Struggling pensioners exempt from looming BBC TV licence fee warned they will have to prove they receive state benefits to avoid charge

29/06/2019 sao paulo BBC/TV Licence Blog 0

A staggering 1,100 BBC workers were given bumper increases in the past twelve months despite bosses insisting they are doing everything they can to slash costs.

Millions of pensioners who are exempt from the looming TV licence fee have reportedly been warned that they will have to prove they receive state benefits in order to dodge the charge.

  • Over-75s eligible for Pension Credit can continue to watch TV for free from May 
  • They have been urged to gather evidence of their benefits to prove exemption
  • It comes as an Age UK petition to axe the changes swells to 588,174 signatories

Over-75s eligible for Pension Credit – a top-up for those struggling financially – can continue to watch TV for free even after the BBC scrapped the blanket exemption for the UK’s elderly.

But scores of these pensioners have been sent letters by the licensing chief urging them to gather evidence of their financial situations if they hope to duck the fee which will be enforced from next May.

Last week, pensioners descended on BBC offices around the country to protest the changes, including at the corporations headquarters in London

Alison Roberts, Television Licensing operations director, wrote: ‘Please keep your latest Pension Credit letter safe as we may ask you to send a copy when it’s time to claim your free licence,’ according to the Mirror.

And Tom Watson is today reportedly poised to call on Tory leadership – and prime ministerial – hopeful Jeremy Hunt to spell out how he will fund a reversal of the ‘grave breach of trust’.

The deputy Labour leader’s intervention comes after more than 588,174 people signed a petition opposing the BBC’s ‘shameful’ decision to axe free TV licences for 3.7million over-75s.

Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK which started the petition, said it had been ‘inundated’ with phone calls and emails in support of the petition.

She said: ‘The fact that our SwitchedOff petition now has more than half a million signatures demonstrates the strength of public feeling about the unfairness of the Government scrapping free TV licences for over-75s, and remember that about half of this age group (47 per cent) are not themselves online.

‘Ever since the BBC announced its decision to means-test the free TV licence from June 2020, we have been inundated at Age UK with phone calls, emails and petition sign-ups, to the extent that our IT has sometimes struggled to cope.’

Last week, pensioners descended on BBC offices around the country to protest the changes, including at the corporations Broadcasting House headquarters in London.