I think it should be means tested. There are many wealthy over 75 year old people out there.
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And there are a large amount of those over 75 that are in the middle area where they don't receive any extra help, but still have to scrimp and save for bills like everyone else. I don't recall the exact stats, but a huge number of oaps use their tv as company as they are lonely or housebound and don't get to speak to people for days or weeks on end. Loneliness in seniors is a huge problem in the UK.
I really don't sit comfortably with the disrespect shown for a group of people since they are all in completely different financial circumstances that none of us know about. Just as I would not throw around disrespect for those that are unemployed or on disability, etc. Some people would call those groups of people "snowflakes" too and that is just as unfair and not appropriate.
If the BBC really is that screwed up and wants to pay their 'stars' way too much and has to charge oaps, a reduced rate license seems more fair.
Edited to add about the 20 for a 5 year bus pass. That sounds a pretty fair deal! I used to hate paying huge chunks of my salary for commuting into central London.
I really don't sit comfortably with the disrespect shown for a group of people since they are all in completely different financial circumstances that none of us know about. Just as I would not throw around disrespect for those that are unemployed or on disability, etc. Some people would call those groups of people "snowflakes" too and that is just as unfair and not appropriate.
If the BBC really is that screwed up and wants to pay their 'stars' way too much and has to charge oaps, a reduced rate license seems more fair.
Edited to add about the 20 for a 5 year bus pass. That sounds a pretty fair deal! I used to hate paying huge chunks of my salary for commuting into central London.
If the ones who can afford it don’t get a free one then that will offset the people who might have to pay in future. The people who are on final salary pensions for example, which includes many civil servants, ex BBC managerial employees and ex captains of industry.
Treating everyone equally is not disrespect. I have family members that are annoyed with the myth that they must be poor. Saying that all people over 75 deserve free tv licences also doesn't reflect that they are all in different financial circumstances.
Loneliness affects people of all ages, suicide is the biggest killer of men below 50. The poorest pensioners (who have £700 a month state pension + free travel + free housing + winter fule) will still get it for free and I can't think there's many others that couldn't afford 40p a day if it really is a lifeline.
The people most at need in this country aren't pensioners and it's time they weren't all treated as poor and struggling. My child benefit was taken away, and that's fine as I think it makes it fairer.
Loneliness affects people of all ages, suicide is the biggest killer of men below 50. The poorest pensioners (who have £700 a month state pension + free travel + free housing + winter fule) will still get it for free and I can't think there's many others that couldn't afford 40p a day if it really is a lifeline.
The people most at need in this country aren't pensioners and it's time they weren't all treated as poor and struggling. My child benefit was taken away, and that's fine as I think it makes it fairer.
Wish my parents got free travel, housing, and winter fuel! Will a free TV license save suicidal men? Is that linked to loneliness? That seems to be a different subject altogether and worthy of its own thread.
Treating everyone equally does not work since they are not on equal ground. I agree that not everyone should get a free license. See above.
The loneliness in oaps in also due to lack of mobility. My parents cannot use a bus due to their mobility and go once a month to a supermarket which costs them around 20 quid in a cab ride. They live in an area where bus travel is not free anyway. They would go out more often but the cab is too expensive and they have to save back cab money in case they need to go to a doctor which is also another 20 quid round trip. They are not poor enough to receive credit, but they definitely would not be happy to pay full price on a TV license. They live in an area where many of their neighbors are in the same boat. The other thread you started about oaps brought up posters who said they knew plenty of oaps who struggle. I am glad you know people that have an easy retired time, but not everyone does. I just don't understand why people get all upset about someone who has worked hard all their life and managed to stay alive this long. It's pretty bleeping amazing actually.
Treating everyone equally does not work since they are not on equal ground. I agree that not everyone should get a free license. See above.
The loneliness in oaps in also due to lack of mobility. My parents cannot use a bus due to their mobility and go once a month to a supermarket which costs them around 20 quid in a cab ride. They live in an area where bus travel is not free anyway. They would go out more often but the cab is too expensive and they have to save back cab money in case they need to go to a doctor which is also another 20 quid round trip. They are not poor enough to receive credit, but they definitely would not be happy to pay full price on a TV license. They live in an area where many of their neighbors are in the same boat. The other thread you started about oaps brought up posters who said they knew plenty of oaps who struggle. I am glad you know people that have an easy retired time, but not everyone does. I just don't understand why people get all upset about someone who has worked hard all their life and managed to stay alive this long. It's pretty bleeping amazing actually.
People of all ages struggle, I'm just saying it's better to give benefit based on need rather than age.
