TV Licence
 

Just heard some of us pensioners will be paying the full Licence fee as of next year, something else to feed the thieving bar stewards for NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD- programmes and repeats. :shrug::eek:

Rev

There is going to be some dating sites.
"75 yr old man,looking for companion, must have GSOH and pension credits.":}

So where is the option to not have BBC progs? The money goes to the heavily biased and partisan company that fewer and fewer people watch.

It is no more than a hypothecated general tax which is subverted to an unelected state office over which the electorate have no control. It's Fascist I tell you, Facist!

My heart bleeds for the V6 driving hard-up pensioner who needs a free TV licence. ;):D
where to live.

Let's pay our way old chaps. :}


Correction/addition - the original posting should have read....

My heart bleeds for the two car owning,V6 driving, hard-up pensioner who feels that he deserves a free TV licence. ;):D

There are large numbers of young people in the UK having to worry about how to feed themselves and where to live.

Let's pay our way old chaps. :}

Agree we should all pay our way. But the BBC has a choice - due to it having little choice overall as technology will, I am sure, overtakes the need for a TV Licence when some clever device allows us to access what we want to watch in a way that makes monitoring impossible.

The choice is pay per view or go commercial. A licence fee is archaic tho’ I fully appreciate just what an excellent service the BBC gives. But in all seriousness - why should I fund the BBC via a tax, when I find myself rarely watching what they broadcast? (Killing Eve - being an obvious and tremendous exception.)

I have long felt the BBC is biased and yet I am forced to fund an organisation whose News output has left me regularly gobsmacked.

I would personally prefer pay per view. That has worked well - and allows choice by the individual.

Hi Clive, its was nice chatting with you at the weekend and meeting your lovely wife, its always nice to catch up with folk and put the world to rights from time to time. ;)

I was only talking to my father yesterday about the TV licence fee, and we looked back to when Gordon Brown introduced the free licence for the over 75's back in the late 90's. Then along came the blue's and wanted to phase it out, seems that is what has happened, forcing the BBC to take responsibility for taking up the cost. :shrug:

Obviously there are some pensioners who are very well off and can afford the charge, but many will struggle which will leave them on poverty.

The BBC say they cant afford to fund the free licence... :shrug:

Wonder what will go next, bus passes or prescriptions?

Yes it was great to get together again - good to talk to you whilst you are now pain free!

Hope what you got today fit well and are everything you want!

And yes - some will struggle to pay and that to me is wrong. You would think that as the 5th largest economy in the world we could afford to allow our very oldest to enjoy free TV - after all at that age, getting out and about becomes increasingly difficult - so the TV becomes a lifeline.

I do believe that the Licence is untenable long term

So why not make Freeview totally free for our elderly?

Failing that - I for one would be happy to use some of the money we currently donate regularly to go to a fund to pay for a licence for someone in need.

But it’s wrong

Its about time they scrap the tv licence for all, its an outdated biased system that needs to be changed. I believe the licence fee can no longer be justified in this modern age of multichannel advertising that we have today. :shrug:

As for the pearly whites Clive, its going to take some getting used to a new appliance again, certainly makes me look a lot younger though. :D

Who would this hard up V6 driving pensioner be, :shrug:

Rev

I read that in a few years 25% of the BBC budget will go on paying for the free pensioner license. Whatever you think of the BBC's output, that's completely unsustainable.

edit it's 20% not 25%. Some interesting figures in this article.

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-48583487

I may be wrong. My understanding of the T.V. licence is a charge for having a television receiver in your home. So whether you watch B.B.C. or not, you still have to pay it. So the simplest thing would be that B.B.C. becomes a pay to view channel. With this, B.B.C. viewing figures would go into Freefall. Then they would realise that they have had it too easy for too long. Perhaps that would make them change to a commercial channel. That would, may be, generate enough income to take on the likes of SKY with their exorbitant prices.

This new modern generation that use the likes of Amazon and Netflix, its only a matter of time until the BBC will be forced to shred its old skin. ;)

Very much so, how many people under 30 watch tv as it's broadcast? Very few i would think.

The simple answer is to Not Pay the fee. And when the goons come round and ask"Do you have a television" you do not answer that or any other question they ask. They have NO power of entry into your property and you are well within your rights to tell them to "Go Away" or words to that effect.

But the problem is the sheep will always abide and conform.:shrug:

That won't work!
Believe it not, it is actually a Criminal offence not to have a TV licence, so your best bet is to rob a bank to pay for it. :D

For some paying this fee is a bid issue, I'm afraid as we head towards being a US type of society, we will all have to get used to putting our hands in our pockets. Free bus passes and winter fuel payments will no doubt follow shortly. My hope is that free prescriptions will be maintained for as long as possible. The poor are definitely getting poorer, what a country, the rest of the world used to look up to us! Look at all the silly promises the PM candidates are making.

Only if you receive live broadcast or record live broadcast. If you have a TV in your house but only use it for DVD’s for example then no licence is required.

And as previously said above - as most younger guys today stream what they watch when they want to see it not when it is broadcast - the whole concept of the old TV licence becomes obsolete.

