Latest news with #over60s
The Sun
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Sun
Everyone who is eligible for free bus pass in England as Labour confirms major rule change – and those who will miss out
DEMANDS for fairer travel passes for England's over-60s have been growing stronger. And as Labour confirms a major rule change - who will miss out? 1 Those eligible for a free bus pass in England Currently, people in England that live outside London, only qualify for free off-peak bus travel once they reach state pension age which is currently 66. But in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, residents enjoy this benefit from the age of 60. In response to a parliamentary question from Liberal Democrat MP Dr Al Pinkerton, Transport Minister Simon Lightwood confirmed that English councils can choose to offer additional local concessions, Such as earlier eligibility for free bus passes — but must fund them themselves reports The Star. Lightwood said: 'The English National Concessionary Travel Scheme (ENCTS) costs around £700 million annually. 'Any changes to the statutory obligations… would therefore need to be carefully considered for its impact on the scheme's financial sustainability.' Petition surpasses 101,000 signatures The revelation that councils already have this power has given fresh energy to campaigners. A petition calling for the ENCTS to be expanded nationally to include all over-60s in England — not just those in London — has now surpassed 101,000 signatures. The petition argues the current rules are outdated and unfair. It says: 'As people get older, some over 60s drive less and less. The Selfish Travel Trend Annoying Public Transport Users Everywhere 'We believe we need equality on public transport. "It would mean England had the same provision as Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.' What does this mean for you? If you're 60 or over and live in a London borough, you can get free travel on the bus, Tube, tram, DLR, London Overground and most National Rail services in London with an Oyster photocard. But if you're aged between 60 and 66 in England and don't live in London the answer as to when you'll be eligible for free bus travel, could depend on where you live. While there's no national plan yet to lower the threshold, your local council can introduce an over-60s scheme. It all comes down to public pressure and local campaigning. With confirmed government backing for local flexibility, some councils could act — if residents persist on having their voices heard.
The Sun
10-07-2025
- The Sun
15 freebies and discounts, over-60s can claim even if you're not retired yet
Own your age and save cash in multiple areas of everyday life HAPPY DAYS 15 freebies and discounts, over-60s can claim even if you're not retired yet YOU are only as old as you feel, but when you hit 60 there are financial benefits to owning your new age. Many companies give discounts to older customers to encourage them to spend, although they are not always well advertised. 7 Many companies give discounts to older customers to encourage them to spend Credit: Getty Some of the most valuable start when you hit 60, while there are many more that kick in at 65 or state pension age — now 66. We've rounded up some of the best discounts. 7 One of the best free things for over-60s is a free bus pass Credit: Getty Travel Free travel passes: One of the best free things of being 60 or older is that you can get free bus passes in the UK. The rules around free bus passes for older people have changed in recent years. But you can currently claim a free bus pass in England when you reach the state pension age, which is 66, regardless of gender giving you free local bus travel anywhere in the country. Residents in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland can get the free older person's buss pass from the age of 60. When it comes to London, whether you live inside or outside the capital, you can get the Freedom Pass. This allows you to travel for free on the bus, tram, DLR and most rail services. For London residents, the 60+ Oyster Card means you can ride the capital's public transport for free. Scotland offers free travel on national bus services and free rail travel in some areas via a National Entitlement Card too. 6 ways to get the biggest bargains in B&M And people over 60 in Wales can benefit from free bus travel with a Concessionary Travel pass which also allows for some free rail travel. Free rail travel includes routes Wrexham to Hawarden Bridge, Shrewsbury to Swansea, or Llandudno to Blaenau Ffestiniog. 7 Older people can visit a number of museums and art galleries for free Credit: Getty Days out Free activities: The UK is home to some of the world's best museums and art galleries and older people can visit a number of them for free. This includes the Natural History Museum, National Art Gallery and V&A Museum of Childhood in London. In Scotland, you can see the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum or National Museum of Scotland free of charge. And if you're in Cardiff or Coventry, you'll be able to get into St Fagans National History Museum and Coventry Transport Museum respectively. But if you're more of an outdoors fan, you can visit the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh or the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in Wakefield. And if you love sports and fancy a day out with your family, you can go to the National Football Museum in Manchester or the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London. 