I read your article about smartcards for young bus passengers (The Argus, September 16), enabling them to travel for free over more periods than before.

Brighton and Hove City Council is able to find funds for this scheme, yet the goalposts seem to always move for older people’s bus passes.

I was 60 years old in June 2012. I applied to Lewes District Council for my bus pass, which was responsible for issuing them in my area at the time, only to be told I did not qualify for one until September 2014.

If you were born before April 6, 1950, you are eligible for a bus pass at 60 years old.

For me, though, I expect when September 2014 arrives I will be informed I will have to wait until I am 65, or possibly 70, to qualify. Perhaps it will only be issued to hearses when one is the only passenger on board.

I am a pensioner who is forced to work hard, caring for people with Alzheimer’s for the minimum wage.

In my area, applying for a bus pass is now dealt with by East Sussex County Council, and set by the Government.

What planet do these decision-makers live on?

I have to travel by bus four miles a day to work. A bus pass would save me several hundred pounds a year. I have recently had life-saving surgery but do not qualify as disabled either.

I think I should have been a councillor or MP. To think I could have claimed travel allowances or maybe even a car to get me from one meeting to another.

And if I was employed high up in a council, I would possibly just accept a nice redundancy package of £250,000.

That would pay a few bills.

Mr C Hammond, Glynde Close, Newhaven