Freedom Pass - eligibility?
 

In message , at 23:22:45 on Sun, 23 Jun
2013, Mizter T remarked:
I wouldn't call myself wealthy, just that I have enough to generate
enough dividend income to live on comfortably.

Others might well call you wealthy though.

Yes, a lot of people would; but "independently wealthy" isn't a value
judgement, it's a statement of fact. Someone who has no salary, no
pensions, and still manages to live off their savings/investments, is
"independent" of those forms of financial support.
--
Roland Perry

Freedom Pass - eligibility?
 

On 22/06/2013 13:34, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 06:32:50
on Sat, 22 Jun 2013, remarked:
I would not be surprised to either see the national scheme scrapped
altogether, or associated with some proof (via your tax return) that
you have actually retired, at some point before 2017.

How would my tax return show whether or not I've actually retired? I'm
not even sure myself!

Any income from employment or self-employment. (Or perhaps, any
"taxable income", which would give people their personal allowance as
pocket money).

Is being a councillor employment? Different bits of government seem to
have
different opinions. It doesn't have any hours for Child Tax Credit, for
example, it disqualifies from JSA but it is taxed like employment income.

I thought many councillors (Cambridge in particular) only claimed
expenses. They aren't income.

What's your salary (for want of a better term) from being a Councillor?

There is a salary (essentially in the form of a basic allowance plus an
allowance for each separate official duty performed) payable to a
councillor. It is paid by the council to the councillor under PAYE and
with the deduction of national insurance. Depending on whether the
councillor has another job (some don't), the full tax allowance will
either be applied to it, or not.

It's no different from any old part-time job (subject to the fact that
some do it full time).

Freedom Pass - eligibility?
 

On 23/06/2013 18:02, wrote:
In article , (Roland Perry)
wrote:

In message , at
09:22:19 on Sun, 23 Jun 2013, remarked:
You don't have to be wealthy not to qualify for benefits. The maximum you
can earn that is disregarded is the same £5 per week that it was forty
years ago.

But wouldn't earning £6 a week just taper your benefits, rather than
cancelling them altogether?

Yes, but the taper is steep enough for a couple of hundred a month to lose
JSA.

Earn £6, have £5 disrgearded and lose all your JSA?

You'd have to have been have been entitled to £1 a week or less for that
to happen.

Hardly earth-shattering, is it?

Freedom Pass - eligibility?
 

On 23/06/2013 19:08, Arthur Figgis wrote:

On 23/06/2013 16:46, Roland Perry wrote:

But it seems to me that the free buss pass scheme subsidises a very
specific subset of retirees - those who have made the lifestyle choice
to live sufficiently far from the facilities they need to access that
they require a bus, together with there actually being a bus service
they can take advantage of.

I know retired people who use their bus passes in order to be able to
simply get out of the house, eg, shopping in the town a few miles away
rather than in the nearby village shops.

I know other retired people who have bus passes and never use them, and
yet others who have never applied for one.

Those who made the lifestyle choice to live close enough to the
facilities, such that they don't need to use a bus,

...will use the bus pass to go one stop. While moaning about the hard
working person paying through the nose to travel 5 miles who is using
"their" seat.

My understanding is that except in London, the buss pass for those over
60 may not be used during the height of the morning rush hour.

Freedom Pass - eligibility?
 

On 23/06/2013 20:28, Michael R N Dolbear wrote:
Recliner wrote

On Sat, 22 Jun 2013 13:35:16 +0100, Roland Perry
wrote:
[...]
It's called "independently wealthy" and several questionnaires do
recognise the concept.

Not the ones I seem to get. In any case, I wouldn't call myself
wealthy, just that I have enough to generate enough dividend income
to
live on comfortably.


Congratulations, you are a rentier (it's in the dictionary)

Rentier (1847)

A person who lives on income from property or securities

Bertie Wooster ?

Almost anyone whose main retirement income is a private pension lives on
income from property or securities.

Freedom Pass - eligibility?
 

