Free TV licences for over 75's scrapped from 1st August

pphillips

The BBC has announced it will no longer fund the free universal TV licence for the over 75's from 1st August.
If you're over 75 and can't pay, there are two options:

1. Those on Pension Credit can still get a free TV licence. Claim Pension Credit here: https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit/how-to-claim

2. Unplug your aerial or satellite dish and tell TV Licensing that you don't need a TV licence here: https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/cs/no-licence-needed/about.app
You'll still be able to watch catch up TV (excluding BBC iPlayer) and other free or paid for on demand services.

brewerdave

@pphillips - you missed the 3rd option - don't pay and wait to see if they will take an elderly person thru the Courts - have my doubts!!

pphillips

brewerdave said:

@pphillips - you missed the 3rd option - don't pay and wait to see if they will take an elderly person thru the Courts - have my doubts!!

You make a good point, the government can't realistically allow the criminal courts to be jammed up with prosecuting the over 75's. I think that decriminalisation is now a virtual certainty.

prowla

I predict a riot!

unforeseen

Zimmers at dawn! 

Sterlingtimes

unforeseen said:

Zimmers at dawn! 

The TV licence enforcers may focus upon the elderly because they are easier to frighten. Let us hope that ill-qualified agents do not turn up on doorsteps adopting psychological duress tactics. This nonsense needs to stop: there should be no need to pay a licence to receive live television from anywhere in the world. Once the TV licence is withdrawn, the BBC can encrypt its output over satellite, digital terrestrial or the Internet.

neilmcl

pphillips said:

brewerdave said:

@pphillips - you missed the 3rd option - don't pay and wait to see if they will take an elderly person thru the Courts - have my doubts!!

You make a good point, the government can't realistically allow the criminal courts to be jammed up with prosecuting the over 75's. I think that decriminalisation is now a virtual certainty.

Probably not but what will likely happen is the BBC will hand over the "debt" to collection agencies who will then turn up adding £100s to the original fee every visit. I can't think of any over 75 who would want to go down that route, they just end up begrudgingly paying the fee.

pphillips

neilmcl said:

pphillips said:

brewerdave said:

@pphillips - you missed the 3rd option - don't pay and wait to see if they will take an elderly person thru the Courts - have my doubts!!

You make a good point, the government can't realistically allow the criminal courts to be jammed up with prosecuting the over 75's. I think that decriminalisation is now a virtual certainty.

Probably not but what will likely happen is the BBC will hand over the "debt" to collection agencies who will then turn up adding £100s to the original fee every visit. I can't think of any over 75 who would want to go down that route, they just end up begrudgingly paying the fee.

No, I think the BBC will have to have the same enforcement rules as the likes of Sky and Netflix - if you don't pay your service will get cut off.

brewerdave

Mickey666 said:

To be fair, what is the justification for ALL over-75s to get a free TV licence?  Not all pensioners are poor and many can very easily afford the £3 per week (or whatever it is now).  Those who are poor enough to qualify for income support WILL get a free TV licence, which seems fair enough, so I really can’t see the problem. 

There are two major issues - 1. There are, apparently, a large number of pensioners who don't claim pension credit either because they don't know about it or are too proud to claim it. and 2. there are a considerable number of pensioners who are excluded from pension credit because they have a relatively small amount of savings but live hand to mouth on what pension they get. To these people £3 a week is a significant amount that many of them haven't paid for many years. For example my mother had a free license from 2000 to her date of death recently.
In my view, the BBC license is an anachronism which needs abolishing asap. but as a temporary measure they could continue free licenses for those who already have them but means test any new claimants.

neilmcl

pphillips said:

neilmcl said:

pphillips said:

brewerdave said:

@pphillips - you missed the 3rd option - don't pay and wait to see if they will take an elderly person thru the Courts - have my doubts!!

You make a good point, the government can't realistically allow the criminal courts to be jammed up with prosecuting the over 75's. I think that decriminalisation is now a virtual certainty.

Probably not but what will likely happen is the BBC will hand over the "debt" to collection agencies who will then turn up adding £100s to the original fee every visit. I can't think of any over 75 who would want to go down that route, they just end up begrudgingly paying the fee.

No, I think the BBC will have to have the same enforcement rules as the likes of Sky and Netflix - if you don't pay your service will get cut off.

How do you imagine that's going to work? The BBC can't "cut off" all the services provided by by the license fee to an individual household.

roddydogs

They can cut off i player, can't they you have to certify you have a licence?  They also know that grieving relatives will mostly not claim any unused licence fee when the person dies.