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I am now aged 60

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I know I can get free prescriptions and eye tests on the NHS.

Please share the other benefits of being 60, yet feeling 40, I can access.

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  2. I turned 60 a couple of months and can’t see anything at all to my benefit in County Durham apart from slightly reduced rates at the local leisure centre.

      • Live dangerously and get the three year one. It’s £35 for one year anyway. Risk versus reward I suppose. We need someone dull to come up with the optimal solution.
        It can also provide a relatively early example of being patronised by ticket inspectors with no doubt well meaning comments such as “I see you’ve got your young person’s railcard “.

    • I found out that you can link your rail card to your London oyster and get a third off tube prices at off peak. If you live in London then travel on tube and buses is free for over 60s.

      Just got tickets to see The Railway Children in Keighley next week £45 reduced to £42 for over 60s.

      Showcase cinemas etc do certain Silver Surfer days but not in the evening so no help if your working. Some restaurants will do an over 60s discount too.

      Though as I’m classed as disabled at the RSC last year my ticket would have cost £80 reduced to £18.

      Tickets at Bradford Literature Festival are free for over 60s though you can make a donation. A couple of years ago i saw RT at BLF tickets were £7 over 60s a £1. You can tell I’m from Yorkshire.

      • I got myself a one-year Rail Card and got it linked up to my Oyster card ready to go but before I got to use it, the Great Lockdown came along. Never got to use it as I didn’t want to risk going on public transport while the virus was so infectious.
        I really ought to get around to renewing my Senior Rail Card.

        I also found out at the time that although you can use your bank card or phone on Oyster terminals instead of an Oyster card, you can’t link a Senior Rail Card direct to your bank card or phone for tube travel, so you need to charge and use a linked Oyster card to get the 30% discount.

        • Towards the end of 2019 I went to enquire about how to get a blue badge as a traffic warden I knew suggested I get one. Dealt with straight away and while being helped with it I was asked if I wanted a disabled bus pass “I didn’t know you could get one”. Filled in the form for that, had a photo taken and received it in about two weeks. Used it two or three times then lockdown happened.

          Another thing with the railcard and the oyster card is you have to do the linking at a station, you can’t do it online.

  5. The senior tickets at our local cinema are… exactly the same price as adult ones 🙄

    On the other hand golf courses are less crowded Mon to Fri.

    Have you retired? I can recommend it.

  6. I know means-testing costs more money than it would save but the whole OAP concession thing surely needs looking at? My generation is generally the most well-off in history (yes, there are indeed still large pockets of abject poverty) so why should we get free bus passes et al?
    I remember going into a UK pharmacy aged 60 to be told “Free prescriptions” and thinking “For the first time in my life I am debt-free, no mortgage, wife and me earn (comparative) shed loads, kids left home, going for two weeks in Cyprus soon. Go on, let me pay”.

    • Clearly, my “Make The Pensioners Pay” campaign has not got off to a good start.

      As an aside, around us there are many retired ex-pats. Most still have property in the UK and, no doubt at least on paper, are multi-millionaires. Some years back the UK Government stopped paying pensioners in France the winter fuel payment because our winters are warmer than the UK.
      Absolute fury and angst ” I paid my taxes” etc etc.
      A polite enquiry as to what they spent the £300 on was met with “Usually a nice meal or a case of decent wine”.
      Up against the wall, motherf****ers!!

    • The most valuable ‘discount’ I’ve had so far is the one you get by hitting state pension age and still working. No NI payments anymore so I’m about £3500 a year better off than I think I should be. I’m not about to give it back but (I think) all my colleagues in a similar situation are working through choice and everyone of them I’ve spoken to thinks we should still be paying NI.

    • Even if you don’t have hair, you could get a bonce polish. Also not a euphemism.
      A Turkish Barber might give you a discount on removing the ear and nose hair that proliferates in old age.

      Seriously.
      Discounts on tickets at some of London’s posh venues. South Bank Centre and King’s Place, for examples.

      Every year I used to hand over my Winter Fuel Payment to the local homeless charity, who do a lot of good stuff, when my finances were in better shape. Sadly, it comes in handy for myself these days.

  10. I had just turned 60 when a young lady at my local pharmacy professed astonishment that I was old enough to qualify for free prescriptions.

