THE BBC will go ahead will its plan to end free tv licences for over-75s starting next month.
Pensioners will be asked to pay the £157.50 a year to watch television from August 1.
The controversial decision has caused outrage among campaigners and politicians, who say for many elderly people television is their main form of entertainment and company.
Only households where someone receives the Pension Credit benefit will still be eligible for a free licence.
The national broadcaster was due to bring in the charges for pensioners in June, but delayed the move due to the coronavirus crisis. It claims the delay had cost around £35m a month, and previously warned that making no changes would lead to "unprecedented closures" of services.
George Foulkes, Labour Peer, has been campaigning against the decision since it was first suggested and said today he was "absolutely outraged" by the decision.
Lord Foulkes, who is also chair of the All-Party Group for Ageing and Older People, said Boris Johnson must now cover the cost of the charges for the elederly.
He said: "I am absolutely outraged by the BBC’s decision to end free TV licences for over-75s.
"Not only has this decision been dragged out for too long, but it now means that lonely pensioners are being dealt a dreadful, perhaps even deadly, blow.
"So many lonely old people will continue to be confined to their homes for many months and rely on their TV as a vital lifeline for information, connectivity and entertainment.
"BBC fatcats are so out of touch with the reality of older people, who will likely have to cut back on food and heating if they want to keep their TV and stay connected with the outside world.
"They should be utterly ashamed of this decision. However, we will not stop in our campaign to save what is a vital social benefit.
"The ball is now very much in the Government’s court and it must step in and take action to fund this social welfare measure.
"It will be a test of their sincerity and honesty having pledged to keep this concession before abdicating responsibility to the BBC. Johnson promised this and he must shoulder the responsibility”.
The BBC has said there will be a "Covid-safe" payment system, meaning people can apply online, and there will be dedicated support staff to help.
In the House fo Commons today, Labour's shadow culture minister Christian Matheson warned that many pensioners could be "forced to choose between eating and watching TV".
He said: "The BBC is cutting jobs and content to pay for the cost of the licence dumped on them by the government."
Culture minister Matt Warman replied: "The fact is that the BBC has had a generous licence fee settlement and it is deeply disappointing that they have chosen to go down the path that they apparently are going down."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel