Cuts to the Senior discount coming?

[agesilaus]

RV Travel Magazine

Looks like they want to cut the discount on upcharges to the camping fee. But the big problem is cutting the discount all together during peak season. Pay full charges all summer long?

Don't like it, now is the time to call your senators and congressmen:

House: (352) 732-1313

Senate: (202) 224-3121

Calls are the most effective but you can email them too, just write your own email don't use a form letter.

I'm not sure if this applies to Access Passes too.

[down_home]

I am 100% DAV Lifetime medical coverage if 100%, or if rated Disabled at any level due to service. However if not 50% you may have to pay some for drugs.
A lot more than this and I don't remember it all at the moment.
Go to VA site to find the benefits and so on.

[agesilaus]

LOL Housing allowances plus base pay = poverty level for civilians, even Service connected vets have limited access to VA health care you have to retire from the service to get Tricare which is probably what you are referring to.

[tdiller]

westernrvparkowner wrote:

agesilaus wrote:
If I was a private or the equivalent with a family I would certainly try to get a military discount considering their pay rate, which is very low.

Did I miss where the draft was re-instituted? While it is certainly the right of a business to offer any discount that doesn't violate the law, those in the military chose to be there. The pay might be lower than private industry is some instances, but the benefits are generally bigger. Lifetime health care thru the VA, retirement after 20 years regardless of age, housing allowances and the like are not a normal perk in the private sector. In my opinion, those benefits tend to balance out any inequity in pay.

You misunderstand the rules of enlistment.
1. there is no lifetime healthcare at the VA unless you have a service connected injury. There is also a tiered approach to health care at the VA depending on different criteria.
2. Housing allowances rarely cover the cost of housing which is why often several single military folks will rent a multi bedroom house and split the cost. For families this benefit is mostly because spouses can not easily find work to support housing costs with all the moving around military families do.
3. There are many civilian jobs that offer the opportunity to retire after 20 years of service. Most though are union or public sector jobs.

[tdiller]

The article did not mention the access pass for disabled folks so I'm wondering if that too may be subject to these same changes.

[RambleOnNW]

The fed campgrounds already had no discount for double campsites nor extra vehicle parking fees. The places we go are apparently too primitive to have additional services that are discounted.

[goducks10]

Whats the difference between a senior getting a discount and a child getting a discount? Many times its 'Children Under ? Age' get a discount.
I doubt anyone complains about that.

[goducks10]

Cloud Dancer wrote:
Lower-income people, retired or otherwise, will ALWAYS be able to afford LESS. Just imagine how expensive the essentials are for low-income people, compared to how cheap these same essentials are for high-income people. It's even more striking the older you get. I'm all for giving senior citizens a break.

x2

[BB_TX]

Cloud Dancer wrote:
Lower-income people, retired or otherwise, will ALWAYS be able to afford LESS. Just imagine how expensive the essentials are for low-income people, compared to how cheap these same essentials are for high-income people. It's even more striking the older you get. I'm all for giving senior citizens a break.

If only it were that simple. Seniors and non seniors alike come in all economic brackets. There are retirees fortunate enough to receive defined pensions and/or have substantial sums tucked away in 401k retirement plans or IRAs. And there are seniors less fortunate who must scrape by on nothing but SSA payments. With most somewhere in the middle. Likewise there are younger people making little more than minimum wage and others with high level income jobs with little to worry about financially. And again, most somewhere in the middle.

Offering discounts to seniors simply because they are seniors and not offering the same to lower income people is, in a sense, a form of discrimination against that low income group.

I have no qualms about accepting senior discounts when available. And I ask if they are available when I can. But I consider it a privilege extended, not something that is owed me for living past 65.

[Trekkar]

Cloud Dancer wrote:
Lower-income people, retired or otherwise, will ALWAYS be able to afford LESS. Just imagine how expensive the essentials are for low-income people, compared to how cheap these same essentials are for high-income people. It's even more striking the older you get. I'm all for giving senior citizens a break.

X2. Some of us older folks have waited UNTIL retirement to enjoy the outdoor gems. (Planned discounts!) Now you think it's fine to remove or minimize them? Nice! 😞

[Cloud_Dancer]

Lower-income people, retired or otherwise, will ALWAYS be able to afford LESS. Just imagine how expensive the essentials are for low-income people, compared to how cheap these same essentials are for high-income people. It's even more striking the older you get. I'm all for giving senior citizens a break.

[Lynnmor]

Range Maggot Bob wrote:

Lynnmor wrote:
I have no problem with charging for the extras.

Good for you. I do. I bought the card in good faith and pay my taxes. I'm tired of buying things and then having to buy "extras" to really have everything. Hmmmph.....

They should refund your ten bucks and make you happy.

[Range_Maggot_Bo]

DutchmenSport wrote:
Um... I take a different view on this. The fact is, more and more RV's have been sold in the last few years than ever before. All time new highs in RV markets have reached an unbelievable peak. There are definitely more RVers than campsites available. For the National Parks and such, this is a money maker. But as the baby boomers are now "booming" into retirement, own more RV's than probably any other "group", perhaps this is 'their' way to keep the revenue coming in.

Say 100 sites go for $25 a night. That $2500 a night. Now, if 100 "seniors" use those same sites at the discount price, say... $15 a night, that's now only $1500 for the same space, the same time, the same number of sites.

I may be wrong, but I don't think National Parks are in the "for profit" business.

[Range_Maggot_Bo]

Lynnmor wrote:
I have no problem with charging for the extras.

Good for you. I do. I bought the card in good faith and pay my taxes. I'm tired of buying things and then having to buy "extras" to really have everything. Hmmmph.....

[toedtoes]

jplante4 wrote:

toedtoes wrote:
Why would it be different? They are eligible for the senior discount also. And just because they aren'ton SS, diesn't mean they aren't as cheap as all the other seniors.

Read it again. If they had to LIVE on SS, not the $174k a year for life they get now.

I still don't see how that would change their view. You think they DON'T use every senior discount available to them even with $174K a year? They will want the discount just as much as any other senior - whether in a huge class A or a popup.

The truth is they aren't the ones changing the senior discount - it's the USNPS. It's not the politicians, it's the bureaucracy.