......free bus passes and prescriptions for wealthiest pensioners after 2015 election

Winter fuel payments, free bus passes, eye tests, prescriptions and televisions licences could all face the axe after the next election, after Downing Street today said the Prime Minister’s pledge to protect them only lasted until the 2015. Asked whether pensioner benefits would be protected into the 2015/16 tax year, which begins a month before the proposed date of the election of 7 May 2015, a Downing Street spokeswoman said: ‘We have done an awful lot to help pensioners, but clearly, speaking generally, there are some difficult decisions to be made.’ She added: ‘What (the Prime Minister) set out in terms of benefits for pensioners that was set out in the Coalition Agreement for this Parliament, he absolutely stands by that. But broader decisions around the spending review have yet to be made.’......Read more here