wife got to sixty she got her State Retirement Pension (SRP). When I got to sixty I had to wait another five years until I was sixty five.   Some months before she reached retirement age my wife was contacted by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) telling her what to do. Her pension was paid immediately after her sixtieth birthday.  Some months before I reached sixty five I contacted the DWP to set things in motion.  My pension wasn’t paid immediately after my birthday.  In fact it was not paid until I had written to the DWP twice to ask why I had not received it.

You will perhaps understand that I am less than sympathetic to all the whingeing from some women that they were not properly made aware that the age at which they would receive their SRP was increasing.

Incidentally these changes affected men too.   As the age at which SRP was paid was raised the age for receiving concessionary fares, a.k.a The Bus Pass, tracked this.   Previous to this the age had been set at sixty in 2003, though men were still expected to continue working up to the age of sixty five.

Finally one woman has set the record straight.  Writing in the ‘i’ a lady by the name of Kate Roberts writes;

‘I can’t remember exactly when I found out that I would not be getting my state pension at the age of 60 in 2011, but it was well before the change was made.

I doubt that I was unique in that – if something on the news or in the papers may affect me, I take notice.  I rang the helpline number for a pension forecast, and was informed the changes were to be incremental.

The information was easily and freely available unless you lived in darkest Peru.  I do have sympathy for anyone who is struggling to carry on working, but I really don’t see how it can still be coming as a surprise.’

Kate Roberts is quite right.  The Pensions Act 1995 contained the following provisions:

Equalisation of pensionable age and of entitlement to certain benefits

Schedule 4 to this Act, of which —

(a) Part I has effect to equalise pensionable age for men and women progressively over a period of ten years beginning with 6th April 2010,

(b) Part II makes provision for bringing equality for men and women to certain pension and other benefits, and

(c) Part III makes consequential amendments of enactments,

shall have effect.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1995/26/part/II/enacted

Under the Pensions Act 2011, women's State Pension age will increase more quickly to 65 between April 2016 and November 2018.  From December 2018 the State Pension age for both men and women will start to increase to reach 66 by October 2020.

Whilst the 2011 act accelerates the rise in pensionable age for women so that the rise to sixty five is completed two years earlier it is difficult to see how anyone can complain that the rise has come as a surprise to them. 

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Burnham pledges free bus passes for 16-year-olds, but not for over 60's!

Labour Mayoral Candidate - Andy Burnham

Andy Burnham, the Labour mayoral candidate for Greater Manchester, recently launched his mayoral manifesto. Amongst other things, he pledged to roll out free bus passes for 16 to 18-year-olds, who live in Greater Manchester.

According to a recent report by the “Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change” (CRESC), published in November 2016, Greater Manchester is a city region marked by low wages and precarious work with an acute shortage of social housing. Despite this, the report points out that fares for public transport are high and most commuting is by car. The report says:

“Excluding movements from Salford to Manchester, 60 to 70% of the commutes in to Manchester City from the nine other boroughs are by car. Commuting to work accounts for less than 20% of trips in Greater Manchester.”

Since the deregulation of buses under the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher in 1986, bus trips in big cities outside of London, have collapsed from 2bn trips a year to 1bn. Moreover, while fares have risen, services have worsened or have been cut altogether. Around 40p in every pound of revenue that bus companies take, comes directly as a subsidy from the taxpayer.

By contrast, bus use in London since the 1980s, has gone in the opposite direction, from 1bn to 2bn trips a year. Under ‘Transport for London’ (TfL), everything from the fares, the bus route, the timetable, and the profits that the bus company makes, are decided by the Mayor and TfL. Under the “Oyster Card” fare system, which everyone must use, Transport for London have introduced a standard single fare for journeys which allows passengers to pay one single fare if they change service within one hour. Free travel on bus, tube or tram, is available if you live in a London borough and are over 60-years of age.

However, if you live in within Greater Manchester, you are no longer entitled to a free bus pass when you reach 60-years of age. This change came about in 2010, when the qualifying age for a free bus pass, was moved incrementally, each year, towards pensionable age.  

As a 62-year-old man who lives in Labour controlled Greater Manchester, I must pay full bus fares until I qualify for a free bus pass (if there are still free bus passes) in September 2020, when I will be almost 66-years of age, possibly riddled with arthritis, and with a long white beard, and a walking stick. Like many people, the high cost of travelling on public transport in Greater Manchester, means that I rarely use it nowadays.

While I don’t begrudge giving a healthy 16 to 18-year-old a free bus pass, it seems outrageous to me, that because I don’t live in Greater London, I cannot get a free bus pass as a man in my sixties, but would be entitled to it, if I lived in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

Although I accept that many people who live in Greater Manchester may be totally unaware that they no longer qualify for a free bus passes at 60, the government must marvel at the way in which they get away with this in England - cutting people’s benefits while at the same time, cutting taxes for the multinationals and the rich. No doubt, they must wonder why, the people of Greater Manchester and the other areas of England, put up with such blatant discrimination in transport policy within the regions of the UK.  No wonder, some politicians get awarded lucrative part-time jobs in the city.