It should automagically do the free ride, assuming the operations chaps have done their job and set it up.
For an integrated card, yeah, dream on I'm afraid ???? Been trying to get this going for nigh on 20 years (and others were there first), politics trumps the technology ????
Probably, the closest you will get in the foreseeable future is to be able to use your contactless EMV (credit or debit) card to travel (MRT and Red Line already do it), but that won't do elderly stuff, just base adult fare, great for tourists of course.