Free TV licence scrapped for (most) over 75-s

[nidave]

Typical thieving bbc. They could pay for this deficit with bcc worldwide, a division that rakes in a 10 figure sum every year.

You know BBC worldwide is not for profit and the money it makes goes back to the BBC and keeps the cost of the license fee down.

 

[bramling]

What has to give is to end the obsession of cutting the headline income tax rate and instead agree a set of services we actually want as a country then set the tax rate to properly fund them.

Easier said than done. The populace will naturally divide into three groups:
1) Those who want low tax and low spend
2) Those who are happy to have high tax and high spend
3) Those who want low tax but high spend

Dealing with the third group is a problem, as political parties don't want to alienate them.

 

[LOL The Irony]

You know BBC worldwide is not for profit and the money it makes goes back to the BBC and keeps the cost of the license fee down.

Maybe they'd have more money if they didn't get rid of bbc 3. I've watched about 3 bbc 3 show's since.

 

[AlterEgo]

I think it is a fair decision, i pay my licence fee each year but hardly watch terrestrial TV, as most of it is streamed via Netflix,Amazon or now TV.
As the highest users, why should the younger generation subsidise their fee.

I am sure that young people watch some of the lowest amounts of scheduled programming. I am also sure that not too many of them pay the licence fee, as many still live at home.

 

[DanDaDriver]

It should be means tested. As should all things including free prescriptions for over sixties.

It’s crazy that people on minimum wage are being taxed to pay for things like the winter fuel allowance for millionaire pensioners for example.

 

[Busaholic]

Complete coincidence, but this news came on the same day that Boris Johnson's leadership campaign's main policy change proposal focussed on increasing the threshold for paying the higher rate of Income Tax, partly to be paid for by increasing National Insurance rates. The relevance? Higher rate Income Tax pensioners will not have to pay N.I., so will gain tremendously. The Conservative Party manifesto for the last election, on the other hand, 'promised' that the free TV licence for over-75s would last for the duration of this Parliament. Perhaps it will and we can be rid of this rottenist of rotten governments.

 

[Busaholic]

It should be means tested. As should all things including free prescriptions for over sixties.

It’s crazy that people on minimum wage are being taxed to pay for things like the winter fuel allowance for millionaire pensioners for example.

Can you please furnish figures as to how many millionaire pensioners there are in this country?

 

[NeilWatson]

and radio and internet based services.

Just to confirm you never ( never ever, ever, ever,) listen to local radio or 5 live ( not even for the football) or click on BBC sport/news on the web or watch Iplayer or use the Radio Player app?

A Television Licence isn't needed to listen to BBC radio programmes.

 

[greyman42]

They could always go down the road of adverts like other companies do.

 

[Polarbear]

It should also be remembered that the BBC have made requests to increase the cost of the licence fee to be able to continue funding free licences for the over 75's, but this was refused a while back. It was only a matter of time until the BBC was pretty much forced to ditch the free licence fees.

It's a common government trick - cut the funding from central government, then sit back & blame the operators when it invariably goes belly up.

 

[prod_pep]

A Television Licence isn't needed to listen to BBC radio programmes.

Indeed, nor is it needed to view the BBC News or Sport sites which the only medium from which I've 'consumed' BBC content in years.

 

[DanDaDriver]

Can you please furnish figures as to how many millionaire pensioners there are in this country?

No, and it’s irrelevant to the point I’m making. But I suspect you know that.

 

[PeterC]

The answer is to abolish free to air TV broadcasting. The BBC can then be funded by a combination of direct subscription and a levy on other providers.

 

[LOL The Irony]

The BBC can then be funded by a combination of direct subscription and a levy on other providers.

Channel 4 does well by advertising and not getting a penny of the license fee.

 

[433N]

First, I really don't mind paying for a tv licence if (a) I watch telly when I'm 75 and (b) I live to be 75.

The thing I really don't get with the BBC is why we need to pay Gary Lineker so much (surely people will watch MOTD or not whether it's Gary Lineker or Bungle from Rainbow) ... or why we need to pay Claudia Winkelman so much (really struggle to see how she retains, never mind attracts viewers or listeners) ... or why we need to pay ...xxxx so much ....

It seems that there are many at the BBC whose wages are based on some speculative 'market value'. I'd really like to see the BBC as an incubator of new talent and if/when their stock becomes high, they are welcomed and encouraged to find pastures new.

If it makes no sense for people on minimum wage to fund the tv licenses of rich pensioners then surely it makes no sense for them to fund BBC 'stars' whose astronomical wages are not in relation to the value they add.

 

[tony_mac]

Can you please furnish figures as to how many millionaire pensioners there are in this country?

822,000 - According to ONS, 2014-2016
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula...geandwealthbandgreatbritainjuly2014tojune2016

 

[EM2]

Indeed, nor is it needed to view the BBC News or Sport sites which the only medium from which I've 'consumed' BBC content in years.

But the licence fee does pay for them. No income, no website.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Can see this causing an uproar amongst the generation that has had everything free off the state, they won’t like having to pay for something. It’s good that it is still free for the poorest pensioners though.

