Society gets healthy benefits from bus passes

BARBARA Harrison writes (Yorkshire Post, February 24), how she and her husband ... are increasingly using their bus passes both for shopping and social reasons and in doing so, are supporting other areas by spending their money in shops so that the wider community gets the benefit of the money in their pocket.

What she does not mention is that they are also, by getting about more, getting exercise and maintaining a more active social life which will help maintain their health and stave off that curse of old age, dementia.

My wife and I also take advantage of our passes to go out on walks in the country which we probably would not do so often otherwise.

Abolishing them will almost certainly lead to older people staying at home, becoming increasingly socially isolated and then dependent on social care.

This will increase the burden on the whole community so the bus passes can be seen, even by those who only take economic considerations into account, as being a worthwhile investment in the future.

Furthermore, those who wish to withdraw the facility might like to remember that they may well become older themselves one day and benefit from what they now look at as an unwanted subsidy for “wealthy” pensioners.