Raising the age of free bus travel eligibility to 65 has been ruled out by the Scottish Government despite the flagship programme’s soaring cost.
A report by public spending watchdog Audit Scotland on the scheme, which gives free bus travel to the one million Scots over 60 and those with disabilities, says action must be taken to ensure the programme’s sustainability.
It also warns some routes and services could be cut because the reimbursement rates paid to bus companies for the service do not cover costs.
Before the scheme was launched in 2006, it was up to individual councils to provide free bus travel.
That service has since been provided by central government, which reimburses firms for each passenger.
However, the cost of the scheme is rising and now costs £199 million per year at 2010 prices £25 million more than at its launch.
Higher fares are blamed for the rising price, despite the Scottish Government introducing a cap on the amount of money it would pay bus companies each year.
The report also estimates the future bill could rise to £216 million by 2025, or more than £500 million if uncapped.
To offset the rising bill, the report recommends raising the age of eligibility for free bus travel to 65, which would save about £40 million a year, or introduce a flat rate of 20p a journey, which would raise around £30 million a year.Systems “not in place”Of over-60s in Scotland, 80% hold a bus pass, but the report also states the impact of the concessionary travel programme is still unclear because of a four-and-a-half-year delay in installing the technology to support it.
The cost of this has more than quadrupled over the last four years, from an original £9 million to £42 million.
Scotland’s auditor general Robert Black said, “National concessionary travel (NCT) is popular, with take-up by older people at a very high level, but there were weaknesses in how the scheme was planned and implemented.
“Systems to effectively administer NCT were not in place, and this left it more open to error and fraud.
“It is expected to take four and a half years longer than planned to fully introduce the technology that is key to the scheme working effectively, and this has cost more than four times the original budget.”
Scottish Labour transport spokesman Charlie Gordon called for Scotland’s bus services to be regulated.
He said, “It is unacceptable that those who are currently on the lower rate of disability allowance are excluded from the free bus travel scheme, but Labour’s efforts to reverse this have been rejected by the SNP and Tories.
“John Swinney must act on the warnings from passenger groups who believe that some routes could be under threat by the… reimbursement rate which he negotiated.
“Regulation would not only tackle the over-provision of buses on profitable routes, but it would make services better in rural areas and that means those eligible for the free bus scheme could make better use of it.”
A spokeswoman for Transport Scotland said the Scottish Government welcomed the report, but ruled out changing eligibility.
She said, “We welcome the Audit Scotland report which is one of a number of recent reviews and analysis of this ground-breaking national scheme.
“There are clearly lessons to be learned from how the scheme was initially established under the previous administration and we have taken this on board.”