Age-related TV licence policy

[oddoneout]

We have come to expect this cavalier treatment from your rotten organisation!

I agree, the government is pants...

[Old Grumpy]

Good article by Simon Kelner in today's i newspaper.

The licence works out at less than the cost of the Daily Mail for a week...

OG

[pastoralguy]

I agree, the government is pants...

[Constantbee]

For what it's worth Age UK have raised an online petition:

https://campaigns.ageuk.org.uk/page/34266/petition/1?ea.tracking.id=1unr39mb

Their most compelling argument seems to me to be that there is a poor take up on pension credit so that those who would still qualify for a free licence under a means tested scheme might not get to hear about it.

[Bryn]

Good article by Simon Kelner in today's i newspaper.

The licence works out at less than the cost of the Daily Mail for a week...

OG

Not for me it doesn't. The Daily "Hurrah for the Blackshirts" Mail costs me nothing.

[Dave2002]

For what it's worth Age UK have raised an online petition:

https://campaigns.ageuk.org.uk/page/34266/petition/1?ea.tracking.id=1unr39mb

Their most compelling argument seems to me to be that there is a poor take up on pension credit so that those who would still qualify for a free licence under a means tested scheme might not get to hear about it.

There are many reasons why people don't apply for benefits. Some may not want to as they feel financially well enough, but others may find the bureaucratic process too much. Putting in bureacracy as a means of blocking action is not new. In this case there would be two hurdles to overcome. Firstly a potential applicant would have to apply for pension credit, and very likely that would take some time. Secondly, having succeeded with that, an application to the BBC for a free licence would have to be made to prove entitlement with proof of pension credit having been granted.

With suitable deliberately designed forms take up of pension credit and then free TV licences could be slowed down very considerably.

[oddoneout]

There are many reasons why people don't apply for benefits. Some may not want to as they feel financially well enough, but others may find the bureaucratic process too much. Putting in bureacracy as a means of blocking action is not new. In this case there would be two hurdles to overcome. Firstly a potential applicant would have to apply for pension credit, and very likely that would take some time. Secondly, having succeeded with that, an application to the BBC for a free licence would have to be made to prove entitlement with proof of pension credit having been granted.

With suitable deliberately designed forms take up of pension credit and then free TV licences could be slowed down very considerably.

Arguably the first hurdle is not knowing it is there to be claimed? Social and physical isolation(being exacerbated by closure of things like day centres/meeting points) makes it hard to find out such things. Contact with a person who has claimed can be a useful starting point, but as you say there are other factors involved, and if you don't or hardly get out then meeting that one trigger person in the first place is unlikely.

[Bryn]

Arguably the first hurdle is not knowing it is there to be claimed? Social and physical isolation(being exacerbated by closure of things like day centres/meeting points) makes it hard to find out such things. Contact with a person who has claimed can be a useful starting point, but as you say there are other factors involved, and if you don't or hardly get out then meeting that one trigger person in the first place is unlikely.

The forms sent out regarding claiming the State Pension are less than clear on the issue of Pension Credit. I, for instance, deferred my claim for over 5 years, which, having a full entitlement, took me considerably over the cut-off point for Pension Credit. I was nevertheless invited to apply. How ridiculously generative of unnecessary bureaucracy is that?

[Dave2002]

Arguably the first hurdle is not knowing it is there to be claimed? Social and physical isolation(being exacerbated by closure of things like day centres/meeting points) makes it hard to find out such things. Contact with a person who has claimed can be a useful starting point, but as you say there are other factors involved, and if you don't or hardly get out then meeting that one trigger person in the first place is unlikely.

I hope more people who probably need help for any benefit will claim it. Perhaps the total budget if everyone who claimed what they might be entitled to for any other benefits would even be more than the savings of the licence fee - I really don’t know.

In the case of my mother-in-law it was only a chance comment from one of our GPs which alerted us to the possibility of my father-in-law claiming an attendance allowance for his wife, who was severely demented. It then took three of us, each with a university degree, several hours to figure out the multi-page form, and complete it, and send it in. The allowance was very helpful and enabled a man in his late 70s to have a significantly better life for a few years, without all the physical and mental strain of looking after someone who was by then beginning not to know him, or us, at all.

