Pensioners could lose their free London Underground travel perk as costs for the freebie soar to £372 million.
Freedom Passes reduce daily expenses for millions of people in the capital by enabling pensioners to utilise London’s whole transport system at no cost.
The scheme has always included Underground and Overground travel, but London Councils – the body that organises the passes – is undertaking a review which could effectively turn it into a bus pass, eliminating the rail travel element.
Other options include increasing the age at which Londoners can claim the pass from 66 or excluding national rail services within Greater London from the pass’s scope.
The yearly cost of the scheme, funded by taxpayers in the capital’s 32 councils, is set to increase by more than 11.8 per cent in 2026, The Standard reports.
Councils are expecting to pay for more than 279 million free journeys from April.
All of this is happening at the same time that London’s local authorities are facing budget cuts in other areas, such as social care and special needs services.
Lowering the Freedom Pass’s scope could reduce this financial pressure by about £148 million per year, according to London Councils chief operating officer Stephen Boon.
The adjustment would need parliament to amend the Greater London Assembly Act 1999.
London’s scheme is one of the most comprehensive in the country, whereas many towns and cities offer free bus travel only during off-peak times.
It differs from the 60+ London Oyster card, which only provides free travel during off-peak hours and is issued by Transport for London (TfL).
These cards are written off by TfL as lost revenue, and the organisation is believed to have missed out on £125 million in fares from 60 to 65-year-olds in 2025 alone – a figure expected to rise to £180 million by 2027.
The Freedom Pass’s only restriction applies to the morning rush hour in the capital.
Prices have increased, thanks to Freedom Pass users taking more journeys on the network, as well as adjustments to how Elizabeth Line fares are calculated.
TfL will also charge the cost of the Oyster cards the passes are attached to directly to London Councils for the first time this year.
Each card costs £1.50, and there are about 400,000 of them.
Mr Boon also told a meeting of the London Councils’ transport and environment committee that the Society of London Treasurers, an organisation of the boroughs’ chief financial officers, ‘expressed concern about the growing cost of the Freedom Pass scheme’.
He added that his officers ‘will continue to work…to identify what other policy options might be used to control the cost of the scheme in future’.
As councils continue to struggle financially, budget reductions are planned for some of London’s wealthiest boroughs.
Richmond is bracing itself for a 16.2 per cent increase in the cost of financing the pass, while Brent is expecting its share of the invoice to soar by more than £2 million.
TfL and London Councils declined to comment.
Perhaps what they should do is stop all the staff, tube drivers and their families from getting free travel.
Labour seems to despise pensioners, and the people who sustain them seem to forget that they will one day become pensioners, and I don’t blame anyone for fare dodging because I wouldn’t want to contribute to the driver’s ridiculous salaries either.
For some pensioners, this is the only way they can afford to get out and about, but now our government want to isolate these people as well.
Our government should be looking after pensioners and the vulnerable, and they should be leaving our hard-worked pensioners alone, but our government are happy to give freebies to migrants who come over and haven’t paid a penny into the system.
If people like pensioners have their passes restricted, there won’t be many travelling, which means there will be empty seats and spaces that pensioners would have filled on their way to stores, cafes, theatres, cinemas, sports venues, and then the greater economy suffers because it loses out on revenue. Get the picture?
It’s called a Freedom Pass for a reason!
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 
As age 89 sept 3rd 2026 – If & pray they don’t those cuts go into action , many millions & I will have many exhausting bus swap journeys both there & back to see my large family / grandchildren / spread from Surrey to Hertfordshire , Balham, Lewisham, Hampton Court , Reading, Chesham etc pals in Suffolk & New Forest … While ’no Khan do’ has spent millions fatuously pinning soppy labels on tube lines …. & old can’t take a Freedom Pass bus before 9am anyway which affects appointments / shopping & lengthens journeys / waiting at leaky bus stops , passing time shoving cans , cartons , bottles , coffee cups , cig ends etc… into the gutter [ elegant Malacca cane handy] waiting in our case, for crammed bus full of veiled wrapped women with on average 2 kids , pushchair , bearded men in skirts , assault by rucksack swinging morons, ‘priority seats’ full of those well able to stand – incessant bell ringing – coughs n’ sneezes as they reckon flu / covid shots a plot to sterilise their boss male rule … ( Old Irish observation : “ What with the weight of him & the hate of him I thought the night would never end … “ ) End of Rant – Good Morning Londoner / Angela.🤣 >
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Good afternoon 🙂
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