TV Licence article Discussion

astroL

Query: I am 75 in May 2020. Do I get a free tv licence for 1 month? Despite being on an income well below national average etc. I don't get pension credit. My wife was also robbed of her full State Pension by being born in the early 50s. The government has succeeded in hitting us financially at every opportunity - this tv licence is just the latest government scam.

Lewie

akira 181
You have observed the 'recycling' scam with your own eyes.
Just like the tv license, 'recycling' is a tax.
They are both cons on an equal par.

cw18

astroL wrote: »

Query: I am 75 in May 2020. Do I get a free tv licence for 1 month? Despite being on an income well below national average etc. I don't get pension credit. My wife was also robbed of her full State Pension by being born in the early 50s. The government has succeeded in hitting us financially at every opportunity - this tv licence is just the latest government scam.

I've always assumed the free licence starts from the month after your birthday month, as you pay from 1st for a full month and (unless your birthday falls on 1st) you'll have to pay for the start of the month. If the free licences aren't valid from 1st June (not sure I've read which end of the month it kicks in, so I'm assuming the worst), you'll not get one at all.

[Deleted User]

astroL wrote: »

this TV licence is just the latest government scam.

For once, this is nothing to do with the Government.

It's the BBC reneging on a deal they agreed to.

[Deleted User]

akira181 wrote: »

I got fed up of all the wasted paper coming through my door and I’ve seen on many occasions the bin lorry emptying the recycling and household waste bins into the same lorry so it was greener to just tell them.

On principle, I refuse to help the BBC spend less money.

The more money they fritter away, writing to/visiting people who don't require a licence, the more people will object to them wasting LF payers money, and the more will stop paying.

You don’t see the DVLA spamming every address about road tax because they may or may not own a car that’s registered elsewhere.

Nor do the police randomly write to/visit addresses that don't have a gun licence, on the grounds they might own an unlicensed gun, yet unlicensed cars and guns are way more of a risk to the public, that unlicensed TV receivers.

Section106

Lewie wrote: »

akira 181
You have observed the 'recycling' scam with your own eyes.
Just like the tv license, 'recycling' is a tax.
They are both cons on an equal par.

This is off topic, but is so misleading it needs a response.

Occasionally 'contaminated' recycling bins will be emptied into general refuse vehicles. Also, some councils use the same vehicles for collecting refuse and recycling, but the recycled materials are kept separate from the refuse. This leads people to assume that their recycling is being dumped in the same way as general refuse.

Councils have to pay landfill tax on every tonne of waste that goes to landfill, but get an income (as well as a saving) on every tonne of recyclable material (especially metals, paper and glass) which is kept out of landfill and recycled instead. If your council is unnecessarily spending money on sending recyclable materials to landfill then you should name and shame them.

If your council incinerates waste instead of using landfill then the waste will be processed prior to incineration to remove valuable recyclables. This is done not only because the materials are valuable, but also because the non-combustible materials like glass and metals would end up in the 'bottom ash' which has to be treated as hazardous waste and is very expensive to get rid of.

Councils also have to record the waste they collect and how that waste is disposed of. The weight of every vehicle tipping at landfill or a waste transfer station is logged. The data has to be provided to the Government and is audited and published. If a council is systematically collecting recycling and disposing of it as general refuse then this will show up in the statistics. It cannot be hidden.

Recycling is not a "scam". Nor is it a "tax".

But people who refuse to recycle are imposing an additional tax burden on other residents.

Nick_C

Section106 wrote: »

This is off topic, but is so misleading it needs a response.

I agree with most of what you say. Some waste is pre-treated by going through an MBT plant prior to going to incineration, but I would say this is the exception rather than the norm.

A lot of residual waste is tipped directly at the incinerator by a dust cart. Staff will remove "hazardous" materials, such as gas bottles and mattresses (the springs prevent waste from moving smoothly through the process) but paper, card, and plastics will generally just be burned.

Ferrous metals are recovered from the ash after burning. It is my understanding that bottom ash from incinerators burning municipal waste is non hazardous and can be used for aggregate. Happy to be proved wrong if you can provide evidence to the contrary.

Britannia12345

I've tried looking through the threads for an answer to this question but there are so many posts!!
If I cancel my licence now and disconnect my satellite box so I'm not receiving live tv can I still carry on watching the programmes I've already recorded on it?

cw18

Britannia12345 wrote: »

I've tried looking through the threads for an answer to this question but there are so many posts!!
If I cancel my licence now and disconnect my satellite box so I'm not receiving live tv can I still carry on watching the programmes I've already recorded on it?

Depends on your box, and whether it's actually a Sky subscription or a Freesat one. My fella informs me that he thinks all subscription and some Freesat boxes have hard disks your recordings will be on, but if it's a subscription box you will still need a valid card (meaning you have to pay the Sky subscription) in order to watch them - and having a Sky subscription can be seen as a reason to need a licence. Not sure about the Sky Q Hubs as he's never had one of those.


I personally wouldn't cancel until the last day of a month - you don't get part month refunds, and everyones licence starts on the 1st of the month it was purchased it. I don't know if it's changed but when I cancelled they only refunded in 3 month intervals, so if you had 5 months left on it you only got 3 months money back - I timed my cancellation so there was 3 months and 1 day left on it, and I got 3 months money back.

Britannia12345

Ah ok. We've got a freesat box. Will wait until the end of the month then - thankyou ☺