AMA attacks government pensioner testing proposals
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• The Government's plan to means test concessionary travel fares has been branded as "horrifying" by the Associalion of Metropolitan Authorities' chairman, Councillor Michael Simmons.
"Over a third of pensioners will become ineligible for cheap travel and the rest will be means tested," Simmons told the Government's Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee (DPTAC). "We know from experience that many will forfeit their right to concessionary fares rather than subject themselves to intrusive questioning — and so pensioners who cannot afford to pay full fares will become more housebound. The social and economic cost to the community would be far greater than any savings the Government hopes to achieve," he said.
The AMA has also attacked the DPTAC proposal whereby voluntary and charity groups who run special transport services for the needy would have to compete with commercial companies. Simmons claims that "the formalities of tendering are bound to drive away many of the voluntary groups now doing such sterling work."
The only part of the DPTAC plan supported by the AMA is the clause urging bus builders to make vehicles easier for disabled people to use.