Free Swimming For Pensioners.

[polly]

Originally Posted by emamum23

what a pile of tosh!
do you think that everyone should get discounts on public transport as well?
they have to pay rent and council tax, they pay tax twice on their pensions.. let them have a few perks! there are age related illnesses that can be made a little easier by swimming and it would also give some oaps a little relief from pain whilst they are swimming. i think its a great idea.

personally i think they should be given food vouchers as well so they can have a good diet because some cant afford that.

Well yes I do think we should all get free or subsidesed public transport, it is one way of reducing car congestion at a stroke and making public transport safer. And lets face it nothing is really 'free' we are paying for it somewhere along the lines.
When I get to retirement age I want to be treated with dignity not disregarded as needing everything for cheap and free. I am old enough to remember the indignity of 'free glasses' dont want that again in another form. Most old people have worked hard and payed into the system for many years they do not deserve to be offered something that they have paid for time and time again as a handout.
Free swimming for all would also reduce the next generation of older peoples likelihood to get illnesses like arthritis etc and thereby save the NHS millions.

As food vouchers that really is an insult to anyone who has worked and paid into the system. Lets leave our older people with some self respect

[Margaret Pilkington]

so the pregnant women who get vouchers for fruit and veg are having their dignity compromised are they?
I remember getting free school meals and free milk and orange juice......there is no dignity in being poor, and many pensioners will attest to that.

Until they make the pension one that will allow the older generation to live, rather than exist...I will take whatever is going......after all my taxes are paying for it too(as one who has seen her tax bill double - Thanks Gordon).

[emamum]

from my other post you can see that i am against pensioners paying rent and council tax and having to pay tax twice for the same money.. either the state stops this or gives them freebies.

you're seeing this things as hand outs whereas i see them as rewards that they have earned.

[BERNADETTE]

Not all pensioners will take advantage of such schemes, some will see it as charity. Although we know it isn't that is an unfortunate fact. Just give them a decent pension to live comfortably!!!

[polly]

:alri ght:

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

so the pregnant women who get vouchers for fruit and veg are having their dignity compromised are they?
I remember getting free school meals and free milk and orange juice......there is no dignity in being poor, and many pensioners will attest to that.

Until they make the pension one that will allow the older generation to live, rather than exist...I will take whatever is going......after all my taxes are paying for it too(as one who has seen her tax bill double - Thanks Gordon).

As long as society accepts vouchers instead of a livable income the goverment will continue to issue them because they dont give a toss about anyones dignity.

On an individual level then of course I do not expect anyone to refuse vouchers if they are entitled but that should not mean that we accept that being poor means not having ones dignity.
There is a need here to think theoretically and collectively untill the less well off achieve this they will not achieve anything else.

[polly]

Originally Posted by emamum23

from my other post you can see that i am against pensioners paying rent and council tax and having to pay tax twice for the same money.. either the state stops this or gives them freebies.

you're seeing this things as hand outs whereas i see them as rewards that they have earned.

Yes, like many others I do see them as handouts.If they were rights then they would be offered to everyone with out any means testing, which is what should happen

Wouldn't you like the right to retire at a reasonable age without worrying if your private and state pensions have enough contributions? Wouldnt you like to know that the state values the contribution you have made to society enough to ensure you have a reasonable standard of living for the rest of you natural days?

Remember, 'from the cradle to the grave"? That is what we have paid for. That is the deal todsay's pensioners thought they were getting

[Margaret Pilkington]

Bus passes aren't means tested...and as far as I am aware neither will the opportunity to swim be means tested.....it will be available on the basis of age at first, and then the whole population will get the free swim...that is if they can find a pool to swim in.

A lot of pensioners would be better off if Gordon Brown had not made a huge raid on their pensions......and then had the audacity to double the basic rate of tax.
I think I said in an earlier post that, of course, the best means to make sure the older people got a pension that allows them to live rather than exist......I really can't see it happening in my lifetime......and these concessions that we are handed are a means to shut us up...and perhaps to make us feel grateful.....where is the dignity in that.
No, there isn't any...and that is what I meant when I said that being poor takes away your right to dignity.