When did the TV licence become free to the over-75s? From what I hear some people say, you would be under the impression that this benefit has been around for a very long time?

A lot of current and upcoming OAP's are far wealthier than a lot of younger workers today and could easily afford to do without these perks.

Over-75 is not the age when upcoming begin to be of pensionable age. There are many single pensioners that we know who only claim the basic state pension, as in days long passed, many women did not go out to work, hence there is no company pension to add to supplement the basic state pension.

It’s crazy that people on minimum wage are being taxed to pay for things like the winter fuel allowance for millionaire pensioners for example.

"Millionaire pensioners"....Is that straight out of the Momentum "Little Red Book" of Socialist Dogma? I would not be surprised if it also appeared in the "RMT Guide to Press Releases".

How many of these "millionaire pensioners" are personally known to you, that you can pass such comment from personal experience?

The answer is to abolish free to air TV broadcasting. The BBC can then be funded by a combination of direct subscription and a levy on other providers.

That seems a good idea, except there should be no levy as you state. The BBC should manage solely on what its paid subscriptions bring into its coffers and cut its cloth accordingly. The BBC supposed anathema to advertising is always betrayed by its very own constant trails for its own programmes that seem to last as long as advertisements on other channels at times. One thing that really annoys me is the long and loud dreary long percussion and wind instrument introduction to BBC News programmes.

 

[DanDaDriver]

"Millionaire pensioners"....Is that straight out of the Momentum "Little Red Book" of Socialist Dogma? I would not be surprised if it also appeared in the "RMT Guide to Press Releases".

How many of these "millionaire pensioners" are personally known to you, that you can pass such comment from personal experience?

Did I say it was from personal experience?

I don’t personally know any drug dealers, astronauts or porn stars yet I know they exist.

But thank you for the philosophy lecture.

Someone posted a link to the number of pensionable aged millionaires in the UK, scroll up and click on it if you’re that bothered.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

822,000 - According to ONS, 2014-2016
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula...geandwealthbandgreatbritainjuly2014tojune2016

What about the 2016-2018 statistics? How many of the 2014-2016 number died in the following period?

Someone posted a link to the number of pensionable aged millionaires in the UK, scroll up and click on it if you’re that bothered.

Perhaps you did not know me under my former username of Paul Sidorczuk, for if you did, like many who have viewed my past postings on a vast number of threads, you will know that both my good lady wife of 78 and I (75 next birthday) are not at all financially embarrassed and have as many acres around our 18th century six-bedroom home (and attached paddock) in the most select rural part of the Cheshire "Golden Triangle" as there are pie shops in Wigan!

The cost of the TV licence fee is something we would regard as "loose change".

 

[swj99]

I think it's a social experiment to see how many people the govenment can annoy before they become unelectable.

 

[433N]

I think it's a social experiment to see how many people the govenment can annoy before they become unelectable.

Well it's an interesting experiment. So far we've had ...

Cameron and Osborne promising more austerity - Tory majority.

Blithering incompetent and under-talented May running a car crash campaign - Tory win

Blithering, incompetent, bumbling, right wing, looking-after-his-poshie mates, obnoxious, Trump-lite, misogynist Johnson - Result ?

Paraphrasing Churchill, the greatest argument against democracy is spending 5 minutes with a member of the British voting public.

 

[Senex]

First, I really don't mind paying for a tv licence if (a) I watch telly when I'm 75 and (b) I live to be 75.

The thing I really don't get with the BBC is why we need to pay Gary Lineker so much (surely people will watch MOTD or not whether it's Gary Lineker or Bungle from Rainbow) ... or why we need to pay Claudia Winkelman so much (really struggle to see how she retains, never mind attracts viewers or listeners) ... or why we need to pay ...xxxx so much ....

It seems that there are many at the BBC whose wages are based on some speculative 'market value'. I'd really like to see the BBC as an incubator of new talent and if/when their stock becomes high, they are welcomed and encouraged to find pastures new.

If it makes no sense for people on minimum wage to fund the tv licenses of rich pensioners then surely it makes no sense for them to fund BBC 'stars' whose astronomical wages are not in relation to the value they add.

Like you, I really struggle to understand why anyone should pay the totally talentless Claudia Winkelmann the sort of money the BBC does and am pretty puzzled by what's on offer to people like Lineker too.
If there's to be public funding through a Television Tax, then doesn't the BBC need to be split into a very high quality, genuinely independent news, current affairs, and information operation funded from such a tax and a mass-entertainment operation paying whatever fees it likes but funded entirely without a taxpayer contribution? Winkelmann, unfunny comedies, political drama, etc would all belong in the second operation where the BBC could pay to its heart's content but there would be no charge on the taxpayer (and so no reason for us to complain about a much lower Television Tax).

 

[Typhoon]

Blithering, incompetent, bumbling, right wing, looking-after-his-poshie mates, obnoxious, Trump-lite, misogynist Johnson - Result ?

