Would you be willing to pay more for your TV licence to ensure it stays free for over 75s?

[ChaosTrulyReigns]

I blinking would.

I know it's be a administrative impossiblity to achieve, but volunteering to pay an extra £5/£10 per year? Could it work?

I would not want to pay extra to keep it free for all and means testing seems fair if you want to keep the licence.

An example, though a different benefit, is that winter fuel allowance is not means tested and is paid to all of the age to qualify. Alan Sugar receives a winter fuel allowance each year even though he really does not need it - apparently he tried to give it back and the wouldn't accept it back so he just donates it (tax payers' money) to charity each year as they keep paying it and he doesn't need it.

Not everyone over 75 is so poor that they cannot afford a tv licence.

@noonAim@ there was cheap mortgages in the 80s my mum managed to buy a 4 bedroom house for just 23,000 in a very nice area it's now all paid for n she's only in her 50s it's now worth a considerable amount more definitely wouldn't be able to buy a house for that much now

I think they changed the rule recently so that you have to have a TV license to watch catch up too.
Onky for BBC iplayer for other catchup services you don't need a license.

Up until 2106, I would happily have paid a %age to continue the scheme.

Sadly since then the BBC has managed to lose any respect I had as an impartial broadcaster and I'd be happy to see the licence fee scrapped and leave the BBC to take it's chances like the commercial broadcaster it so clearly wants to be.

So that's a no from me.

Well, that didn't go the way OP expected, did it?

As most others before me have said, no I bloody well wouldn’t want to subsidise the tv license! My grandmother who’s barely worked 5 years in her entire life receives a fortune in benefits and her pension ... she genuinely believes she’s hard up and will constantly moan about her being a poor pensioner, yet when I’ve looked at her finances with her, she receives more after tax than those on the national average wage do. Literally boils my blood

No.

No, I wouldn't
As I understand it, the licence will still be free for lower income pensioners, which I agree with
Pensioners like my mum and stepdad don't need it as they are fairly affluent. To be fair to them, they haven't complained.
I would ideally like to see the licence fee scrapped and let the BBC stand or fall without it.

Not all pensioners "worked hard" either, just like every other age group some were lazy, I've certainly worked with people of my parents generation who were as did they!

some have never worked or only worked part time, some didn't do paid work for various reasons. My ex mil hasn't worked since she fell pregnant with her second, yes I'll concede she was "working" when raising her kids but she never went back to paid work after they were grown which was a good 20 years before she hit pension age.

Far more of my friends mums were sahm than my generation and there are fewer again now in the 20-30 something mums.

"Or just scrap it all together and allow people who hate adverts to pay for a premium service that doesn have them" no - the lack of ads isn't only an issue in terms of viewing but also in terms of how it would affect programming and production decisions. There's a reason programming on commercial channels is very much "lowest common denominator" it would affect the quality of programming.

I was on a bus recently and got talking to an older lady...late seventies, early eighties I'd have guessed. She told me she'd lost £600 at bingo the previous week.

Very few are living in poverty. Families are the ones who are struggling the most in society.

To be honest I wouldn’t I can barely afford my own

@mydogisthebest if they were struggling they would be entitled to pension credit and a free lisence.
An post tax income of £13,260 plus with free transport is not struggling. It’s not nice holidays etc but you can pay for essentials and some left over.

No, if it were means tested there is a potential argument for provisions to be made but I wouldn't necessarily personally contribute, I got rid of my TV license last year to save money (because I don't have an awful lot since becoming chronically unwell) and don't really miss it- the concept is archaic and overly enforced regardless. It isn't a necessity.

You still around op?

Nope, quite happy for the worse off to have things like this subsidised but I would not be happy to subsidise people who are better off than me. My grandparents being one big example. They are toxic, nasty people who loudly discuss "benefit scum", they stalk disabled people and film them in their wheelchairs to try to catch them out. Quite happy to use their free bus passes and take any benefit they can because they see themselves as more deserving. I grew up in poverty and they treated my father (their son) appallingly, there have been many times when we have had no heating, hot water or food. They didn't help, happily let us suffer because we were benefit scum and it was all our own fault. So yes I would be quite happy to see them stripped of benefits they don't even need.

Nope, my grandparents are the wealthiest people I know. They were in a position to buy their house outright many years ago and it’s now worth ten times as much (if not more tbh). They went to uni for free, retired in their mid sixties and have been living a fantastic life with private healthcare still covered as part of my DGF’s pension.

They don’t need a free TV licence, many pensioners don’t.

If anything this move will cost the BBC more money. I'm guessing a lot more of us will be scrapping our tv licences and switching over to Netflix etc instead.

The pensioners who are really badly off will still get free tv licences, I heard on the news this morning that one man was so upset he was physically sick. I don't want to be unkind but that's a big of an extreme reaction.

If anything this move will cost the BBC more money. I'm guessing a lot more of us will be scrapping our tv licences and switching over to Netflix etc instead.

This is the best solution really, I think if we are to subsidise anything for pensioners it should be something like IT/technology courses so they have more options available to them. I would definitely pay for something like this as I think we have a problem with vunerable pensioners being isolated as they aren't able to get about as much. It would be good to enable more of these types of pensioners to get online and have more human interaction.

Growing up in the eighties, we had a lot of respect for pensioners. They'd lived through at least one world war. A lot of people still seem to have this mindset, but the truth is that pensioners nowadays have had it pretty good. If anything, low income families should be given a free TV licence. They are more skint than pensioners.

No but I would happily pay more in tax to remove the need for tv licences at all. And more in tax for a better funded NHS. And social care. And social security benefits.

My old granny used to get pretty mad at the "poor pensioners" thing. She said although there were some living in poverty, not all of them were. She'd get into a right rant about her friends complaining about being freezing and not being able to afford to put the heating on yet they had spent their winter payment on Christmas pressies for the grandkids. She also pointed out that the majority of people going doing their weekly shop in Marks & Spencer's were her so called poverty stricken pensioner friends who were also point blank refusing to downsize their huge houses even though they couldn't afford nor manage the upkeep.

She would have supported means tested TV licenses for the elderly.

Absolutely not funding anything for the boomers. They've been handed to their whole lives.

I'm not gonna buy into the rich pensioners thing, I'm well aware that very many fall above PC limits but below being millionaires

But do I believe that as a disabled person on UC for probably the rest of my life, I should subsidise people with fewer outgoings than me just because they are older? No.

Absolutely not funding anything for the boomers. They've been handed to their whole lives.

Yes, for all the moaning about gen X and millennials I do genuinely think we have things a lot harder.

I would rather it was optional and you could choose to just switch BBC off your TVs and radios. I don't see why it can't work like a Netflix subscription.

I only watch EastEnders, I'd happily switch to Corrie and save my £12 per month.