My mother’s situation was slightly different. She would clearly have been eligible for benefits years before, but she refused all help. By the time she eventually gave in and accepted the benefit help, she was totally incapable of filling in such forms herself. In the end she only had a very limited benefit, as shortly after that she was hospitalised, then into a home, and nature took its course.

Oh - a TV related observation - although she was not capable of doing many things by herself in the last year of her life, she still enjoyed watching television pretty much right up to the end, though she had difficulties with finding and operating the remotes to get the channels she wanted. She was 85 when she died.

The “system” must “save” large sums of money by being deliberately over bureaucratic and obstructive.

I agree that many people don’t even know what can be claimed, or should be claimed, or even that they really need it.

[LMcD]

Apologies if there is already a thread on this - hosts please free to merge

Any BBC TV viewers responded to this consultation? I have just received my TV licence renewal and am way off getting a free one on age grounds.

OG

I did take part in the consultation, but - unsurprisingly perhaps - my views went unheeded.
I think the least the BBC could do is offer some kind of discount to those in the fortunate position of having the funds to pay for the whole year up front, thus following the example of Amazon Prime, which costs £7.99 a month or £79 for a year if paid in advance.
I gather that all those who - like us - will have to resume paying for our licence will be contacted next June.

[french frank]

I wonder why they don't connect it to the electoral register - rather than pension credit? The upper age for jury service is now 75, and that's marked on the register, so they could give free licences to all households where (all) the residents are over 75. I've never understood why a household of working people with one over 75-year-old should be exempt from payment. [Which I understand has been the case until now ]

[oddoneout]

I wonder if the ending of the free licence might prompt an uptake of Pension Credit? I can't help feeling that publicity about the licence might bring the benefit to the attention of those who are currently unaware or for other reasons haven't applied. Would be somewhat ironic if that were the case - not 'good' for the BBC or the DWP/government, but of course excellent for those who might otherwise have continued to fall through the net.
In terms of what recipients of the free licence get from it I was interested in a couple of comments from a local paper pointing out that as hearing problems made listening to the radio difficult and tiring, TV became an easier way of accessing news, entertainment etc as being able to see faces/images helped to fill the gaps in what was heard, coupled with subtitling for some programmes. One elderly lady remarked that the quality of content wasn't necessarily as good, but it was better than doing without completely, and she was worried that that was what she was facing as she couldn't afford the TV licence. There was no indication of whether she was one of those who could/should be receiving Pension Credit and didn't know about it.

[Dave2002]

I wonder why they don't connect it to the electoral register - rather than pension credit? The upper age for jury service is now 75, and that's marked on the register, so they could give free licences to all households
where (all) the residents are over 75. I've never understood why a household of working people with one over 75-year-old should be exempt from payment. [Which I understand has been the case until now ]

Requiring all the residents to be over 75 might be a step too far, and would deter younger family relatives (or anyone ...) from becoming a live-in carer for some older people.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Requiring all the residents to be over 75 might be a step too far, and would deter younger family relatives (or anyone ...) from becoming a live-in carer for some older people.

What??!! "Sorry, I'm not going to look after Auntie Gladys any more - I can cope with the helping her in & out of bed, bathe, cut her toenails, and ... well, you know ... but paying a TV Licence is just one step too far!"

[french frank]

Requiring all the residents to be over 75 might be a step too far, and would deter younger family relatives (or anyone ...) from becoming a live-in carer for some older people.

Don't buy that. The idea that the annual cost of a TV licence would deter younger family members from looking after their elders (care in what way? give up a job?) seems … very odd. The lower rate Attendance Allowance is now £58.70 per week. Cost of TV licence just under £3 per week. And if they weren't looking after Mum they'd be buying their own licence anyway.

The whole point of older people getting a free licence is their lack of mobility to get out of the house to other interests and recreations; and to mitigate the effects of social isolation. Hence the point about those who are alone and who therefore have the greatest need.