It would be nice if there's unlimited money for everyone to nice things. But there isn't.
No one's upset. But pensioners don't have the monopoly on working hard. Some did, some didn't. But one thing is for certain younger people now will be working for longer and retirement is just a dream.
It would be nice if there's unlimited money for everyone to nice things. But there isn't.
No one's upset. But pensioners don't have the monopoly on working hard. Some did, some didn't. But one thing is for certain younger people now will be working for longer and retirement is just a dream.
I agree that not all oaps should get the license for free. I don't agree that a free TV license is a nice thing. 
I too am in the group that is having to work for longer and work harder because there won't be an extra boost of a state pension when I retire, but I don't think that free TV licenses are the reasons for it. My folks didn't become home owners until they were in their 60s and I am very aware that still puts them in a privileged bracket even though they have zero spare cash to do anything outside of their home.
I actually dread being an old fart and hope I pop off way before the inherited diseases leave me in pain or worse every day. Living in the US screws you when it comes to health care, but I don't expect to fly home and get it all for free even though I can.
I too am in the group that is having to work for longer and work harder because there won't be an extra boost of a state pension when I retire, but I don't think that free TV licenses are the reasons for it. My folks didn't become home owners until they were in their 60s and I am very aware that still puts them in a privileged bracket even though they have zero spare cash to do anything outside of their home.
I actually dread being an old fart and hope I pop off way before the inherited diseases leave me in pain or worse every day. Living in the US screws you when it comes to health care, but I don't expect to fly home and get it all for free even though I can.
TV licences aren't a reason for working longer and harder (not that I said they were), it's the refusal to rebalance the books and peg the state pension to life expectancy and very generous final pensions many decades ago. The tv license does symbolise how one generation is treated better than others.
I do wonder how many pensioners that they they can't afford it actually are in poverty. My ex dh parents always said how broke they were but they had piled up 6 figures in their bank account and had a decent amount coming in from pensions. Sometimes the poverty is just an illusion / mideset.
All the people demanding TV licences remain free for everyone are effectively asking for another sub for the richest segment of society that have the largest disposable income and smallest outgoings. No matter how you word it and what emotive language you use that's the reality.
I do wonder how many pensioners that they they can't afford it actually are in poverty. My ex dh parents always said how broke they were but they had piled up 6 figures in their bank account and had a decent amount coming in from pensions. Sometimes the poverty is just an illusion / mideset.
All the people demanding TV licences remain free for everyone are effectively asking for another sub for the richest segment of society that have the largest disposable income and smallest outgoings. No matter how you word it and what emotive language you use that's the reality.
We could be having the same conversation about unemployed people, students, people on disability, and even people who claim to be homeless. You just can't paint a brush over a whole group of people. I can't agree that pensioners are the richest segment of society. And if they were, (I'd need actual real data to be convinced) it wouldn't bother me one bit. The TV license can be means tested over ALL of them and not just handed to those who get PC. I've already said I think it's fair they pay half so it's not like I think everything should be handed to them. It's not like they're being handed golden coins. It's a tit overpriced freebie anyway! I am sure we can agree on that. 
I agree. Most of the 75 year olds I know have a lot more money than me. They own their own homes, benefited from low house prices in the past, and zero university fees. Many have several holidays a year. Absoloutly, they should pay for the license. They also shouldn’t receive winter fuel allowenes!
We really couldn't, if you're claiming JSA and how small it is then you genuinely are living on a pittance.
You're wanting people of a certain age to get something subsidised just because of age not circumstance. You don't mind if they're already the richest people in society. This something comes out of public money.
I've said it's not just about TV licence, but pensioner pandering in general while other vital services are cut to the bone.
It's a view, not one we share.
*Goes back to mumsnet where 98% of people there are now are fed up with grabby entitled pensioners*
Because the tv licences is an outdated concept. The bbc make millions in selling their shows abroad and are funded by the government so that the government can use it to their advantage for propaganda FACT!.
Nobody should pay it and definitely not pensioners who have fought in wars and help build this country. It’s absolutely disgusting that they scare anybody into paying for the bosses to spend £10000s in weekend trips and pay half a mil to Claudia fuckingwilkmann and over a mil to linneker! Not to mention the millions they pay to some of the countries most uncharismatic bores we’ve ever seen some of the worlds most rubbish shows.
When my newborn daughter was dying at home, they knocked on my door and wrote false information based on peering through my window at my other daughter who was watching a fimbles DVD. We had no aerial and no live tele whatsoever, yet they took the DVD’s as evidence and sent a warrant for my arrest to attend court where the court laughed and threw my case out.