7 Over 60s can enjoy discounted meals Credit: Getty Eating out Free meals out: Many restaurants and pubs offer smaller portions and cheaper menus for over-60s. If you frequently dine out, you may want to consider getting a Tastecard. While not exclusive to seniors, it offers up to a 50% discount on food or two-for-one meals at over 6,000 UK restaurants. You can sign up for a 90-day free trial for just £1, or get an annual membership for £34.99. If you're doing a trial, remember to cancel before the time period is up or you'll be charged. Independent pubs and country dining houses also regularly feature pensioner lunches on specific days, afternoon teas or a two-for-one deal. Asda also extends a special offer to over-60s with customers in this age group able to purchase soup and a bread roll for just £1. You'll also be treated to unlimited tea and coffee for free at any of Asda's 205 cafes. Waitrose also has a hot drink offer for members of their myWaitrose loyalty scheme too, which is free to join. 7 It's important to stay fit and active as you get older Credit: Getty Health and fitness Free prescriptions: It's important you continue to stay fit and look after your health as you get older and many free services are available to over-60s in the UK. If you are over 60, any medicine prescribed by your doctor is free anywhere in the UK. You may need to bring identification though to prove your age and you'll need to tell your chemist at the till. Free eye tests: Over-60s are also entitled to a free NHS-funded eye test every two years and the likes of Specsavers also offer free eye tests. Free dental care: Depending on what benefits you are receiving, you could also be entitled to free NHS dental care. If you're based in Wales, you can get free dental examinations but any subsequent treatment will have a charge. And in Scotland, you'll be able to access free NHS dental examinations with treatment completely free for some patients. Free hearing check: It's also recommended that you get a hearing check every two years with hearing impairment affecting one in six people in the UK. If you're over 50, you can book a free hearing test and ear check at Boots and Specsavers also offer everyone a free hearing test too, regardless of age. Free health checks: The NHS Health Check is a free check-up of your overall health. If you're aged between 40 and 74 and do not have a pre-existing health conditions, you should be invited to one every five years by your local GP. Free swim and gym sessions: It's also important to stay fit and active, and if you're a wheelchair user or have limited mobility, you don't even have to leave your home to try a fitness class. You could try Joe Wicks' The Body Coach, Sophie Dear Yoga or The Girl with the Pilates mat with Rachel Lawrence online. And in some areas across the UK, you can access free swimming and gym classes if you're over 60 too. 7 You can get a 10% discount on Tuesdays at a major supermarket Credit: Getty Shopping 10% off in Iceland: Iceland offers exclusive discounts for over-60s. Customers in this age group can enjoy a 10% discount on their shopping with no minimum spend requirement on a Tuesday. The discount is also applicable to The Food Warehouse branches. B&Q also provides enticing deals every Wednesday with a range of discounts available with their Diamond B&Q club. And ATS Euromaster caters to the motor needs of over-60s through its Club 60 program. You can get free year-round discounts on car-related services such as MOTs, air con recharges, wheel alignment and 15 per cent off on servicing. 7 You could be entitled to a free TV licence Credit: Getty Free items for the home Free TV licence: You can get various TV licence discounts and concessions with eligibility depending on individual circumstances. If you're over 75 and receive Pension Credit, you can even get a free TV licence that covers both yourself and anyone you live with, regardless of their age. For those who are blind or have a severe sight impairment, you could be entitled to a 50% discount too. If you're residing in a care home or sheltered housing, there's also the option of an Accommodation for Residential Care licence for £7.50. Free energy payment: If you're born on or before 22 September 1959, you can get between £100 and £300 to help pay for your heating bills this winter. Discounted vet expenses: Dogs Trust provide a 50% discount with their subscription that amounts to just £12.50 a year. This can entitle you to 24-hour emergency advice, third-party public liability insurance for your dog and more. Free payment for grandparents: If you're among the 63% of grandparents providing care for your grandchildren, you could qualify for additional tax credits amounting to £330 each year. It can even be retroactively applied as far back as 2011. Free handyman service: Several councils offer a handyman service for over-60s that can cover minor works to a home such as replacing light bulbs or other small DIY jobs.
