Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Education – in the Senedd at 2:12 pm on 31 January 2018.
May I say that I have looked into this issue? One of the problems is that because this is an area where we do give additional funding, that could be seen as a taxable benefit, and that then creates a problem because this assistance isn’t available to all. So, what we don’t want to see is a situation where money is taken away from them because we are giving them this benefit. So, it is more complicated than you might see at first glance.
Of course, we have had this mytravelpass, which gives a third off ticket prices for people who are aged 16 to 18, and that is currently being evaluated. I believe that that takes us in the right direction. However, I do understand that this is a problem for people living in rural areas where distances are a factor. So, we are looking into this and we are considering now what the solution is and how we should respond in terms of mytravelpass.