Prime Minister Andy Burnham has announced a significant change to free bus travel for disabled people across England, scrapping all time restrictions on their bus passes from April next year. This initiative aims to ease the financial pressures many are facing amid the rising cost of living.
Currently, disabled bus passes are only valid for travel on weekdays between 9:30am and 11pm unless local authorities provide additional funding. Greater Manchester, under Burnham’s previous leadership as mayor, was among the first to extend free travel beyond these hours.
Under the new scheme, these time limitations will be removed nationwide, allowing disabled passengers to travel free of charge at any time of day or night.
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The £60 million required to support the initiative will be reallocated from existing budgets, with £40 million coming from the Department for Work and Pensions and £20 million from the Department for Transport.
Since becoming Prime Minister, Burnham has introduced several measures to mitigate the rising cost of living. These include reducing business rates for pubs, implementing a £2 cap on bus fares, and removing VAT on electricity bills.
Speaking about the new bus pass scheme, Burnham said: “Buses are a lifeline for so many people, enabling access to work, education, and healthcare. It is simply not right that many disabled people cannot use their passes during certain times of the day. We are fixing that. Disabled people will now have unlimited free bus travel 24/7.
“I implemented this in Greater Manchester and am proud to extend it to the entire country. This is part of our ongoing effort to bring hope and offer people some much-needed relief from the cost of living.”
Liberal Democrat MP Tom Gordon, who has campaigned for this reform for nearly two years, welcomed the announcement. He stated: “Disabilities don’t start at 9 o’clock, so disabled bus passes shouldn’t either. This is a huge win for the disabled community.”
The proposal to remove time restrictions was initially rejected by MPs last year.
A Conservative Party spokesperson responded: “This is merely a reshuffling of existing departmental budgets. Andy Burnham needs to be transparent about how he plans to fund this growing list of policies.”