Wales' £70m free bus passes let alcoholics travel to the pub freeWales' £70m-a-year free bus pass scheme is highly vulnerable to fraud – with alcoholics using them to travel to the pub among other widespread problems, say industry insiders.
The cost of the free travel scheme has soared from £17.7m to £69m in the decade since it was launched by the Welsh Government in 2002.Bus managers say nearly a third of free journeys are taken by under-60s who have been judged to need a pass, even though 90% of the free passes are issued to pensioners.
And they argue that many of the passes are routinely misused, with alcoholics using passes – issued to them because of their dependency – to travel to the pub.
A Welsh transport consultant, who also asked not to be named, said he had heard evidence of this from drivers on a route between rural towns.
“There’s been some animosity from other passengers that alcoholics have a free pass to get drunk and they have to pay a fare, which is a pint or two,” he said.
The Scottish Government has launched a 24-hour hotline for people to report misuse, such as passengers using dead relatives’ passes, which costs Scotland millions of pounds every year.
The Welsh Government is not following suit, but urges people to report possible fraud to councils.
One bus manager said the new smartcard technology invited fraud because passengers now placed their passes face-down on the scanner in the bus.
“In the old days, you showed the pass to the driver. The visual assessment isn’t there any more,” he said.
He said councils “should be out there on the buses, checking that the passes are being used by the people they’ve been issued to”.
He added: “I would expect to see some prosecutions if somebody was there to check the passes.
“It’s the government’s money and they pay the local authorities to administer the system, but the authorities are all cutting down on staff.”
None of the six bus managers we spoke to could recall council inspectors checking passengers’ passes.
The Association of Transport Coordinating Officers (Atco) Cymru, representing council transport officers, said most authorities had bus monitoring officers whose job includes checking passes.
Atco Cymru chair Richard Cope said: “Three authorities in South Wales are currently investigating the fraudulent use of passes, the result of which, although unknown at present, may conclude that a prosecution will be brought.”
A Welsh Government spokesman said each council was responsible for managing the scheme.
He said: “Local authorities undertake spot checks on services to monitor the actions of bus drivers and the use of bus passes.”
The Welsh Government could use data from electronic ticket machines to scrutinise bus-pass use, he added. “This information allows us to identify possible cases of inappropriate use of bus passes, which can then be pursued with the local authorities and bus operators.”
John Gould, of Stagecoach South Wales, said: “In any system there will be abuse, but we rely on drivers picking up these things. We’ve had drivers confiscating passes. There have been occasions where daughter will be using mum’s pass or next door’s pass.”
More than 25% of free journeys on his buses are with passes issued to people aged under 60. At Neath-based South Wales Transport, those passes account for up to 29% of free journeys.
SWT managing director Bev Fowles said: “The concessionary scheme is being over-burdended, not by over-60s, but by higher usage by the other concessionaries.
“That’s a serious problem. It (the funding) should come out of social services or the NHS if they think somebody can’t live their life properly without a bus pass.”
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