TV licences: Up to 3.7 million over-75s to pay licence fee

Free TV licences for up to 3.7m pensioners are being scrapped, the BBC has announced.

Under the new rules, only low-income households where one person receives the pension credit benefit will still be eligible for a free licence.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-48583487

If you're over 75, this means you will from now on be taxed on any means at your address through which you may (or may not) watch BBC content. You'll be paying TV licence like everybody else, after the exemption in place since Gordon Brown introduced it back in the noughties expires. The BBC have insisted.

Have mixed feelings on this
On one hand the elderly have worked their entire lives and deserve some perks in their older years but on the other hand they are the heaviest users of the BBC so it seems a bit absurd for youth to be propping it up, although i suppose you could say that about other things that are heavily used by the elderly like bus fares and the NHS. I suppose the latter make more sense as everyone wants good care and travel in their old age whereas i dont think hardly anyone young gives one about the BBC.

Tbh the whole TV license is ridiculous, i can foresee lots of vulnerable pensioners being flooded with those threatening license letters

Reply 2

the bear

20

the BBC should be ashamed.... all of these programmes about our wonderful WW2 veterans in Normandy and now they will have to fork out £££ to watch Bargain Hunt

:mob:

Reply 3

z-hog

OP

13

Original post by CoolCavy

Have mixed feelings on this
On one hand the elderly have worked their entire lives and deserve some perks in their older years but on the other hand they are the heaviest users of the BBC so it seems a bit absurd for youth to be propping it up, although i suppose you could say that about other things that are heavily used by the elderly like bus fares and the NHS. I suppose the latter make more sense as everyone wants good care and travel in their old age whereas i dont think hardly anyone young gives one about the BBC.

Tbh the whole TV license is ridiculous, i can foresee lots of vulnerable pensioners being flooded with those threatening license letters

help me out, can you delete the other three threads? Some technical issues here, can't do it. :biggrin:

Original post by z-hog

help me out, can you delete the other three threads? Some technical issues here, can't do it. :biggrin:

@MrDystopia or @Stiff Little Fingers should be able to merge them for you :yes:

Reply 5

z-hog

OP

13

Original post by CoolCavy

@MrDystopia or @Stiff Little Fingers should be able to merge them for you :yes:

I doubt Stiffy would do anything for me and I don't know about Mr. D, it looks silly like that and I just can't delete the bluddy thing. Whatever. :biggrin:

ps, let's make this the one then.

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 6

username1539513

21

No doubt there will be a lot of poor pensioners who benefit from getting the BBC free but I can imagine there’s a lot of rich pensioners who could afford it and just chose not to pay. So I’m not sure how I feel about this

Original post by z-hog

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-48583487

If you're over 75, this means you will from now on be taxed on any means at your address through which you may receive BBC content. You'll be paying TV licence like everybody else, after the exemption in place since Gordon Brown introduced it back in the noughties expires. The BBC have insisted.

Reply 7

z-hog

OP

13

Pensioners who can well afford it never asked for it in the first place but only the BBC like to portray this as something that won't dent the tight budget on which so many of them live. There's also the moral argument, if we can't let our old watch telly or listen to the radio without being taxed after a lifetime of it... The BBC say they can't afford to make drastic cuts to the service they provide and that the money is needed to meet the demands posed in the process, to offer the other side of the question with fairness to them.

Reply 8

Scotney

20

For heavens sake unbelievable! So many old people are isolated and lonely and the tv or radio is the only voice they hear all day. Meanwhile Boris proposes a 3%tax cut for highest earners! This country is making me ashamed at the moment. So all that stuff about D day was just lip service!

Original post by z-hog

Pensioners who can well afford it never asked for it in the first place but only the BBC like to portray this as something that won't dent the tight budget on which so many of them live. There's also the moral argument, if we can't let our old watch telly or listen to the radio without being taxed after a lifetime of it... The BBC say they can't afford to make drastic cuts to the service they provide and that the money is needed to meet the demands posed in the process, to offer the other side of the question with fairness to them.

Reply 9

Stiff Little Fingers

21

Original post by CoolCavy

@MrDystopia or @Stiff Little Fingers should be able to merge them for you :yes:

Original post by z-hog

help me out, can you delete the other three threads? Some technical issues here, can't do it. :biggrin:

Sorted

Reply 10

DSilva

12

Original post by z-hog

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-48583487

If you're over 75, this means you will from now on be taxed on any means at your address through which you may (or may not) watch BBC content. You'll be paying TV licence like everybody else, after the exemption in place since Gordon Brown introduced it back in the noughties expires. The BBC have insisted.

I knew you'd fall for this one.

The government has cut its funding to the BBC, meaning the BBC couldn't afford to pay the licenses of thr over 75s. Yet you blame the BBC rather than those who are actually responsible for the decision.