How? it is an Act, Not a Law.

Some people don't have a television.

My parents have not owned a TV for the past 20 years, they made their choice not to watch television, which is obviously their right to do so. They don't even own a computer, and their mobile phones are old style basic big button phones designed for the elderly, non android, non IOS.

The amount of threatening letters they received over the years from the TV licensing bullies was horrendous, not forgetting the knocks at the door.

You could say my parents were being bullied into buying a TV licence, even though they did not legally need one. The letters soon stopped after my father threatened to take legal action against them, play them at their own game was the only way to deal with this old outdated corporation. :mad:

You don’t actually need a TV licence to own or possess a TV, but if you use a TV to watch or record programmes as they are being shown on TV or live on an online service, or you download or watch BBC programmes on demand, use BBC iPlayer etc, then you do need a TV licence.

My experience is very different. When my father passed away the property was empty for about 18 months. We had a reminder for the TV licence and then a letter threatening action if we operated a TV without a licence. The letter also included a return section which allowed us to inform the licencing people why we did not need a licence. After we sent this back, no further letters.

Seems like quite a reasonable approach to me.

If the B.B.C. becomes a commercial channel or pay to view. The licence fee would be scrapped. Then some bright spark in Government will come up with the idea of an entertainment tax.:mad:

A customer of mine belongs to a religious group who do not allow TV's and Radios. He gets a knock on his door at least a couple of times a year asking to prove he does not have one. He had even had a demand to pay for it as they did not believe him.

Was the house eventually sold? I suppose a TV licence was eventually purchased. This would have allow the licensing team to remove that household from the check list of non payers.

As far as I know the TV licensing still carry out checks on a six/twelve month basis, even after informing them a licence is not needed. Once an address/household continues not to have a TV licence registered for a number of years, when it once did, letters checks frequently arrive on a yearly basis followed by visits.

In my parents case, you would think after informing the TV licensing that they no longer need a TV licence, especially after the second officer visit, that would be the end of it, but no... Frequent checks are still made against the household because no TV licence is held against the address.

In my view a 12-month check is not unreasonable as in most cases the situation with regard to a TV licence is likely to change over a 6-12 month period.

Not in the form of horrid threatening letters, that's my point. :shrug:

Exactly, They use Bully Boy tactics to force you into getting a Licence.

Hasn't the TV licence checking thingy been contracted out from the BBC to a target driven private company?

I believe it is a company called CAPITA and there are many reports of aggressive tactics used bt them.

Hi Wes, remember Woof25? aka Mike RIP who passed away in December 2016. We lived in north London, he had the ground floor flat and I had the one upstairs. Everyone, utilities was informed of his death including the TV license authority with copies of his death certificate. I returned to Kenya in February 2017. I was back in the summer and found several notices on the door mat from the TV license authority asking about a TV license for Mikes flat. One of the letters said they had sent an investigation unit round and how there was no reply. There was also written threats of prosecution. I rang them up and I told them how distressed I was to see these threatening letters and there was no need for it. I was immediately put through to a bereavement team. They apologised and said they would put a note on Mike’s address to say he was deceased. However, they did say they would send out a TV license reminder in 6 months for the new occupant. I told them not to bother with that and to leave it for 12 months. That appeared to have got through and they left it for a year. So there you have it, a mix of poor comms and good comms.

It may seem heavy handed to threaten at first contact. The apparent lack of a licence is in some cases the rule of ignoring a request until prosecution by way of a 'letter of intent' of court action. So the company involved resorts to the blunt instrument technique. They never have to face the public including in court and are never subject to sanction. Guilt is the opening assumption and the onus is on the accused to prove their innocence.

How many pensioners license fees could be paid by Lineker's salary of £1.75m:shrug: Just for talking about football:duh::getmecoat:

Do you watch him taking about football then Ronnie? :shrug:

Perhaps his job could be given to a hard-up multi-car owning OAP for a slightly lower salary - after all, round-the-world cruises and posh restaurants have to be paid for somehow!:D

I think there is talk of decriminalising the offence, but looking at this it still is, incredibly, a criminal offence. :confused:

I don't watch gas telly Maninder & certainly not soccer:cool::D

:-) )))))))

Don't forget the free park anywhere permit! :D

BoJo is promising tax cuts for the high earners whilst the over 75s are loosing free TV licenses.

This is not a political statement, but in my opinion he is actually being very smart by putting tax cuts for high earners and wealthy pensioners on the table. Both labour and the tories have a problem in that their respective voting bases are have moved to vote for the B and LD parties respectively. What Bojo is doing is offering a traditional olive branch to woo the traditional tory voters back to supporting the party. A smart move on his part as the resulting debt will be a problem for future generations rather than current politicians.

He is also being very smart because it is the traditional “middle earners” that have been hit hardest of late. Whilst the low paid have benefited from increased income tax personal allowances, middle earners have seen their income eaten into by effectively lowered higher rate tax thresholds.

And of course - this is exactly the demographic scared witless by JC and the likes of D Abbot and so would be receptive to something actually being given back to them rather than it consistently being taken from them.