We won’t back down on cutting free TV licences insists BBC boss

BACKLASH OVER BBC BETRAYAL OF THE ELDERLY

THE BBC’S director general has warned the corporation will not perform a U-turn on free TV licences for over-75s.

Tony Hall said the decision was ‘hard’ – but that scrapping the policy for better- off pensioners from next year was necessary.

Lord Hall told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘The BBC is more important now and is going to be more important in the next decade than ever before.

‘There’s something about saying that we pay for something together to give a real benefit to everyone, whether you’re rich, poor, in the Orkneys or Cornwall. I think that principle is really important and that principle is not changing.’

Presenting the radio programme for the last time, veteran broadquarter caster John Humphrys said: ‘And if you’re an old-age pensioner who is worried about paying for the licence – what do you have to say to them?’

Lord Hall said he had been through the decision with the

From the Mail, June 11 board of the BBC and that they had decided to continue providing a free TV licence to those on pension credit.

He added: ‘It’s a hard decision but what we’ve done is to follow the Government’s line on where poverty for old-age pensioners begins. In the decision the Government asked us to make, that was all in law, we’ve tried to do a balance between the security of the programme and the content of the BBC, and... a realisation that for some people over 75, paying the licence fee is hard.’

When asked whether the BBC’s decision was set in stone, he said: ‘That’s what the board have decided.’

Lord Hall, who took up his post in 2013, made the comments the same day that Ed Williams, the UK head of PR giant Edelman, said a ‘ big majority’ of people believe the licence fee should remain free for the elderly.

Speaking at the Royal Television Society Cambridge convention, he said: ‘ Value for money questions always bring up the licence fee debate too.

‘Our findings show there is massive confusion about what the licence fee pays for.

‘Six out of ten don’t know it pays for the iPlayer. Just over a still think it goes to paying for making TV sets.

‘And almost as many thought it paid for shows on ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. I find this absolutely extraordinary after so long, but there we are.’

Mr Williams added that there is a ‘big majority against forcing the over-75s to pay the licence fee’, and that ‘65 per cent of people say it should stay free for them’. The free TV licence was introduced in 2000, but the BBC agreed to take on responsibility for deciding future policy and funding for the scheme in 2015.

However, in June it said it cannot afford to shoulder the financial burden – and said from next June, free licences will only be available to over-75s who claim pension credit.

The decision means 3.7million OAPs will now have to pay the £154.50 fee for a licence.

Dame Helen Mirren, Sir Lenny Henry and Len Goodman are among celebrities who have called for a re-think, while pensioners have taken to the streets outside Parliament to protest against the ‘disgraceful’ plans.