Oh, come on, you know. Comfortable Tory majority.
The beneficiaries of the tax cuts (individuals and companies) will ensure that there is a pretty large election war chest. He'll go to the country soon after pulling the UK out of the EU (but before the effects of leaving are felt), claiming some sort of masterstroke. Promises of giveaways in the November Budget. We'll get the 'good-old, loveable Boris' from the media. He'll manage to go through the debates without answering a single question.
Once the crosses are on the papers, he will claim to be following the BBCs lead and cut back on pensioner benefits as he finally works out that people expect him to keep his promises (as well as other changes - I read somewhere that he wants to raise NI).

What did Pete Townshend write - "Won't get fooled again"?

 

[Typhoon]

Like you, I really struggle to understand why anyone should pay the totally talentless Claudia Winkelmann the sort of money the BBC does and am pretty puzzled by what's on offer to people like Lineker too.

I'd love to know what presenters on commercial channels earn. Sadly, the BBC don't monopolise the market for the totally talentless.

 

[LOL The Irony]

"Millionaire pensioners"....Is that straight out of the Momentum "Little Red Book" of Socialist Dogma? I would not be surprised if it also appeared in the "RMT Guide to Press Releases".

How many of these "millionaire pensioners" are personally known to you, that you can pass such comment from personal experience?

19 years is a long time.

 

[Retired Driver]

I am sorry, but Ive read some of these posts with dismay.Many Pensioners are too proud to ask for additional benefits, theyve worked hard all their life, and deserve the 3 concessions. And they will probably be too proud to go to Food Banks, unlike the people we see on CH 5 on the Dole claiming Benefits, and still Smoking and Drinking, and have Dogs, Cats etc..Yes you are right it is an unfair society, when these people get more than pensioners!

 

[Robin Edwards]

I am sorry, but Ive read some of these posts with dismay.Many Pensioners are too proud to ask for additional benefits, theyve worked hard all their life, and deserve the 3 concessions. And they will probably be too proud to go to Food Banks, unlike the people we see on CH 5 on the Dole claiming Benefits, and still Smoking and Drinking, and have Dogs, Cats etc..Yes you are right it is an unfair society, when these people get more than pensioners!

Not sure I'd agree fully with that one RD.
I know plenty of 'older' folk who are sat on plenty of savings that could pay for things like TV license as well as winter fuel allowance and yet they read the Mail, bemoan foreigners and scroungers taking benefits they think they don't deserve yet show considerable contradiction in their assumption to entitlement based wholly on their age.
Our welfare state needs to be valued in my opinion but we need to be better at fairly attributing help to those who most need it, as we would to others needing help in some way. Currently, we're really bad at getting funds to the most vulnerable in many cases.

I've toyed for some time in giving up paying for a TV license and I don't think we're all clear on what the license is needed for and what you don't need a licence for.
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/tv-licence/
You only need a licence for watching programmes that broadcast live or programmes on iPlayer that were broadcast live. Radio does not require a TV licence despite references on this thread suggesting otherwise.

A rule that came into force in September 2016 means you need a licence to legally use BBC iPlayer, even if you're only watching catch-up TV. But that doesn't apply to other catch-up services, so the ITV Hub, All 4 and My5 are legal to use without a licence as long as you're not using them to watch live TV.

You can watch almost anything on these catch-up services: soaps, documentaries, dramas, cartoons, comedy, sport and films. And because services such as the ITV Hub only take a few hours to update, you can watch the latest instalment of Coronation Street not long after it's been broadcast live on ITV (assuming that's your thing of course!)

 

[SteveP29]

I think it is a fair decision, i pay my licence fee each year but hardly watch terrestrial TV, as most of it is streamed via Netflix,Amazon or now TV.
As the highest users, why should the younger generation subsidise their fee.

What about when they paid the licence fee when they were younger and subsidised the pensioners of that time who got them free?
Why should they miss out?

A lot of current and upcoming OAP's are far wealthier than a lot of younger workers today and could easily afford to do without these perks.

This generation of young people are forecast to be the first generation to be less well off than their parents. So if the concession is abolished, do we reintroduce it when this generation get to pension age?
And what about the generation below this one, will things get better for them that it'll be scrapped again?

The thing I really don't get with the BBC is why we need to pay Gary Lineker so much (surely people will watch MOTD or not whether it's Gary Lineker or Bungle from Rainbow) ... or why we need to pay Claudia Winkelman so much (really struggle to see how she retains, never mind attracts viewers or listeners) ... or why we need to pay ...xxxx so much

I'm sure there are television presenters and personalities that you like that many people dislike, just because you don't like somebody, doesn't mean that they shouldn't be employed by them

 

[Robin Edwards]

I'm sure there are television presenters and personalities that you like that many people dislike, just because you don't like somebody, doesn't mean that they shouldn't be employed by them

I won't get into debate over personalities and whether each is worth their wage but just to say that even if they were all paid minimum wage, this it seems would just make a small dent in the amount used to subsidise the over 75s.
You also need to buy a licence for watching live broadcast ITV, Ch4 etc btw and yet I don't see their celeb presenters getting a mention.

Bottom line is that the BBC Licence fee is probably long past it's sell-by date and for obvious reasons, they are reluctant to remove in line of subscription-based service as other providers already do. BBC are not working independently in public interests in case anyone imagined they do, being an arm of the right-wing establishment sad as it is.