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?

Or put on adverts. I like an ad break, gives me chance to go on mumsnet!

No, I wouldn't. Nearly all over 75s I know, are quite comfortable.

No. The poorest group in society tends to be young mothers with children, not pensioners, these days.

These sorts of benefits are flaming ridiculous.

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.

^

Maybe Netflix and the BBC are in cahoots together? Hmmm 🤔

Wouldn't be riding the bus here as we've only one per day, we don't all have good public transport

My 7 yr old asked me if my Mum and Dad could get from their house to ours by bus. (170 miles) I should have a look, seeing that they will still have to pay for the TV.

Not a chance. I pay my own bills and I am not about to start paying other peoples bills. There are cheaper options out there.

It might be 'only' 12.33 a month at the moment but the more people who move over to netflix etc will increase the cost. And how much are the BBC lovers willing to pay a month before they start asking wtaf?

And how would it be fair for those younger who are already struggling to pay bills etc to pay extra?

Its about time the bbc got with the times and started doing a subscription. The tech is there has been for years.

No I wouldn't.

Pensioners are the biggest users of BBC and many of them are well able to afford the license fee. The poorer pensioners (in receipt of pension credit) should and will continue to receive a free license.

If rather watch advert and not pay at all

No.

No, I won't pay more. In fact, from August I won't be paying at all as I've realised just how little live TV I watch and that I can easily live with Amazon Prime and catch-up TV. So, in fact, this whole saga has caused the BBC to lose my licence fee entirely. The BBC funding is an antiquated anomaly that needs to be scrapped. They need to follow the charging model of other TV providers, i.e. encryption unlocked upon payment.

My parents were born in 1936 They are called the Silent Generation

They arent all dead yet.

Re. BBC i player Why do they ask for your bloody life story every time you want to use it. Surely tying the no. from the tv licence slip should be sufficient.

At least more will take up Pension Credit now which will cause a nice little backlog which will slow down the change from PC to UC Every cloud eh?

@ChewbaccaHutchinsCool

I posted this thread on the last thread about the TV licence before it got deleted. Some of us were making a ripple.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_money_matters/3479693-Changes-to-Pension-Credit

No.

No way! My parents and in-laws are both financially better off than us and we're comfortable. I don't actually know any 'poor' pensioners.

Surely it would be easier to say that those who have it now keep it, but those who turn 75 this year can't have it? The number of free licences would decrease each year as those in receipt of them die off.

I agree that paying Gary Lineker so much is a waste of money....

My parents and in laws all have pensions of more than our income-why the hell should I pay for their TV licenses!?

No I would not and while we're at it we should also abolish free bus passes for all OAP's as well and means test both.
My Fil completed the questionnaire sent to him by BBC/TV Licencing and stated that he was happy to pay for it and that it should only be free for the poorest pensioners - he feels the same about bus passes.
In our area the local bus companies are refunded 49p for every OAP free journey which doesn't even cover 1/6th of the actual journey to our neighbouring city and I'm paying nearly £1 per mile for the same journey to make up the shortfall. I often sit on the bus and there will be 20 OAP's for every 1 paying passenger and this isn't sustainable and it is unfair. In our area we used to have a system where every OAP was given tokens to use on the bus which amounted to 1.5 journeys per week but they could also use them on trains if they wished and the repayment rate to the travel company was more generous. If an OAP travelled more then they paid the going rate. The majority were happy with this but since free passes were introduced they now moan because the actual bus service has been reduced overall from 4 buses an hour to 1 an hour which now serves us between 7am and 4pm only. The local bus company has stated that the major cause of loss of service is having to foot the cost of 'free' journies for OAP's along with increased fuel costs.
My stepmother fully admits that she could easily afford to pay for both but is quite smug that despite having more than adequate funds, she enjoys getting it all for free even if we (the non-OAP's) have to pay more overall. I think that a balance needs to be found.

One thing I've noticed about some old people is that even when they have plenty of money, they are genuinely convinced they are poor and live very frugally.

Nope.

No problem with poorer pensioners getting it free, or those who are blind - but the common or garden 76 year old with a paid for home, a pension taking them above Pension Credit level? They don't need it.

In any case, this is being painted in the shite rags as the big bad BBC picking on old people, when it's a governmental decision they're implementing. Have a problem with the government for doing it, not the Beeb.

most of the pensioners I know are pretty minted. FIL's pension is more than our joint salary! MIL goes on multiple holidays and cruises a year.

There are obviously some very poor seniors. But that doesn't mean the well-off ones should just hang on to their multiple benefits when working younger people are being whacked left, right and centre.

Why did my message get deleted? Wtaf MN 😢

really would like to know where all these rich pensioners are. 3 to 4 holidays a year!!!! Come off it my parents haven't had a holiday for over 10 years.

^

Caribbean cruise, Texas, Canada - that's just from January to July for my parents.