[West Ender]

I'm sure when I heard about this on the radio it was said that the free swimming scheme would, eventually, be available to everyone. It was first to be for pensioners, then children and, finally, everybody else - at Municipal leisure centres obviously. I don't see the point of doing it in stages - either make it free for all, now, or don't bother.

[Bonnyboy]

Originally Posted by West Ender

I'm sure when I heard about this on the radio it was said that the free swimming scheme would, eventually, be available to everyone. It was first to be for pensioners, then children and, finally, everybody else - at Municipal leisure centres obviously. I don't see the point of doing it in stages - either make it free for all, now, or don't bother.

Think it is to be rolled out to the over 60’s initially and could be free for everyone by 2012...may, might, possibly etc. - Free swimming to be 2012 legacy

[garinda]

In an ideal world pensions would pay enough to give people choices as to how they then spend their money. Sadly in the real world economics score more highly than ideals, and this is a cheap way of giving those who wish to swim the option to do it for free.

Swimming is benefical to our health, and a lot of pensioners will be happy that they no longer have to pay, and hopefully more will also be pursuaded to do so.

Personally I'd scrap non-means tested child benefit for all, and give that money to the pensioners.

[jambutty]

Originally Posted by flashytart

i know a lot of older ladies who go swimming, everytime i go to Hyndburn sportsy it is always packed out with them in the mornings, i think this is a great idea

And how many older ladies do not go swimming?

[jambutty]

Originally Posted by Tin Monkey

My late Father went swimming every week once he retired at 65 and he wasn't on his own. Swimming is good exercise and can be therapeutic for rheumatism and other such afflictions.

I think it's a great idea and I don't mind my tax pennies going towards such a scheme. This thread looks like just another excuse for a whinge.

You are missing the point. This freebie will only affect a tiny proportion of pensioners but it will look good on the government’s CV.

There will be thousands like me who do not want to go swimming, so what do we get out of the deal? There will be thousands who cannot even swim and many older folk cannot. They never had the opportunity to learn.

So what is wrong with a good whinge about yet another government idea that hasn’t been thought through? In any case if I want to complain about something I have the right to do so. If you don’t like it then don’t read.

[jambutty]

Originally Posted by katex

It is also being offered to children under 16 too Jambutty.

The main aim is to try and get these categories fitter and therefore save on health bills, 'tis well-known that swimming is extremely beneficial to all types of conditions.

I, myself, go swimming three times per week . o.k. am in a private gym, and a younger type pensioner ... I don't know how long I will be able to sustain this membership moneywise, so will be grateful of the freebie. There are always lots of people there older than me who struggle to walk, have had strokes, broken bones, arthritis. They find it difficult to walk alongside the pools, but when they get in the water, their movement is much improved, and obviously of great enjoyment to them.

It is proposed that swimming will be free for all by 2012.

And so it should. But that is nothing new.

When I was at school, once a week my class (and all the other classes in all the other schools) were taken by an Accrington Corporation bus to Scaitcliffe Baths for free, where those who could not swim were taught to swim. Those of us who could already swim would help the non-swimmers and also swim around.

Then the bus brought us back to school.

It was the same with sports. Football up at King George’s playing fields in winter and cricket in summer.

If the plan is for free swimming for all, what will happen when just 1% of the Accrington population decides to go swimming each day? Pool grid lock???

[pussycat]

i think its a good idea , but pensioners should get more pension to help with healthy eattin to , there are to meny goin without food and heatin , in the winter, it costs me bewteen 120pound and 150, for gas a month in the winter,

[katex]

Originally Posted by jambutty

And so it should. But that is nothing new.

When I was at school, once a week my class (and all the other classes in all the other schools) were taken by an Accrington Corporation bus to Scaitcliffe Baths for free, where those who could not swim were taught to swim. Those of us who could already swim would help the non-swimmers and also swim around.

Then the bus brought us back to school.

at King George’s playing fields in winter .

If the plan is for free swimming for all, what will happen when just 1% of the Accrington population decides to go swimming each day? Pool grid lock???

As far as I am aware Jambutty, it is compulsory for all children at primary school to be taken for swimming lessons; the aim for them to swim 25 metres by the age of 11 .. those that have not attained this, are offered extra lessons.