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

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Robin Edwards

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Passes aside, there is a paradox in bus operation. To get people out of cars you have to run fast and frequent services up main roads. For older, retired people with limited mobility you need "wanderbuses" around estates, but low frequencies are fine. If it isn't affordable to do both, what do you do?
I would agree here Bletchleyite - with public transport there is a strong argument for subsidy to avoid issues elsewhere. I believe in Luxembourg they have made public transport free to all? I'm sure someone will correct me here is I'm wrong.
The thing with TV is that everyone already pays except for the over 75s. Many deserve subsidy due to their low wealth/income but likewise many are 'wealthy'. Is is worth trying to differentiate? Maybe yes on principles used elsewhere or maybe not given the reasons many have cited. Example : 74 year old friend of mine moaning that he's going to miss out on free TV licence next year yet he owns 7 properties and has more cash reserves than most!
From the older people I know well (75-95), I think it fare to say that they have greater accumulated wealth than they've ever had in their past although they tend to remain frugal through habit. This may not be representative and can easily change if more care needs to be paid for of course.
Personally I have no axes to grind but would support fairness and consistency across all age demographics and wish that those most needy receive what they deserve.
 
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Robin Edwards

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The reason you mention is because it was not an argument put forward, but a scenario of the time period of twenty years prior to my original 1966 time period which I used as the comparison to what occurs in 2019. I thought mention of how people paid for medical services prior to the setting up of the NHS was quite a valid point to have made.

As I said earlier in the thread, I am now in the position at the age of 74 of looking after the daily needs of my good lady wife, who at 77, has developed the early stages of a dementia-type affliction. However, as I also said earlier in the thread in a different posting, neither of us are financially embarrassed and I have employed a team of daily care staff to help matters. There is the other matter that after making what my Consultant feels is a good recovery from the stroke that I suffered in July 2012 at the age of 67, I too now have begun to suffer from age-related problems in the area of the brain where the stroke occurred. I have found this website to have been a great help in keeping my brain active in these post-stroke days, even though the majority of my postings these days are made on what I still call the Quizzes and Games forum, where I have made over 100,000 postings on that particular forum alone since joining this website in April 2011.
You have my best wishes in every way. Long may your on-line enjoyment flourish.
 

radamfi

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Passes aside, there is a paradox in bus operation. To get people out of cars you have to run fast and frequent services up main roads. For older, retired people with limited mobility you need "wanderbuses" around estates, but low frequencies are fine. If it isn't affordable to do both, what do you do?

Even in the UK we have dedicated door-to-door services, typically branded as "ring and ride", and I think there is a lack of awareness of such services.
 

radamfi

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I believe in Luxembourg they have made public transport free to all? I'm sure someone will correct me here is I'm wrong.

Free travel starts next year. But the fares are already extremely low. 2.00 euro single including unlimited interchange for 2 hours and 4.00 euro day ticket.
 

Xenophon PCDGS

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Free travel starts next year. But the fares are already extremely low. 2.00 euro single including unlimited interchange for 2 hours and 4.00 euro day ticket.

Is discussing free bus travel in Luxembourg just the tiniest tad "off-topic" on a thread that talks of the withdrawal of free television licences to allow viewing to the vast majority of those aged 75 and over in this country?
 

yorkie

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This is a thread about TV licensing.

If anyone wishes to discuss bus transport, please use the Buses & Coaches forum section, thanks.
 

radamfi

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That's what most countries have, it's often higher than ours, too. We often forget it's not a purely UK thing.

The BBC is "lucky" in that the UK has a high population, so the cost of supplying the services is spread across more people. The BBC's services are more expensive to provide, they provide a greater number of services and have higher transmission costs than, for example, RTE, but that is more than outweighed by the additional revenue available by having a high population.
 

MidlandsChap

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In my mind the TV licence is outdated and should be scrapped, with the BBC being funded from general taxation.

How does that change anything? Its a tax already. They should generate their own revenue like other channels, and if they dont make enough revenue reduce costs elsewhere.
 

MidlandsChap

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I believe that many pensioners use the bus because it is free. Scrapping bus passes pushes them towards driving, and encouraging several million people to start using a car as their primary mode of transport is simply not something we can afford to do, with the current climate change situation and traffic problems in many places.

Not to mention the problem of people driving, who no longer have the mental or physical attributes to carry out the task safely.
 

DanDaDriver

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Just means test the bloody thing for everyone.
That way if you claim certain income related benefits then you get a free TV licence regardless of age, simple.

Much fairer than the current set up.
 

Typhoon

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If you get the lower state pension then you are able to claim pension credit which tops it up to just shy of £168, and you'd get a free TV licence too according to the current plans.
But many don't - 1.3 million households according to Martin Lewis (
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/n...3&utm_campaign=nt-oneliners-two&utm_content=3 )
Older pensioners are very reluctant to claim any sort of means tested benefit. I know, I've tried.[/COLOR][/SIZE]
You currently have to apply for the free TV licence don't you? What is the difference?
A lot. All you need to claim currently is your date of birth (and including your NI number 'speeds up the process'), to claim means tested benefits you need to give details of income. They might have a few Savings Certificates hidden away somewhere and there was that account in the Western Counties Building Society when uncle Harold didn't know what to give them - £50 possibly. And the state is starting to pry into their lives, and they won't want to get it wrong.

