T.V Licence - Up to 3.7 million pensioners will now have to pay for it.

[DavidHatton]

 

[Bill_g]

Pretty astonishing to see the level of feeling about this topic. I'd have to say that the great majority of the pensioners I know have more money to spend in retirement than ever before. With an ageing population the free license hit on the BBC is massive. I'd pay £150 or whatever it is just for Radio 4. Fair enough to have to apply and then basic means test but rediculous that it has ever been free AND paid for out of BBC income.
Regrettably I think BBC will have to become a subscription service. I'd be very anti ads as this will drive the Beeb towards pandering to the lowest common denominator. I alSo have Netflix and Sky, both of which are great when I need to switch my brain off, but with a few notable exceptions the real quality in the UK remains mainly on the BBC. The right wing Brexiteer nitwits who are currently driving this country onto the rocks seem to have the same long term plans for the BBC.

 

[Richie_asg1]

Tell them I don't need one every 2 years and they leave me alone.

I must have had 30-40 threatening letters from Crapita (sorry, "TV Licensing").
.

Does any of this constitute harassment?
I would send them a polite letter telling them to stop sending threatening letters - or you WILL prosecute them for harassment. Get it photographed and datestamped, then send it recorded delivery - and wait for the next few to roll in as they will inevitably do as nobody can be arsed taking you off a database.
- You could actually win this one if they keep threatening you. Companies can only hassle you if you do owe them money. Otherwise it's illegal if you ask them to stop.

 

[Dutto]

Anybody not pay??

I lived up a very remote glen in Scotland and any "TV Detector Van" would have had to drive three miles off a main road and pass the doors of about 10 neighbours, before they reached my own home so I figured that, as I had just come back to the UK from working abroad, I just wouldn't pay for a TV Licence.

All was well for many years and I hadn't paid for a TV licence or been discovered when I met SWMBO and persuaded her to come and live with me; and the unlicensed TV that sat in the living room.

Ah that happy "Honeymoon Period" when we used to spend so many hours in bed that TV became a very secondary thing to amuse ourselves with! However, the Honeymoon Period doesn't last forever so SWMBO decided to show her love for me by buying a TV that we could install in the bedroom!

When she announced the new addition to our family my first question was "How did you pay for it?" My heart leapt when she said "Cash." but when I asked her "Which address did you give to the man at the back if the counter in Comet?" it came crashing back to earth when she said "This one of course!"

I made sure that SWMBO paid for the TV Licence out of her own money from 1987 to 2018; which is another reason why I'm so miffed at having to pay for it, after less than a year getting a "Freebie" due to our age!

Think there's any chance that I can convince SWMBO that she will have to go back to paying for it?

 

[nottsbl]

I guess there will be loads of people moaning about the decision and if it had been a blanket ban i would have agreed but i think this is fair, what are your thoughts?



Up to 3.7 million pensioners who previously received a free TV licence will now have to pay for it.

The BBC will scrap blanket free licences for over-75's, but those households with one person who receives pension credit will still be eligible.

In 2015, the government announced the BBC would take over the cost of providing free licences for over-75s by 2020 as part of the fee settlement.

But that would have cost £745m, a fifth of the BBC's budget, by 2021/22.

The new scheme will cost the BBC around £250 million by 2021/22 depending on the take-up.

The BBC said "fairness" was at the heart of the ruling, which comes into force in June 2020.

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

The history is:
- the tories pressured the bbc to keep the over 75 exclusion
- they then cut the bbc budget and told them to recoup the cut by stopping the over 75 exclusion
- the bbc are complying
- every moron in the country is now asking why and blaming the bbc
[the bbc are a complete shitshow, staffed with tories at every level since 2010 and should be democratized as per the current labour proposals, but this over-75s-to-pay-licence-fee-who-is-to-blame is a farce. if your answer (who is to blame) is anyone else but the tories, you are a very silly person.]

 

[nottsbl]

I think the BBC has always gone about business with a sledgehammer, rather than a carrot. And this behaviour will drive people further from them.
Why did they not introduce a discounted fee for the over 75's? It would have been far more palatable to most.
The BBC's pursuit of "it's" license fee has also always been bullying and badly handled. When my father hit 75 years back, he stopped paying quite correctly... and I arrived one day back at his place to find a TV licence guy being quite aggressive and unpleasant and unreasonable to him on the doorstep. I soon sent him on his way. Even the old adverts they used to play were all along the lines of "big brother's watching and will catch up with you".
That kind of approach rankles with people, rightly so in my opinion. The BBC for too many decades has taken it's "Corporation" moniker too seriously, and because of it's licence fee money arriving without any problem has failed to see the competition and shift in viewing, and failed to compete.
I think it does make some great programming, but I also think it's on it's last legs, although it's size and government backing will probably see it's downfall be a slow and long and tortuous one.

You do realise that most of the BBC's functions have been outsourced for years? including licence collection. it is effectively about 70% outsourced - nearly all of its "creative" output [did you know "question time" and HIGNFY" were independent programs bought in by the BBC?- but 100% funded thru your taxes]. those thugs hassling your father? outsourced. By Tories. why do you see your own father harassed and refuse to acknowledge who is harassing him?

 

[Justin Dean]

Jonathan Ross hasn't had a show on the BBC for the best part of 10 years. It appears you COULD make it up.

Yes but that is what he earnt when at the BBC (6m per annum sorry not 18 per annum but over 3 years for one show and a radio show......) It takes a while to get to the truth when a establishment is so untransparent. even now when they do publish them it is only because they were told to and shamed. Completely untrustworthy establishment

 

[Justin Dean]

The history is:
- the tories pressured the bbc to keep the over 75 exclusion
- they then cut the bbc budget and told them to recoup the cut by stopping the over 75 exclusion
- the bbc are complying
- every moron in the country is now asking why and blaming the bbc
[the bbc are a complete shitshow, staffed with tories at every level since 2010 and should be democratized as per the current labour proposals, but this over-75s-to-pay-licence-fee-who-is-to-blame is a farce. if your answer (who is to blame) is anyone else but the tories, you are a very silly person.]

Maybe to think it would be any better under a socialist government is also a silly person? "staffed with tories at every level", really? come on that is just not true, how could it be?

 

[Linalmeemow]

Yes but that is what he earnt when at the BBC (6m per annum sorry not 18 per annum but over 3 years for one show and a radio show......) It takes a while to get to the truth when a establishment is so untransparent. even now when they do publish them it is only because they were told to and shamed. Completely untrustworthy establishment

So he made 1/3 of what you claimed almost 10 years ago - not really relevant today.

Lineker is now the highest paid talent and he makes 1/3 of what Ross made all that time ago. While I'd say the £1.75 million Lineker gets paid annually is still outrageously high, it looks like the BBC are heaing in the right direction with their talent salaries

 

[Dutto]

Maybe to think it would be any better under a socialist government is also a silly person? ......

Er ... not if the Socialist Government:

• Applied socialist values to ensure that wealth generated by the society in which we live is "For the Many and not the Few."
• Made BBC management go back to the original principles laid down by Lord Reith who said the purpose of the BBC was to “inform, educate and entertain”. (Lord Reith was very careful to ensure that the words were in that particular order!)

 

[Llamaman]

Last time I checked it was "The BBC Plc" - so is not a government body and therefore cannot charge a tax

You didn’t check very hard or well then.

It is, and always has been (in its current guise as the British Broadcasting Corporation) a statutory corporation operating by Royal Charter.

A plc has to be listed on an exchange with publicly traded shares.