Until that awful day when the earthen vase is shattered, the dry eyes see not, the cricket brings no relief, the savings are used for care, care and daily pin-down prior to the alchemical cosh. Oh fie!

Freedom Pass - eligibility?
 

On 2013-06-24, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 19:32:06 on Sun, 23
Jun 2013, Eric remarked:

if a retiree does not live next door to their doctor's surgery,
adequate shops and any other support they may need then they have made
a "lifestyle" choice. What absolute rubbish!

Of course it's a "lifestyle choice". As is deciding to live either near
a bus route or indeed anywhere there are buses at all (more than once a
week on market day).

Sorry, you are talking about people who are reasonably well off. Where a
retiree lives is determined by parts of their life history, available
funds and available housing, as well as issues like where the rest of
the family is. None of this is lifestyle. Sometimes it leads to
decisions involving available transport, sometimes not. Always a
balancing act between needs, desires and what is actually possible. For
many many people any "lifestyle" stuff is more than outweighed by the
rest. They can't afford to get it "right" and even those who can may
find that they have made the wrong choice.

People in London really have no idea what it's like in the provinces,
when it comes to being provided with transport.

I live in London. I have also lived in the provinces (well, one of them)
and I know what transport is like, including once-a-week or no buses.
You should really stop making sweeping statements about categories of
people, because you make no allowance for the exceptions, or indeed that
you might have the general case wrong.

Eric
--
ms fnd in a lbry

Freedom Pass - eligibility?
 

In message , at 18:40:58 on Mon, 24
Jun 2013, JNugent remarked:
But it seems to me that the free buss pass scheme subsidises a very
specific subset of retirees - those who have made the lifestyle choice
to live sufficiently far from the facilities they need to access that
they require a bus, together with there actually being a bus service
they can take advantage of.

I know retired people who use their bus passes in order to be able to
simply get out of the house, eg, shopping in the town a few miles away
rather than in the nearby village shops.

That's the sort of lifestyle choice I was talking about.

I know other retired people who have bus passes and never use them, and
yet others who have never applied for one.

If I had one (currently the qualifying date is receding at about 3x as
fast as I'm aging) I would hardly ever use it. Because there's precisely
no buses that would usefully reduce the walk to my local shops, even
those half a mile away, and if I was going to the nearest big town
(Cambridge) I'd probably pay the £3 train fare for a 15 minute ride 3x
per hour; rather than endure the 60 minute bus ride, supplied only once
an hour.

By chance, the bus stop I'd use is right by the station, about 5 minutes
walk away from my home.

Those who made the lifestyle choice to live close enough to the
facilities, such that they don't need to use a bus,

...will use the bus pass to go one stop. While moaning about the hard
working person paying through the nose to travel 5 miles who is using
"their" seat.

My understanding is that except in London, the buss pass for those over
60 may not be used during the height of the morning rush hour.

Even once upon a time in London. Hence the "Twirly" name.

However, not every job has to start at 9am.
--
Roland Perry

Freedom Pass - eligibility?
 

On 2013-06-24, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 23:22:45 on Sun, 23 Jun
2013, Mizter T remarked:
I wouldn't call myself wealthy, just that I have enough to generate
enough dividend income to live on comfortably.

Others might well call you wealthy though.

Yes, a lot of people would; but "independently wealthy" isn't a value
judgement, it's a statement of fact. Someone who has no salary, no
pensions, and still manages to live off their savings/investments, is
"independent" of those forms of financial support.

Yes, they have "independent means", but are not necessarily wealthy by
any definition whatsoever. And living comfortably is incredibly
subjective, so it need not imply wealth.

Eric
--
ms fnd in a lbry

Freedom Pass - eligibility?
 

In message , at 18:42:22 on Mon, 24
Jun 2013, JNugent remarked:
Almost anyone whose main retirement income is a private pension lives
on income from property or securities.

But only indirectly. This discussion was about people who weren't
drawing a pension (private or otherwise), [had no job or benefits], but
did have *direct* income from property/securities/investments.
--
Roland Perry