I actually think that Pension Credit is the way to go, simply because the government will not invest a penny in the TV licence, it has tax cuts to deliver. However, there are pensioners who should get a free licence who won't. The government has no interest in increasing the uptake of Pension Credit.
[/LEFT]
 

bramling

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Not to mention the problem of people driving, who no longer have the mental or physical attributes to carry out the task safely.

I wonder if that will still hold true going forward though. The current generation of OAPs, especially those at the higher end of the age range, are perhaps the tail end of the "one car per household" generation. As we increasingly move towards the baby boom generation, many of whom will have been used to driving all their lives, and in many cases possibly will have rarely if ever used buses, I wonder if this may well change. Just thinking of a few in my family around that age range, I can't imagine they'd *ever* use a bus, free or otherwise - if car was physically unviable then they would probably use taxis.
 

Bletchleyite

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My Dad (whack in the middle of the baby boomers) was one of those people who would never be seen dead in a bus. Because he's a Northerner and an ex-bank manager, though, he very quickly changed his mind on that when it became free.
 

Typhoon

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Just means test the bloody thing for everyone.
That way if you claim certain income related benefits then you get a free TV licence regardless of age, simple.

Much fairer than the current set up.
Agreed - it is fairer. Some people of working age are treated despicably simply because they are unable to find a permanent fixed hours job. No problem with the basic idea (although government will have to put money in, otherwise BBC revenues will drop like a stone).
Possible complication: income related benefits are paid to individuals, TV licence applies to a household. I would want to avoid a situation where a household gets a free licence although the parents are both higher rate tax payers but their layabout son is on Jobseekers, if for no other reason than the right wing tabloids would have a field day.
 

bramling

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My Dad (whack in the middle of the baby boomers) was one of those people who would never be seen dead in a bus. Because he's a Northerner and an ex-bank manager, though, he very quickly changed his mind on that when it became free.

None of my family would. More than one of them have a policy of "never be seen leaving the house on foot" as it's seen to be some kind of symbol of poor status! They're not northerners though.
 

DanDaDriver

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I wonder if that will still hold true going forward though. The current generation of OAPs, especially those at the higher end of the age range, are perhaps the tail end of the "one car per household" generation. As we increasingly move towards the baby boom generation, many of whom will have been used to driving all their lives, and in many cases possibly will have rarely if ever used buses, I wonder if this may well change. Just thinking of a few in my family around that age range, I can't imagine they'd *ever* use a bus, free or otherwise - if car was physically unviable then they would probably use taxis.

Not very many women of my grandmothers (born early 20’s) generation seem to drive. Was always something left to the husband, and seeing as men die earlier this leaves many women more isolated.
 

Typhoon

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Not very many women of my grandmothers (born early 20’s) generation seem to drive. Was always something left to the husband, and seeing as men die earlier this leaves many women more isolated.
Absolutely. My mother was of that generation, she only drove because she was in the Army during the war and drove trucks, she kept her licence up and did some occasional driving which helped when my father died when he was 52. She would have been really stuck without her war work.
 

whhistle

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If you mean linear TV channels will disappear, regardless of the method of delivery, I'm not sure about that.
Don't read too much into the term "broadcast TV". I meant, TV... being broadcast... with a schedule.
A prominent TV presenter and editor has predicted this move and with the rise in people watching TV when they want it's hard not to see where TV is going.
 

Bletchleyite

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I think you missed the point. It was a tongue in cheek comment about how the bbc makes you pay for a TV license even if you don't use their services.

Only if you watch broadcast TV at the time it was being broadcast. If you don't, you only have to have one if you use the iPlayer (not 4OD etc). You can consume BBC services without one - radio and Web.
 

AM9

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Having just returned from holiday abroad, I heard an advert/announcement on R4 about the government ceasing to fund the TV licence for over 75s, and that the BBC will be introducing a scheme that enables those receiving pension credit to continue free viewing. It's good to see that the reason for the change is beimng nailed on the government which has been actively trying to destroy the BBC with 'death by 100 cuts' policies.
As the licensing agency will need to secure verification of eligibility from DWP, would a better way for dealing with this to be a free licence application mofifying ther applicant's tax coding. Thus if somebody on a £50k pension applying at age 75, they would effectively be paying the licence fee as increased tax at their marginal rate. Somebody on the basic state pension might pay a lesser amount or even none depending on their circumstances. The actual level of tax increase would be adjusted so that the total taken would provide the appropriate funding level to the broadcasater(s). Thus the uptake of licences would be largely self-regulating to those who justify it the most. A similar arrangement could also be used to regulate the uptake of bus passes at the notional value that they represent, (OT).
 

Xenophon PCDGS

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Is it not the case that many years ago, a considerable number of married women who were in employment at that time only paid an employees lower state pension contribution rate applicable to their marital status and many of these women only now receive a lower rate of state pension, not haven taken the opportunity in later life to pay extra contributions to bring their state pension rate to par?
 

underbank

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a better way for dealing with this to be a free licence application mofifying ther applicant's tax coding. Thus if somebody on a £50k pension applying at age 75, they would effectively be paying the licence fee as increased tax at their marginal rate. Somebody on the basic state pension might pay a lesser amount or even none depending on their circumstances.

Please no! No more complicating the tax system. HMRC can't cope as it is. Leave the damn system alone. The child benefit tax and student loan repayments cause untold problems and extra work for already stretched HMRC staff. It's already the most complicated system in the world. It needs simplifying not getting more things added to it. A simplification like scrapping NIC and increasing tax rates would easily bring in enough money to finance the BBC licence for all, and the reduction in workload would enable HMRC staff to go after tax evaders - a double win.
 
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