You've fallen hook line and sinker for the tory party spin on this.

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 11

R4JBO55

17

Original post by CoolCavy

Have mixed feelings on this
On one hand the elderly have worked their entire lives and deserve some perks in their older years but on the other hand they are the heaviest users of the BBC so it seems a bit absurd for youth to be propping it up, although i suppose you could say that about other things that are heavily used by the elderly like bus fares and the NHS. I suppose the latter make more sense as everyone wants good care and travel in their old age whereas i dont think hardly anyone young gives one about the BBC.

Tbh the whole TV license is ridiculous, i can foresee lots of vulnerable pensioners being flooded with those threatening license letters

Fam what is the actual point of a tv license ffs it’s jus a money making technique

Reply 12

z-hog

OP

13

Original post by Stiff Little Fingers

Sorted

Thank you!

Reply 13

z-hog

OP

13

Original post by DSilva

I knew you'd fall for this one.

The government has cut its funding to the BBC, meaning the BBC couldn't afford to pay the licenses of thr over 75s. Yet you blame the BBC rather than those who are actually responsible for the decision.

You've fallen hook line and sinker for the tory party spin.

I knew that, what am I supposed to have fallen for?

Reply 14

Bio 7

21

It’s only about £13 a month anyway, not exactly that much. Still, I think it’s a bad idea they are cutting it.

Reply 15

Napp

22

Original post by R4JBO55

Fam what is the actual point of a tv license ffs it’s jus a money making technique

That is literally the point of it...

Reply 16

z-hog

OP

13

Original post by Napp

That is literally the point of it...

The context to bear in mind is that when the money making scheme was introduced the world was much different, it is safe to assume that if you had a telly in those days you were well off enough to help fund it. As with all taxes, it just stayed with us forever but the picture has changed because the tax is now levied on any equipment we may own regardless of using the BBC or not.

The morals in this are that the BBC may be turning into a church but when it comes to protecting their budgets they are just another body of the public service. It's not as if they didn't see it coming and over the years they rigidly stuck to their sense of entitlement to that money whilst moaning about austerity. They could have absorbed this into their budgets progressively and it's true they didn't have to but... they could have.

Just about everyone on that list is on more than the PM and that's an awful lot of people sucking up TV licence money:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-44792074

Reply 17

L i b

19

Original post by Scotney

For heavens sake unbelievable! So many old people are isolated and lonely and the tv or radio is the only voice they hear all day. Meanwhile Boris proposes a 3%tax cut for highest earners! This country is making me ashamed at the moment. So all that stuff about D day was just lip service!

It's a bit rich to attack one tax advantage for higher earners while ignoring that this policy is specifically focused on those who are not on low incomes. Those who are eligible for Pension Credit - a pretty sizeable chunk of pensioners over 75 - will still get it free.

Essentially working age people are paying for perks for rich old people. That sticks in my craw rather more than someone keeping more of what they earn.

Reply 18

Napp

22

Original post by z-hog

The context to bear in mind is that when the money making scheme was introduced the world was much different, it is safe to assume that if you had a telly in those days you were well off enough to help fund it. As with all taxes, it just stayed with us forever but the picture has changed because the tax is now levied on any equipment we may own regardless of using the BBC or not.

Technically speaking that isnt correct (although I take your point) you can own as many tv's etc. as you like and not pay the fee it is only when you use it to tune into the broadcast networks you become liable. Aside from that bit of nitpicking though I do tend to agree the system needs an overhaul in its fee structure.

The morals in this are that the BBC may be turning into a church but when it comes to protecting their budgets they are just another body of the public service. It's not as if they didn't see it coming and over the years they rigidly stuck to their sense of entitlement to that money whilst moaning about austerity. They could have absorbed this into their budgets progressively and it's true they didn't have to but... they could have.

Mmm true but then again when theyre paired off against the hordes of other dubious channels they do rather come across a 'church' in some ways.

Just about everyone on that list is on more than the PM and that's an awful lot of people sucking up TV licence money:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-44792074

This in some ways reverts back to that hoary old chestnut about why do footballers get paid more than soldiers. In many ways it is the same here theyre (usually) payed a lot for their talent, connections, skills etc. whilst the PMs job is (depending on how cynical im feeling) anything from a public face for government (primus inter pares) to simply someone whose only right to command a large paypacket (it is large by virtue of the average wage) is that they have a job with bugger all security. I mean notionally being an MP and thus a PM are vocations. Nurses, plods etc. don't get paid more due to them doing vocations so why should these vacuous pigs in westminster? Especially when theyve got their snouts and two front trotters in the trough.

Reply 19

ANM775

20

nobody should be paying it. The BBC should start commissioning ads like every other channel.

I don't see why I have to pay because they don't want to do it...…..

TV licences: Up to 3.7 million over-75s to pay licence fee

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