    Fast forward nearly 4 years and on a recent visit I was served by the pharmacist himself. “Do you pay for your prescriptions?” he asked me, while rummaging in a drawer trying to find them. “Not any more”, I replied, whereupon he looked up from his rummaging and said, “oh no, of course not”……

  11. I’d be interested in the Irish angle on this from anyone on the other side of 60. I get there tomorrow week. So far, I see I’ll get a discount at Woodies DIY shop, reduced membership fee at our local swimming pool/gym and I think I’d be a Senior golfer. Anything else I should know about?

  12. When I turned 60 my wife had to remind me I’d reached that point in life’s journey I couldn’t give a_________

    Birthdays? Everyday is a birthday enjoy life as much as you are able to

  14. If you’re feeling like you’re 40 at the age of 60, then I think you’ve got the best benefit of all that you can have at that age. Worth more than any number of passes or concessions.

  17. I get nothing for being over 60 – still pay for prescriptions, dentist, etc.
    All the benefits start at pension age, which for me (under the current arrangements) is 67! Three more years to go…

  19. Free bus travel, which in some areas like Liverpool and London includes rail as well, is brilliant but some authorities like Manchester don’t offer it at 60 but at state pensionable age.

    • For Hertfordshire County Council the bus pass start age is state pensionable age also. No rail included, of course. 4 miles further into the metropolis and I’d be getting free Tube and Overground travel too.

  20. There was a post on the MyWest London Facebook page about the over 60 concessions a few months ago & it concentrated on free eye tests & prescriptions. I made the mistake of replying to someone who said there was nothing there for him as he was healthy. – he then complained that he lived too far from an Iceland & didn’t like the cinema.
    The ones I use are:
    Train & bus (obvs)
    Iceland 10% Tuesday (10% discount, No min spend)
    Boots over 60 reward (8 advantage points per pound)
    Cinema “silver screenings”, only selected films & times, but free tea/coffee.

    As others have said, some exhibitions or plays have a concession (a “doddery discount” as I’ve christened it) but it’s always worth asking.
    The reductions may not be that great, but they’re all there to keep you up & running (the health ones) or to remain sociable (an 11am silver screening gets you out in time for lunch)

  22. I’ve had a few people offering me the Elderly and Infirm seat on the tube recently so I’m obviously showing my age. My barber knocks a few quid off when I remind him.

      • Coming out of the Neil Innes concert at the O2 last year we got caught up in the Charlie XCX crowd having been let through the barrier to the tube for the elderly and infirm we needed to reach the disabled lift. I spoke to some young girls saying I needed to reach the lift, they immediately formed a protective barrier to allow us to cross.
        Down in the lift onto the tube and immediately offered a seat.

        I’m now one of the people who when I do something say “Bless”

  23. Over 60s get half price or free entry into many tourist attractions in China, such as the Museum of the Sino-Japanese War in Weihaiwei. I’ve just been there are can vouch for this

    • A friend said we could get a “senior’s discount” at a golf club when we were over 55. I said I don’t want it!

      My local drug store has discounts one Thursday a month for over 60s. I have done this. They didn’t ask for proof 🙁

      Otherwise I think most discounts here are for over 65s and not as good as the UK for meaningful things like prescriptions and free or discounted public transport

  25. I’ve just booked tickets for a couple of exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery and British Museum. No senior discount on either although my daughter goes free to NPG as she’s under 25.

  26. Wait until you hit 90 – that’s when the real bargains begin, like all the free health care you can wish for (although you’ll probably end up wishing you didn’t need so much health care…) 😉

  27. I love having the time to go out cycling and I’ve reached that age where there’s no competitive element to it whatsoever, however I’ve discovered that if you fall off your bike like I did last week, in your 60’s you don’t bounce like you used to! Currently nursing a cracked rib and a lovely gravel rash on my left leg.

  28. 10% discount for all over 60’s in all Iceland and Food Warehouse stores every Tuesday!
    Free Public Transport for over 60’s here in Norn Iron! The train down to Dublin is half price.

  29. So basically sod all then.

    Nice to know that I am fully paid up for my state pension I get no more value from the Government having contributed for over 45 years and still have 7 year to go.

  30. National Trust have some discounts for existing members
    “If you’re an existing member aged 60 or over, and you’ve been a member for at least the last three consecutive years, you can ask for 25 per cent off your subscription. This means that you’ll pay £72 for individual senior membership and £120.60 for joint senior membership. “

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