Yet the private company who works on behalf of the bbc still hounded me sent warrants for my arrest tried fining me with no evidence of me watching tv. It’s absolutely Criminal and goes against all laws as they didn’t even enter my house!
And you might know some ‘grabby pensioners’ but I’ve worked in at home care and I can tell you that some are literally dying of cold and hunger. Wake up
You need to get out more. Because I’ve met pensioners who are dying of cold and hunger. It should be means tested absolutely but not with tv licence which nobody should have to pay.
I think also that SATS should be scrapped because i don’t think it’s fair that spoilt kids with rich grandparents who have helped mummy and daddy buy their first house, should also have the privilege of going to a school which receives more funding thus better SATS results.
R u ok @Mum31 ?
There's hardly any pensioners left that fought in the wars. The ones that helped rebuild the country did very well out of it with the economic boom, houses for buttons, free uni education, jobs for life and pensions that people of today could only dream about.
We're in agreement that it should be means tested, it will be and 1/3 will continue to get it for free. Even if they sacked all the presenters earning 150k and more that wouldn't even touch the sides of the shortfall. As the average age of someone watching the bbc is in their late 50s this has to come sooner rather than later as in 20 years next to no one would fund them!
People of all ages struggle to eat and heat, but thesedays pensioners are the group least at risk of this. It's perpetuating myths that pensioners nowadays are as a group struggling, they were in the past. Not anymore. Anyone struggling to eat and heat would get pension credits as they'd be in the bottom 1/3rd so it's a total moot point.
There's hardly any pensioners left that fought in the wars. The ones that helped rebuild the country did very well out of it with the economic boom, houses for buttons, free uni education, jobs for life and pensions that people of today could only dream about.
We're in agreement that it should be means tested, it will be and 1/3 will continue to get it for free. Even if they sacked all the presenters earning 150k and more that wouldn't even touch the sides of the shortfall. As the average age of someone watching the bbc is in their late 50s this has to come sooner rather than later as in 20 years next to no one would fund them!
People of all ages struggle to eat and heat, but thesedays pensioners are the group least at risk of this. It's perpetuating myths that pensioners nowadays are as a group struggling, they were in the past. Not anymore. Anyone struggling to eat and heat would get pension credits as they'd be in the bottom 1/3rd so it's a total moot point.
As far as i’m concerned they’re the most entitled bunch of people I know. It’s the young people trying to afford outrageous rents, and young family’s trying to keep their heads above water, that I feel sorry for!
The pensioners I know are the exact opposite of what people here are describing. I am not engaging further unless there are credible stats quoted from credible sources and all I am reading is a lot of bitterness. And they called the pensioners the snowflakes. Mumsnet says it all. Have fun with this one, guys. 
Have fun with this one, guys. Get over yourself. You’re not engaging further. Pmsl. I’m devestated.The pensioners I know are the exact opposite of what people here are describing. I am not engaging further unless there are credible stats quoted from credible sources and all I am reading is a lot of bitterness. And they called the pensioners the snowflakes. Mumsnet says it all.
K bye.The pensioners I know are the exact opposite of what people here are describing. I am not engaging further unless there are credible stats quoted from credible sources and all I am reading is a lot of bitterness. And they called the pensioners the snowflakes. Mumsnet says it all.
It's not just about pensioners you know, it's a wildly recognised fact that the current set of pensioners are the richest generation there's ever been and ever will be for quite a while. Tens of thousands of articles out there from reputable data sources like the office of national statistics.
As already said 1/3 will still get it for free. The poorest pensioner that never saved a penny for retirement will receive £720 a month + all rent paid + bus pass + winter fuel + free TV licence still. That's way more than many working people have, not cruise and Merc money but not starving and cold either.
Not true.
My late grandfather worked very hard is whole life as did my grandmother. When my mother was born they started their married life living in one room on a farm that had no running water or electricity. After many years managed to buy a house, when my grandmother was ill in hospital my mother had to go into foster care because there wasn’t any benefits or help and my grandfather had to work.
A few years ago my grandfather developed Alzheimer’s and as my grandmothers blind they were forced to sell their home to pay for their nursing care.
So after all those years of scrimping saving to build a good life, it’s all down the pan.
If they hadn’t bothered then their nursing care would have been paid for. But the end result is exactly the same for them
So I don’t agree with what you’re saying.
And like I’ve already said. I worked in at home care for the elderly and some ARE struggling.
Nobody should have to pay for a stupid tv licence. Everywhere else in the world manages without it. The bbc will just have to move with the times and use advertisement to fund their channel.
You have been completely brainwashed.