Licence fee threat to BBC as over-75s are made to pay

THE BBC was last night threatened by the Government with the decriminalisation of television licence fee nonpayment after it decided to force millions of elderly people to pay the £157.50 charge in three weeks time.

An estimated three million over-75s now face the prospect of paying the previously free service or risk a criminal prosecution. A further 1.5 million over-75s who receive pension credit will continue to get a free licence.

Oliver Dowden, the Culture Secretary, said he felt “let down” by the BBC’S decision and warned that it would “have an impact” on whether non-payment was downgraded from a criminal offence in the courts.

Age UK said the BBC’S timing, when hundreds of thousands of pensioners were still shielding, was “another kick in the teeth during a terrible year”. It said it was worried about the “mental health of older people living on their own,” and those for whom “the TV really is their window on the world”.

Julian Knight, the chairman of the Commons digital culture, media and sport committee, said the Government had to decide “quickly” whether to decriminalise non-payment. He told The Daily Telegraph: “It will be an own goal of epic proportions to start hauling people over-75 in front of the courts. There needs to be common sense here.”

The Government has been consulting for months on a change in the law to ensure people who do not pay will no longer go to jail. Last night Mr Dowden said: “We are already consulting on decriminalising the licence fee and decisions like this will have an impact on that.” He said he would make a decision “over the course of the summer”.

The Prime Minister’s spokesman said he disagreed with the move.

Yesterday was a sad day, and arguably showed our inability as a country to understand the lives of older people and what really matters to them.

For millions, television is central. Some have digital television but most are reliant on Freeview – the majority are also not online. For many over-75s their television is their constant companion, especially if they live alone. During the pandemic the television has often been more important than ever as these older people – for whom coronavirus is a mortal threat – have been stuck at home.

Even now, with lockdown lifting, many are too afraid to venture out. Television really is a lifeline in these circumstances. The significance of the BBC’S decision to press ahead with their replacement scheme for over-75 free television licences is that it’s certain that hundreds of thousands of our poorest pensioners will have to choose between continuing to watch television or spending less on essentials like food or heating.

That’s because the BBC’S plan is fundamentally flawed. To get a free licence you have to be on Pension Credit, but two in five pensioners who are on such a low income that they qualify for this benefit do not receive it. It is the hundreds of thousands in this position who worry us at Age UK the most, alongside others whose incomes are too high – by even a pound or two a week – to be eligible for Pension Credit. For all these over-75s, paying an extra £150 plus a year for a TV licence will be a huge stretch and for some it will be too much.

If the new scheme goes ahead we are effectively saying it’s OK for some of our poorest, very old people to lose their main source of entertainment, company and information. People like Frances, who told us this recently:

“The television goes on as soon as I wake up in the morning and I do not turn it off before 2.30am.

“It is my only company.” Really? After everything older people have experienced already this year? The Government and the BBC need to sit down and find a way to keep these TV licences free.

Caroline Abrahams is the charity director of Age UK