I WRITE in response to the article in The Issue (Oxford Mail August 17), Susie Carter states that OAPs should not get free bus passes, as it is the young who have to pick up the tab.

It has always been the case that the young pick up the tab for OAPs.

I left school in 1956 and started paying my contributions in order that OAPs at that time could get their benefits, and for family allowance to mothers of young children.

No doubt Susie Carter benefited from my contributions to the system.

I retired from work in 2009 after paying into the system for 53 years in order that I would be looked after in my old age. I received a grand total of £127 per week in state pension adding to that pittance, they take back £30 per week in council tax.

She mentions Twiggy, Cilla and Julie Walters in her column.

Does she really believe that, with their wealth, they would pop on a bus with their bus pass? Come on, it is time to get real.

LEN LEWIS, Morton Avenue, Kidlington