Pay TV licence fee, Bakewell urges over-75s

JOAN Bakewell has urged the over-75s to pay the TV licence fee out of their own pockets to ‘help save’ the BBC.

Over-75s are entitled to a free licence, but the 82-year-old broadcaster is asking them to pay the annual charge, currently £145.50, voluntarily to protect one of the ‘pillars of civic life’.

Her call comes a week after the Government told the BBC that as part of its new funding deal it would have to start picking up the £725million a year bill for free TV licences for the over-75s. Lady Bakewell said in the Radio Times the move left her ‘outraged’.

She said: ‘It’s one of the social benefits Government bestows on the old, like free bus passes and the winter fuel allowance. I think it’s quite sneaky to roll out social policy disguised as a BBC contribution to austerity.’

Lady Bakewell said the BBC is increasingly important in people’s later years, when many pensioners live alone and television acts as a ‘lifeline’.

The BBC will become fully responsible for the cost of free TV licences in 2020 when it will be able to shake up the rules and could means-test the freebie or raise the age at which people become eligible.

It has already said it will start asking the over-75s to pay the licence fee on a voluntary basis to help offset cuts.

But Lady Bakewell said pensioners should take the initiative. ‘If you love the BBC, and if you can afford £2.80 a week, what are you waiting for?’ she said.