Yahoo
08-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
New award launched to celebrate the over 60s in Cumbria
Churchill Living has launched a local hero awards to celebrate over 60s in Cumbria With just two weeks to go until nominations close, Churchill Living is encouraging people in Cumbria to shine a spotlight on the everyday heroes over 60 who are making a real difference in their communities. The Churchill Living Local Hero Awards were launched earlier this spring to celebrate the positive contribution of older people, from tireless volunteers and fundraising champions to those who simply show up day after day with kindness, compassion and care. Anyone aged over 60 can be nominated, or nominate themselves, for going above and beyond in their local area. Finalists will be invited to a special ceremony at a Churchill Living Lodge this summer, where the overall winner will receive a donation of up to £1,000 to give to a charity of their choice. Spencer J McCarthy, Chairman and CEO of Churchill Living, said: 'The nomination period for our Local Hero Award is nearly over and we want to make sure the incredible older people in our lives get the recognition they truly deserve. "These awards are all about shining a light on the quiet heroes who give so much to others, often without asking for anything in return. READ MORE: Lake District visitors urged to take 'dangerous' litter home | News and Star 'Whether they're supporting neighbours, running community projects, or just making someone's day a little brighter, we want to hear their stories. Make sure you get your nomination in before June 16th to be in with a chance!' Nominations can be made online at: or by emailing: ChurchillHeroAwards@
Irish Times
23-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
What are your options if you want to release wealth tied up in your home?
Equity release was all the rage during the Celtic Tiger years. Property owners were regularly advised to use equity that had built up in their homes to buy more property. In an environment where property prices were rising fast, you'd be a fool not to ...or at least that was the common refrain, until the bubble burst. Equity release providers shut up shop almost faster than the banks pulled tracker mortgage offers. The financial peril of playing the leverage game with property purchase rapidly became clear. Many people were plunged into financial turmoil: some have yet to emerge, others never will. But that doesn't mean there is no place in the market for equity release – only that consumers need to be fully aware of what it involves and clear in their mind as to why it might represent good value for them. READ MORE And after a decade long hiatus, equity release is slowly returning to the Irish market. [ Over-60s can borrow against equity in their home. But should they? Opens in new window ] So who's offering such loans, how do they work and what are the factors you need to consider? Núa Money Núa Mortgages, which offers mortgages across the range – first-time buyers, movers, switchers etc – were in the news recently when they announced cuts to their rates. They headlined cuts of up to 0.95 of a percentage point and, pointedly, the most dramatic cuts were in their equity release products. One of their big selling points is the speed at which you will get a decision and the fact that they don't require months of bank statements and evidence of clean living; they just want to be sure that you have repayment capacity as shown by your net disposable income on its assessment calculator. Núa offers three distinct equity release options – Switcher Extra which allows you take equity from the property when you switch the outstanding mortgage to Núa; Switcher One, which is a debt consolidation product that also offers the option of equity release; and Home Plus, which is designed for people with no outstanding mortgage loan on their home. How much you can borrow depends on the value of your home and the loan to value that will exist with the borrowings. Under Home Plus, you can borrow up to a maximum of €400,000 if the loan amounts to half or less of your home's value; €300,000 for loans of 50-60 per cent of the property value; and €200,000 for loans that amount to no more than 70 per cent of its value. Núa offers a three-year fixed rate of 4.6 per cent on loans of up to 60 per cent and 5.1 per cent for higher borrowings. If you opt for a five-year fix, the respective rates are 4.85 per cent and 5.25 per cent. The rates for the Núa Switcher Extra allows you to release equity up to a slightly higher level – 80 per cent loan to value. The interest rates are slightly higher at 4.8 per cent up to 70 per cent loan to value on a three-year fix and 5 per cent if the borrowings are somewhere between 70 and 80 per cent loan to value. The five-year fixes are at 5 per cent regardless of the loan to value. However, the amounts you can borrow are lower – up to €300,000 on a loan to value of less than 50 per cent, €200,000 from there up to 60 per cent, then €100,000 up to 70 per cent and €75,000 if the equity release brings your borrowings to between 70 and 80 