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?

From what I understand, recent changes have made it harder for many to get pension credit. Previously, only one person in a partnership had to be pensionable age to get it, now both do. Which may be fair enough if the younger partner is working, but what if the younger partner is carer to the older? Since you had to be below a certain income level to get it anyway, it wasn't going to people who weren't struggling, but there will be people of mixed ages that will really struggle now. And if one of them is over 75 they will be hit by this whammy as well.
I have no objection to not subsididing the rich, but as often happens with means tested benefits, some poor souls get overlooked.

@youkiddingme Yes ive linked a thread about it into this one.

Yes, thank you helenadove - this is something I'm still getting my head around and may well affect us in the not too distant future.

struth....i guess there are a lot of people on here who think pensioners get enough money.....scrimped and saved all there lives for a poxy free tv license when they hit 75 and youngsters on here begrudge it....i think personally the BBC should be scrapped!

i can tell you for a fact that many carers for older partners will be downing tools. They wont have any choice but to do so. You cant be in two places at once. i think you will find some of the replies on the Pension Credit thread interesting. Particularly when viewed in context with the replies on this one.

OP do you mean the license fee should be increased by £10? Or people should be able to pay an extra £10 if they want to? Or that everyone should pay £10, such as through taxes, even if they don't themselves have a license?

If the first, then an increase in cost would probably mean some people give it up. If the second, not enough people would do it to justify bringing the concession back. And if the third, that's just incredibly unfair. I haven't had a TV license since I moved out of my parent's home and I'm not paying for someone else to have one.

Absolutely not

We all scrimp and save to some extent. Pensioners are no different in that respect. Some have never scrimped in their lives. MIL hasn't worked a day in fifty years. Some are hard up and should receive the benefit, those better off (and there are millions) should pay like the rest of us. The poxy licence is the tip of the iceberg in a list of untested perks that pensioners get en masse in their millions whether they actually need them or not.
The resentment arises with the sense of entitlement many older people have simply because of their age. And IME, many are quite happy to 'save all their lives' and squirrel money away, but when the time comes to make their lives more comfortable they won't bloody spend it!

It's time the BBC dragged itself in to the 21st century & started advertising to raise revenue. Making over 75 pay for their television licence is the beginning of the end, next things to go will be free bus travel & winter fuel allowances. Very often the pensioners with income just above pension credit level are struggling more than those who get pension credits. Don't you think that when someone reaches 75 they have paid their dues & it is time they got something in return.

People are assuming over 75s are poor. They are mostly not poor. I won't be poor at 75 and will be able to afford a TV licence. Look around and you'll see retired folk enjoying themselves, house paid for, pensions, car, holidays, etc. Good for them too. However it's generally younger people who are hard up, scratching around for money to pay the bills.

Nope. I bet quite a lot of over 75s are better off than me!

The over 75’s who need free tv lisence will still get it

The ones who can afford to pay can

The BBC have played this very well. Rather than people focusing on them as an organisation, what they offer and whos funding the huge salaries see www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/entertainment-arts-44792074 people are talking about the rich pensioners. Seriously the licence fee is a tax, we should not be funding.

Definitely not.

Most over 75s I know have more disposable income than me.

My parents worked a damn lot harder than a lot of youngsters, most of who don't even start work until well into their 20's.

I don't know a single person who didn't work at least part time whilst studying. The only people I know who didnt start working until their 20s were women that got pregnant as teenagers.

Again... pensioners do not own the monopoly on hard work. For every one that started working at 14 you'll find one that spent years in part time work before retiring early. By the time I can claim both my NHS and state pension I will have been working 53 years with only one maternity leave off. And I know most of my peers have the same story. The claims about how hard pensioners have worked in comparison to us "youngsters" just fuels ageism and resentment.

i can tell you for a fact that many carers for older partners will be downing tools. They wont have any choice but to do so. You cant be in two places at once
I hope you're right. The government relies on family and friends doing unpaid caring to keep the social care budget low. I would happily pay more for those who need help, who need money to live, who need whatever benefits. Again this is about handing out blanket benefits go many who can easily afford it themselves.

God there’s some huge generalisations on this thread. My parents didn’t qualify for PC but still struggled. TV was important to them. They worked hard all their lives and “ subsidised” other generations too. Also some pensioners with equity in their homes might need it to fund their care.

No way. My granny has tens of thousands in her bank account. She gets paid her pension and my grandad police pension (he died in 2011) so never actually eats into any money in her account. She is 87. She can easily afford to pay it.

I think the BBC have scored an own goal here.

They’ve ensured the licence fee is being discussed publicly. A lot of people disagree with it. There was a discussion in R4 earlier saying that it’s mostly older demographics who watch BBC and younger people, coming up to the age where they’ll move out of home, watch YouTube, Netflix etc. How is the BBC going to convince them that the BBC is worth watching and so they should pay a licence fee?

I heard on the radio today that BBC1 costs £1billion to run for 1 year.
It's so not worth that.

You are joking, the baby boomers are loaded!

My parents worked a damn lot harder than a lot of youngsters, most of who don't even start work until well into their 20's.

Myself and 3 dc's started working in our teens. So did their mates. Not working wasn't an option, unfortunately.

@Swimmergirl40 yep I listened to it too. Was a good point about the younger folk. The bbc really rely on us paying. I'm getting sick of BBC though and already thinking about cancelling my license and just using Netflix and Amazon.

1 billion a year? Where does it go? Whenever I look at listings to see if I'm actually missing anything, the majority of the content is repeats. Stuff from the 70/80/90's has been paid for already by the license fee numerous times. Plus they have made money from selling content to streaming services.

On top of this they are launching Britbox, (nother) paid for service with lots of exciting content evidently. Meanwhile the licence fee payer gets repeat after repeat, biaised news and vastly overpaid presenters.

@Whisky2014 Do it. I was sceptical at first so did the free trial with Netflix and already had Prime to see whilst I still had live tv. Haven't looked back and don't miss watching actual tv. No adds. Watch what I want when I want. Watched some amazing series and in the correct order lol.