One of the few things you could look forward to with certainty when you got to the grand old age of 60 was a shiny bus pass, entitling you to free off peak local travel anywhere in the country.
Not much use in Somerset, where peak and off peak buses are few and far between, but handy in big towns and cities nevertheless.
But the rules have changed, with scarcely an announcement. If your birthday was this week (congratulations Dave), the coveted bus pass is not yours until March 2012. Entitlement for everyone is moving north in line with the pension age for women, which is gradually increasing to 66 between now and 2020.
If you were born before 5 April 1950, you can have a bus pass now.
If your 60th birthday is this summer, you will have to wait until January 2013.
Born after July 1953 and you will have to wait until November 2016.
By which time there won’t be any buses anyway, at least in Somerset.