per cent loan to value. On its debt consolidation Switcher One product, the interest rate is 5 per cent regardless but the amounts you can borrow are reduced – no more than €125,000 even if the outstanding loan to value is below 50 per cent, €100,000 between that and 60 per cent, €85,000 up to 70 per cent and €75,000 from there up to 80 per cent. In all cases, you are paying a premium for the equity release over its standard first-time buyer and mover rates which starts from 3.6 per cent, a full percentage point cheaper. Bank of Ireland Among the mainstream banks, Bank of Ireland offers an equity release option. It says you can borrow anywhere from €15,000 to 90 per cent of the value of your home. Obviously, if you have an outstanding mortgage, the 90 per cent loan to value upper limit on any equity release will include the outstanding balance on that loan. Bank of Ireland says you can choose a repayment terms of anywhere between five and 30 years, though clearly that will be impacted by other issues such as your current age. And Bank of Ireland says you can choose from the same interest rates as those available to first-time buyers, movers or switchers over two, three, five and 10-year terms. These range from 3.3 per cent to 4.05 per cent depending on the term and your home's building energy rating (BER). On its website, the bank also says the term you choose for repaying the equity release element of your loan can be different from the term outstanding on your current mortgage, though in terms of value for money, the more you extend the life of the loan, the more you will pay in interest. It also offers a 2 per cent cashback on the new element of the mortgage. So if you are taking €50,000 of equity out of your home by topping up your mortgage, you will get €1,000 back in cash once the agreement is signed. Spry Finance And then there is Spry Finance, also known as Seniors Money, which specialises in equity release for those over the age of 60. Its main product is something called a lifetime loan which allows you to borrow against the equity you have built up in your home. The property has to be worth at least €300,000 if it is in Dublin and €225,000 elsewhere in the State, and mortgage free – or you can use some of the lifetime loan to pay off any loan balance as well as freeing up equity. You are expected to keep your home well maintained and Spry can insist on repairs if they find otherwise. The amount you can borrow is determined by the value of your home and your age. At 60, you can borrow up to 15 per cent of the value of the property. The percentage rises by one percentage point every year above that up to 40 per cent of the value of the home for someone who is 85 or older, up to a maximum loan of €500,000. The minimum loan available on Spry Finance is €20,000. The attraction for many people here is that the interest is rolled up with the loan meaning you do not have to make monthly or other payments. However, that obviously eats into the remaining equity in the property and you are paying a premium for the privilege as, at 6.7 per cent, the interest rate on the loan is higher than the other options. There is a 'green' rate of 6.5 per cent for homes with higher BERs. Spry commit that, regardless of how long you live, the balance of the loan will never amount to more than the value of the property. So, you may have nothing to leave your family, but at least you leave them no debt, which was an issue with some previous equity release products in the Tiger years. You can also chose to ringfence at least 20 per cent of the value of the property so that Spry can only recoup a maximum of 80 per cent of the property value when you die, or sell. Doing so will add 0.1 of a percentage point to your interest rate. To give you an example of how the balance of the loan can build up, if you were to borrow €50,000 at 70, the loan balance would be almost €70,000 five years later on the basis of the 6.7 per cent fixed rate, and €97,709 at the age of 80. There is also a €1,500 charge to set up the loan in the first place. Spry does offer a calculator on its site to allow you assess the cost of the loan and the value remaining in your home. It assumes the value of the property will rise by 2 per cent a year. It does offer the option of making repayments against the loan of up to 10 per cent of the balance per year for those in a position to do so. Lifetime loans are not a cheap option and you need to consider the financial implications carefully before going down this route but it does offer access to funds for people with limited or no repayment capacity. Equity release got a bad name after the crash and it is certainly worth remembering that this is anything but 'free' cash. However, it does offer people the option to release some of the value of their most valuable asset if the need, or desire, for cash arises. And the range of products available does provide options both for those with earning capacity and those without. You can contact us at OnTheMoney@ with personal finance questions you would like to see us address. If you missed last week's newsletter, you can read it here .
