Post by Slinger on Jun 10, 2019 16:02:10 GMT
Feb 14 2019 - PM May warns Beeb bosses NOT TO scrap free TV licence for over 75s
THERESA May has warned BBC bosses they cannot to scrap free TV licences for the over-75s.
The Prime Minister insisted she expects the corporation to continue to give free TV licences to the elderly when the Government-funded scheme ends in 2020. Mrs May added that taxpayers would want to see the huge income the BBC earns from the annual charge spent in an “appropriate way”. Currently, people over the age of 75 are entitled to a free TV licence, which costs £150.50.
SOURCE
From June 2020 only households with someone in receipt of Pension Credit will be able to claim a free TV licence. The BBC estimate those eligible to apply [for Pension Credit] could number 1.5 million by 2020. Around 3 million pensioners are believed to be affected by the change.**
Conservative MP Peter Heaton-Jones tweeted: "I love the BBC. But this is a disgraceful decision."
"It receives £4billion of OUR money every year yet fails to live within its means."
"It is a largely unaccountable organisation with an arrogant streak."
"And to announce the decision today, when everyone's distracted, is cowardly."
Tom Watson, shadow culture secretary and deputy Labour leader, has said the decision leaves a "Tory manifesto promise in tatters".
He said: "It is an outrage that this government is overseeing the scrapping of free TV licences for three million older people, leaving a Tory manifesto promise in tatters."
He added: "You cannot means test for social isolation. You cannot means test for loneliness."
Caroline Abrahams from Age UK said: "One thing we've noticed through the consultation is how much older people value it, it might be a surprise to the BBC how important the TV is. One in four over-65s say this is their main form of companionship."
Free TV licences were first introduced by then-culture secretary Chris Smith in 2000, at the same time as half-price licences for the visually impaired.
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.
SOURCE
It pisses me off immensely that the BBC were given 5 years to cost the changeover and at what almost amounts to the 11th hour they turn around and say "piss off, we can only afford half of it." Not only that, but they try to sneak it out while the whole country is looking the other way, so-to-speak, and is occupied with the Tory leadership debacle, and the Brexit debacle. The BBC have been fighting the move from Day 1 and despite the fact that they have been urged to honour the deal, as laid out by the government, by politicians from the Prime Minister herself down, they couldn't give a flying f*ck, because they are, it seems, a law unto themselves. The government promised what it couldn't deliver? I'm stunned. And that's despite the fact that it's the government who actually appoints the BBC Board members.
Perhaps Auntie Beeb would get a bit of sympathy from me if there was more intelligent programming and a lot less Flog It to the Apprentice Eastenders at a Strictly Comic Relief Does Fame Academy Airport Restaurant on their channel(s). As it is they get bugger-all sympathy because they seemingly have no idea of how to run a commercially successful business, nor do they care.
** Using my grasp of higher-level mathematics I make that 3,000,000 "affected" minus 1,500,000 eligible for pension credit = approx. 1,500,000 pensioners who will have to find an extra £150.50 p.a. from somewhere.
Age UK estimates that one in six pensioners are already living in poverty. The government is currently looking at a report from The Lords which suggests scrapping free bus passes and removing the pension "triple-lock," as ways of saving money.
THERESA May has warned BBC bosses they cannot to scrap free TV licences for the over-75s.
The Prime Minister insisted she expects the corporation to continue to give free TV licences to the elderly when the Government-funded scheme ends in 2020. Mrs May added that taxpayers would want to see the huge income the BBC earns from the annual charge spent in an “appropriate way”. Currently, people over the age of 75 are entitled to a free TV licence, which costs £150.50.
SOURCE
From June 2020 only households with someone in receipt of Pension Credit will be able to claim a free TV licence. The BBC estimate those eligible to apply [for Pension Credit] could number 1.5 million by 2020. Around 3 million pensioners are believed to be affected by the change.**
Conservative MP Peter Heaton-Jones tweeted: "I love the BBC. But this is a disgraceful decision."
"It receives £4billion of OUR money every year yet fails to live within its means."
"It is a largely unaccountable organisation with an arrogant streak."
"And to announce the decision today, when everyone's distracted, is cowardly."
Tom Watson, shadow culture secretary and deputy Labour leader, has said the decision leaves a "Tory manifesto promise in tatters".
He said: "It is an outrage that this government is overseeing the scrapping of free TV licences for three million older people, leaving a Tory manifesto promise in tatters."
He added: "You cannot means test for social isolation. You cannot means test for loneliness."
Caroline Abrahams from Age UK said: "One thing we've noticed through the consultation is how much older people value it, it might be a surprise to the BBC how important the TV is. One in four over-65s say this is their main form of companionship."
Free TV licences were first introduced by then-culture secretary Chris Smith in 2000, at the same time as half-price licences for the visually impaired.
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.
SOURCE
It pisses me off immensely that the BBC were given 5 years to cost the changeover and at what almost amounts to the 11th hour they turn around and say "piss off, we can only afford half of it." Not only that, but they try to sneak it out while the whole country is looking the other way, so-to-speak, and is occupied with the Tory leadership debacle, and the Brexit debacle. The BBC have been fighting the move from Day 1 and despite the fact that they have been urged to honour the deal, as laid out by the government, by politicians from the Prime Minister herself down, they couldn't give a flying f*ck, because they are, it seems, a law unto themselves. The government promised what it couldn't deliver? I'm stunned. And that's despite the fact that it's the government who actually appoints the BBC Board members.
Perhaps Auntie Beeb would get a bit of sympathy from me if there was more intelligent programming and a lot less Flog It to the Apprentice Eastenders at a Strictly Comic Relief Does Fame Academy Airport Restaurant on their channel(s). As it is they get bugger-all sympathy because they seemingly have no idea of how to run a commercially successful business, nor do they care.
** Using my grasp of higher-level mathematics I make that 3,000,000 "affected" minus 1,500,000 eligible for pension credit = approx. 1,500,000 pensioners who will have to find an extra £150.50 p.a. from somewhere.
Age UK estimates that one in six pensioners are already living in poverty. The government is currently looking at a report from The Lords which suggests scrapping free bus passes and removing the pension "triple-lock," as ways of saving money.
