Thousands of over-75s ‘to struggle under free TV licence cutbacks’

HUNDREDS of thousands of over-75s will struggle to pay for their TV licences when the BBC drastically scales back the benefit this summer, a major study has warned.

Age UK said the plans will be a ‘shock to the budgets of many older people’ and ‘may be too much’ for them.

The charity warned the hardest-hit will be elderly viewers ‘struggling on a low fixed income’ and those ‘battling loneliness, ill health and disabilities’.

And it pointed out the current £154.50 annual fee costs more than three monthly gas bills or electricity bills, or more than five monthly water bills.

The study comes amid growing tension between the Government and the BBC over the issue. After director-general Lord Hall quit this week, Boris Johnson expects the new boss to review the decision, after saying in his election manifesto he ‘recognises the value of free TV licences for over-75s’.

Under the proposed system, only lowincome over-75s on Pension Credit would receive free licences.

Caroline Abrahams, Age UK’s charity director called on the Government and BBC to ‘sit down together now and broker a solution’. She said an extra ‘£150–plus a year will be a bridge too far’ for many, adding: ‘It’s completely wrong to put the oldest people in our society through this.’

FOR many pensioners, often lonely or in ill health, television offers them a precious window on to the world.

But the BBC’s callous decision to strip millions of over-75s of their free TV licences means many will struggle to pay the £154.50 a year fee.

Our oldest citizens will then face the bleak choice of either never watching television or turning down the heating and buying less food, says Age UK.

Lest we forget, the Corporation agreed to take over the cost of providing licences in return for a generous funding settlement.

Instead of welching on the deal by pleading poverty, couldn’t the monolith find the money by cutting the gargantuan sums spent keeping its pampered stars in clover?