Means tests for TV licences to start next month

FREE TV licences for over-75s will be means tested from August 1, the BBC announced – after it postponed axing the benefit from June as ‘the middle of a crisis’ was not the right time.

Chairman Sir David Clementi said 1.5million households may qualify for free licences if someone is over 75 and gets pension credit, adding: ‘The BBC could not continue delaying the scheme without impacting on programmes.’

The broadcaster previously said it could not afford to take on funding the licences from the government. Media committee chair and MP Julian Knight called the decision a ‘body blow’, but union Bectu said the BBC was ‘put in an impossible position’ by the government.