GMC dole fare plan
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GREATER Manchester Council's lobbying for powers to give cheap fares to the unemployed has prompted Alf Morris, the shadow spokesman on the disabled, to move the first reading of an amendment to Section 138 of the 1968 Transport Act.
The "Travel Concessions to Registered Unemployed Persons Bill" would empower passenger transport authorities to subsidise reduced fares for the registered unemployed, and young people on various Government training schemes, where they are not already entitled to concessions. The Bill has also been signed by 14 other Greater Manchester MPs.
If the Bill is successful, GMC hopes to introduce a scheme which will give increased mobility for 40 to 50 per cent of the county's unemployed, a widened area of search for people looking for work at the same travel cost, and an increase in off-peak bus use without increased cost to the passenger transport authority. The scheme has been designed not to identify the user as being unemployed, thus avoiding any stigma or loss of dignity.
The Bill has been introduced to clarify the legal position of concessionary travel groups, to avoid the possibility of Bromleystyle challenges causing the scheme to be abandoned. GMC sought legal opinion which concluded that the proposed scheme would be unlawful because there is no specific reference to the unemployed in Section 138 of the 1968 Act.