over 75 tV licence

I was looking forward to a free tv licence in a few years. Looks as though I will not be getting one!

I m75 this year and thought it would be nice to stop paying ...ahhh well

My Dh applied for a free licence for the five weeks between his birthday and the end of free licencing. Today he received two letters, one saying he would be refunded £13 and another saying he’ll be refunded £50+. Sounds like none knows what they’re doing.

Maybe this should be means tested as well as by age.

Well I've had 5 free years, I suppose I should be grateful.

We had a letter a few weeks ago to say we would be getting another letter. Which we haven't had yet. We're both well over 75.
What if we refuse to pay? they'll probably just block reception.

There are a lot of people who dont pay the license fee now for a variety of reasons.You dont have to give them access to your home and as long as you aren'yt watching the BBC I dont think they have any action they can take .Its a disagrace the H of L are awarding themsleves £23 a DAY increase but a lot of older folk on low budgets cant get a free TV License

Maybe this should be means tested as well as by age

I disagree very strongly with means testing, particularly for older people.

By saying that the right to anything should depend on means takes no account of expenditure, treats people as household units when they have paid tax as individuals, and removes the freedom to save or plan for old age.

By this I mean that some people may have what seems to be a decent income, but may need to to pay for a variety of things that are not taken into account when assessment is made. If assumed income is based on that of the household, it leaves scope for a coercive partner to control what happens (so in this case he or she could refuse to pay for a licence), and this is very unfair on the other partner who may have paid tax to contribute to the economy for many years.

Finally, what is the point of having a nest-egg for old age if it means that you will have to pay for things that would have been free if you hadn't bothered to save?

For reference, I am 60 - a long way from qualifying for a free licence, so I have no axe to grind here. I just object when I hear people thinking that they have the right to judge the 'neediness' of older people, and to decide whether or not they should qualify for things like travel passes and TV licences. It's not as though it costs more to let over 75s watch - the programmes would be going out anyway. The argument that younger people would be 'subsidising' them is also fallacious IMO, as it's a quid pro quo - older people will have paid to subsidise the young ones before they had to pay, as will the next generation when its turn comes.

I know that the costs involved in paying the TV licence for over 75s are relatively small, but the arguments against means testing hold true for other things too, IMO. I struggle to think of any situation in which it is fair. Taxation of income (earned or unearned) at source is a far fairer system, and after that people should be free to spend (or save) their money as they see fit, without being penalised for their choices.

We have continued to buy a tv licence even though we are over 75.

Paddyanne is wrong, you need a licence to watch any tv at all, irrespective of the channel. This is from the TV licensing people.

If you’re watching live TV, you need to be covered by a TV Licence:
if you’re watching on TV or on an online TV service
for all channels, not just the BBC
if you record a programme and watch it later
if you watch a programme on a delay
to watch or record repeats
to watch or record programmes on +1, +2 and +24 channels
to watch live programmes on Red Button services
even if you already pay for cable, satellite or other TV services

In case anyone is unaware, there is no point in switching off the TV as a protest against removing the free licence. I have seen several posts on social media asking those who disagree with the charge to take part in a simultaneous switch-off of the BBC.

This will have zero impact, as nobody will know you have done it. Audience figures are collated from data gained by recording the viewing habits of about 5000 households, carefully chosen to be a representative sample of the UK as a whole. If you were part of this sample you would know about it.

Refusing to watch BBC channels is cutting off your nose to spite your face if you are doing so as a protest.

Just pay-up and look happy.

I'm not sure what that means, but my point was that anyone wanting to protest needs to find another way of doing it, or they may think that they have made a difference when in fact the only thing they have achieved is to miss Eastenders, or whatever they would have been watching when the 'protest' took place.