It's heart-rending stuff and as I wipe away a tear I'm moved to volunteer to pay my licence instead of accepting the freebie. But then I remember how John Birt did me out of a job (at 52)  (and, thus, a higher pension than I now receive) and I don't feel so bad.  If I have to buy a licence again in the future I shan't complain about that but I will continue to complain about the dumbing down policy that makes me turn away from a BBC that corporately thinks old people are a drag.

This letter   to a similar misinformed Daily Express columnist proves enlightening reading.

So the BBC can't save money to cover this, well lets see:
Firstly they can get rid of the Parliamentary Channel, then do the same to the News Channel & replace it with World News 24, which in my view is a vastly better channel. That should go some way to filling the gap.

Raymond Snoddy expresses his opinion here, in "mediatel.co.uk"....

".....blame the government, not the BBC.".






Trading as wdr, here, Bill Rogers suggests:-

"........Maybe Auntie should set up a new Consumer Advice strand, helping families work together to claim the two forms of Pension Credit. In 2016/17, up to 1.3 million families who were entitled to receive Pension Credit did not claim the benefit. Up to £3.5 billion of available Pension Credit went unclaimed. On average, this amounted to around £2,500 per year for each family entitled to receive Pension Credit but not claiming.  Set against £154.50, it's great deal.

And it doesn't end there. If you're on Pension Credit...

It’s unlikely you’ll have to pay Council Tax (unless other people live with you).
You’ll get free NHS dental treatment, and you can claim help towards the cost of glasses and travel to hospital.
You’ll get a Cold Weather Payment of £25 when the temperature is 0°C or below for 7 days in a row.
If you rent your home, you may get your rent paid in full by Housing Benefit.
If you own your home, you may be eligible for help with mortgage interest, ground rent and service charges.
If you’re a carer, you may get an extra amount known as Carer Premium, or Carer Addition if it’s paid with Pension Credit. This is worth up to £36.85 a week."

I totally agree with Dickies comment about the front page of Prospero. A complete waste of a whole page that could have interesting and important articles on it - like pensions and finance update. I think it was the last edition that even had a quite adequate version of the front page repeated on an inside page.
Lets have more stories and unfortunately we need more space for obits etc.

I'm a bit confused about the theory behind this.  The Government provided this payment to over 75s.  Through what looks like a "bit of work", the cost was moved onto the BBC.  How could the BBC be expected practically to pay?  If you get on a bus or a train, you don't expect the bus/train owners to pay your ticket at whatever age you maybe.  Why should the BBC be expected to pay the licence?  
I'm not going into the many discussion points that have come up over the last few days but it seems that the BBC is now acting as part Social Benefits Managers.  Obviously this is going to cost them money to run as well!

Who claims the cost of his TV Licence as an allowance.  What a hypocrite!

And why should the BBC provide its services free to sky, cable, BT, etc?

It was years before sky agreed not to charge the BBC for its services appearing in the sky EPG!  Let's have that back.

LBC Exclusively reports, here, that the

"Idea To Make Pensioners Pay For TV Licences Came From Jeremy Hunt"

Huge pity that Auntie Beeb didn't make clear that the license is needed "to receive broadcasts"  & not as a fee just to pay the BBC a kind of subscription. Perhaps some stats about the number of 75+ who find it possible to pay for Sky (basic £22.00 per month £264.00 a year) or BT (£372.00) or Virgin (£338.00) and all of these carry BBC output, would be useful. Makes the license fee look cheap at £154.00.

How's about the others coughing up to pay for freebies to over 75s. They certainly make enough profits. Just a small proportion of the obscene monies they pay for sport would be more than enough to give the Government a bloody nose over a policy that should never have been introduced.

If more help was given to the older generation to radicalise the approach to energy fixes, that alone could save enough to continue with paying the fee, if all the blurb about how much could be saved is correct.

I have just applied for my freebie from September to next June, & I will be pleased to start paying again then for something I value despite all the shortcomings. How much more of a beating can the Beeb take? Subscription, here we come - maybe at £154 a year!

Over 75's currently getting free licence will presumably be alerted that they need to pay.