More than 20,000 Newcastle seniors have been excluded from the NSW Government\u2019s Regional Seniors Travel Card program, despite it being available to those living in neighbouring local government areas.
\nThe $250 card allows eligible seniors to save on fuel and taxis, and pay for pre-booked NSW Trainlink Regional trains and coaches, however Newcastle residents miss out due to the city\u2019s classification as \u2018metropolitan\u2019.
\nFor example, this means that seniors in Stockton cannot receive the card, but those in the neighbouring suburb of Fern Bay can.
\n\u201cThe people of Stockton and Fern Bay are living side by side and it\u2019s ridiculous to see them divided this way,\u201d Member for Newcastle Tim Crakanthorp said.
\n\u201cNewcastle\u2019s bus service has already been decimated by this Government \u2013 this would have made it easier for seniors to access vital services, but they\u2019ve been left out in the cold again.
\n\u201cThis Government\u2019s arbitrary and inconsistent classification of Newcastle as metropolitan or regional according to their whim is unfair and wrong.\u201d
\nShadow Minister for Seniors and Cost of Living Jo Haylen said the exclusion was another blow for seniors and pensioners who were already struggling with the cost of living.
\n\u201cSeniors and pensioners are the people who need this help the most, and it shouldn\u2019t matter where they live,\u201d Ms Haylen said.
\n\u201cThere has been nothing fair about the rollout of this scheme – Newcastle residents should be just as entitled to this card as their neighbours in Lake Macquarie or Port Stephens.\u201d
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More than 20,000 Newcastle seniors have been excluded from the NSW Government\u2019s Regional Seniors Travel Card program, despite it being available to those living in neighbouring local government areas. The $250 card allows eligible seniors to save on fuel and taxis, and pay for pre-booked NSW Trainlink Regional trains and coaches, however Newcastle residents miss … Continue reading “REGIONAL TRAVEL CARD FLOP \u2013 NEWCASTLE SENIORS MISS OUT”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newcastle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5205\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}