Price of the TV licence rising to £157.50 a year

As over-75s face paying for it for the first time...

THE cost of a TV licence will increase by nearly £3 from April 1.

The fee will rise from £154.70 to £157.50, the BBC confirmed yesterday.

The price is set by the Government, which announced in 2016 that it would rise in line with inflation for five years from April 2017. The latest increase, of 1.8 per cent, comes amid calls for the licence fee to be made voluntary for viewers – or abolished altogether.

Over-75s face paying for a TV licence for the first time this year after the previously free perk was restricted to those who receive pension credits.

‘A £3-a-year increase may not sound much, but it will be yet another blow to the hundreds of thousands of over-75s who will struggle to afford a TV licence from June,’ Age UK’s charity director Caroline Abrahams said.

‘Although the poorest older people would supposedly continue to be entitled to a free TV licence... we know that some two in five of all those eligible don’t claim [pension credits], in which case they and others whose incomes are only just above the line are set to face horrible decisions over whether they can afford to continue to watch TV at all.’ Gary Lineker, the corporation’s highest-paid star, last week joined calls to make the fee voluntary. The presenter, who received £ 1.75million from the BBC last year, said: ‘You would lose some people, but at the same time you’d up the price a bit... you could help older people, or those that can’t afford it.’

The licence fee raises £3.7billion a year, and accounts for around 75 per cent of the BBC’s revenue.

Watching live television or the BBC’s iPlayer without a TV licence can lead to a £1,000 fine – or jail if this is not paid.

Culture Secretary Baroness Morgan said last month: ‘We believe it’s right to look again at whether criminal sanctions remain appropriate... given concerns about whether [ they are] unfair and disproportionate.’