BBC licence fee update

AAAHHH!. Stupid woman person waiting eye operation!

See? my strike out doesn't work! Boo hoo.

Gonegirl I'm one! Thanks! "just above" the level to get pension credit that is.
I can't make my strike out or line going through words work! How do you do it? It looks so funny! I've got a MacBook.
I'll see if it works here -doesit work?- yes? -No!-
Let's see.....

MawBroonsback

You owe GabbyG an apology, she was right in spelling the word with an 's' thus:

Licensing

I notice how you like to jump in and denigrate a person as quickly as possible. If you are setting yourself up as the spelling and grammar Police on GNet, kindly pass your exams before taking up office.

Are those screenshots Gabriella? how d'you do that?

Never seen that on here before.

saying

If I see that young bloke slaying "Oh my days once more, my tv is going to be in danger.

And yes I know I can turn it off. and I do. Sharpish.

Seem to me they cater more and more for the younger folk. Why are putting that BBC3 rubbish on after the 10 o'clock news? I thought that had been assigned to the website only.

Let the younger ones pay for it.

GabriellaG54. I congratulate you on one of the longest threads I've read for a while on GNet! I sincerely hope my one rude word reply when I joined in was taken exactly as I meant it - my reaction to learning that, as I am nearly 70, one of the little perks won't be open to me! I am just on the cusp of being eligible for income support. It is really hard to make ends meet especially as I have to run a vehicle, because I am disabled, and the maintenance of that and the house are way beyond my budget. I simply have kind of given up and am waiting to die. I only eat the cheapest possible food. I try not to use the heating, going to bed after 6 p.m. to keep warm except in the Summer.
Also I am so glad you have followed up the very snide and personal attacks made on you by one person always ready to make "clever" (and usually irrelevant) snipes at us. I used to get them from the same source but the moment I point them out the individual runs to the Gnet staff and says "they're being nasty to me and I'm a poor widow living alone". We too, many of us, are poor widows living alone but this seems irrelevant when she is unkind to us.
Now, back to the topic - I simply do not think the content of BBC TV is of a standard high enough to warrant this very high fee. The standard has dropped so much in the last ten years. E.g: Increase in "reality" shows, increase in repeats - some I could parrot by heart were I to watch them that often! Many adverts about themselves, a huge bias towards the Conservative Party, paying women staff a lower fee than men for the same job, even the standard of "Line of Duty" was way below that of its previous series!!
I have considered not paying the licence and just watching the other channels.

This might sound harsh but surely having 4 children was a choice with financial consequences?

I will be 67 and 4 months when (or if) I get a state pension Breda. I have worked from being 16 year old and only took a few months off when I had each of my 2 children.

Surely the struggles we had when our children were small, what we went without etc. are completely irrelevant to our situations today and our entitlement to a free TV licence ?

I have to say that I agree with you Gonegirl. As I recall buying our first house in the mid ‘70’s was a huge struggle and we really did have to cut our cloth. To be frank it remained a struggle all the years my children were growing up and holidays, nights out and breaks away were a very rare occurrence for any of us.

Then to add insult to injury I was one of those who have ended having to wait until 65 before being able to claim my state pension which is not even a full amount because I stayed at home to care for my four children when they were small!

The answer is yes according to this link

www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/topics/watching-online-and-on-mobile-devices-TOP14

Husband says he thinks any electronic device that's capable of receiving BBC signals needs a tv license. Even smartphones.
Does anyone know if this is correct?

I too am pleased that poorer pensioners will continue to receive a free TV licence but I do agree that taking this away from better off pensioners was the right thing to do. There are plenty young people here in the NE (and elsewhere) who live on the breadline and rely on foodbanks, why do they not get a free TV licence? I think they should consider removing the WFA from better off pensioners too and giving it to poorer households with children instead.

Agree again Jane, the free licence was an electoral bribe, but I’m pleased poorer pensioners will still receive a free one.

there is such a thing as plain old entitlement. And why shouldn't there be?

Yes gonegirl there is. (See what I did there)
We are all entitled to our State Pension, and to have enough money to be reasonably well fed and warm in winter (and summer).
But the free TV Licence was an electoral bribe.

Jane, I take your point absolutely about there being far more older people to support than previously, it is absolutely correct, and as I said, I think pensioners who can afford to buy their own license should do so, and will do so from next year. It is also absolutely morally right that poorer pensioners will still receive a free license.
Our point of disagreement is about the younger people supporting the older ones, which they will continue to do with the poorer pensioners, and for all pensioners who receive any benefits ie state pensions, health care, free medicines etc.
I simply believe that it was always, and will be always the case that younger people will support older people through their taxes, but as you and I have already mentioned, many of us older people are also tax payers and therefore continue to support our services through our taxes.

I think is a fait accompli - they have decided and it will happen. BBC state those over 75 in receipt of pension credit will still have a free licence.

My question is how will this be achieved? Will the Pension Service be handing confidential information to the BBC? Even if it is just a list of names and addresses isn't that a breach of confidentiality? If so, what reassurances do we have that the BBC will keep this information safe?

Alternatively will it be administered by the Pension Service - if so, will the BBC be covering the cost of that administration?

janeainsworth there is such a thing as plain old entitlement. And why shouldn't there be?

I'm not convinced by all this "young folks can't buy home" stuff. Perhaps if that they learned to cut their cloth to suit their coat from an earlier age? And there are more affordable homes now coming onto the market.

maddyone things were very different in the early days of the Welfare State. There were proportionally far more younger people than older people, and generally people were far less affluent, particularly older people.
But that was then, and this is now.
The truth is that not only are there far more people over retirement age, but most of them are affluent enough to be taxpayers. (The BBC article implied that only 20% of people of pensionable age were eligible for Pension Credit)
‘Pensioner Poverty’ has been replaced for many by the affluent, cruise-going, several-holidays-and-short-breaks-a-year lifestyle.

Meanwhile, our young people struggle to own their own homes and struggle to balance work and family life because they have a large mortgage or they are paying large rents.

It’s they who should be receiving help, not old people who don’t need it.

Another

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/201906/medium-275255-20190612-093616.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/201906/medium-877844-20190612-094025.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/201906/medium-136187-20190612-093734.jpg

Not ok.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/201906/medium-774932-20190612-094025.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/201906/medium-284196-20190612-093734.jpg

Hypocrisy writ large

I absolutely do agree that pensioners who are over 75 and can afford to pay for their license should do so, no question about that. But the argument given that younger people shouldn’t subsidise older viewers is not acceptable to me. Younger people have always subsidised older people, it has been so ever since the inception of the welfare state. When we were younger we paid taxes and insurance, as well as our
professional/private pension contributions, and our contributions paid for the pensions, health services etc used by primarily older by people. That’s how a welfare state operates. It was ever thus. Many, many of us older people are still paying tax. When we were young, we paid income tax at a much higher rate than people do now, 31% in fact in the 70s was the basic rate. Younger people support the older, more vulnerable people. That’s how it is, and it works.
In any case, free licenses for the over 75s was only introduced twenty years ago by Gordon Brown. Even at the time I thought it ridiculous that it was applied to all over 75s. It was blatant vote buying in my opinion, but poorer pensioners should and will still receive a free license, quite rightly.