Telegraph
22-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Labour to ban over-60s from taking out student loans
Did you go to university in your 60s? We want to hear if it was a success or not. Get in touch with us money@ Labour is set to ban over-60s from taking out student loans after taxpayers were saddled with £50m in unpaid debt. A shake-up of higher education funding in England will end a clause which allows older learners to take out loans which they are unlikely to ever repay. Last year, more than 1,000 students over the state pension age of 66 took money from the Student Loans Company (SLC) to cover their fees, data provided to The Telegraph under Freedom of Information rules revealed. More than 3,800 students over the age of 60 took loans, with 1,824 also taking out maintenance loans. Since 2020, 18,127 loans have been taken by students over the age of 60. This means that some pensioners could have received as much as £15,829 in government support, with a full maintenance loan on top of a full new state pension. The outstanding balance for those over 60 was £49,011,160. It comes as Labour doubles down on a Sunak-era commitment to ban those over the age of 60 from taking money from the Government to pursue degrees. The 'Lifeline Learning Entitlement' will replace the existing higher-education funding system and will provide all new learners with a tuition fee loan entitlement to the equivalent of four years of post-18 education. A spokesman for the Department for Education said: 'From January 2027, tuition fee loans will no longer be available to those aged 60 and over.' Tom Allingham, of Save the Student, which provides financial advice to undergraduates, said: 'While the current system creates a generational divide – students aged 60-plus are far less likely to repay their loans, so for many, their degrees are effectively free – we believe the decision to limit student loans to the under-60s only is a step backwards, as it makes it much more difficult for older students to pursue higher education. 'Instead, we believe tuition fees should be abolished, allowing students of any age to gain a degree free of charge.' Unpaid debt Student loans can be taken out to cover tuition fees – which are set to rise to £9,535 in September – and living costs. The amount that can be borrowed depends on the financial situation of the student in question, and the loans are not repaid until graduates earn over a certain threshold. This means that those aged more than 60 when they take out loans are unlikely to repay their debt at all – unlike those who complete their studies when they're younger. The average graduate in England last year was £48,470 in debt when they started repaying their loan. The ten most indebted students owe a collective £2.7m, with one on the hook for nearly £300,000 for their studies. Liz Emerson, of the Intergenerational Foundation think tank said: 'While lifelong learning should be open to all who have never been able able to access higher education before, there is an obvious intergenerational unfairness if younger generations have to continue to pick up the bill for these older students who will obviously never pay back their student loans. 'This is another subsidy from young to old.' Approximately £20bn a year is loaned to 1.5 million students, according to a briefing by the House of Commons. The value of outstanding loans is forecast to hit £500bn by the late 2040s, government predictions show. Debts to the SLC are wiped entirely after either 30 or 40 years, depending on when the loan was taken out. A Department for Education spokesman said: 'This Government is committed to boosting opportunity and economic growth by building a skilled workforce, while ensuring the student finance system remains fair and sustainable.' 'The dire situation we inherited has meant this Government must take tough decisions to put universities on a firmer financial footing, so they can deliver more opportunity for students and growth for our economy through our Plan for Change.'
