Dealing with the BBC Gestapo!

Free TV licenses, funded by the government, for all over 75's will come to an end in June 2020. From the 1st June, anyone aged 75 or over receiving Pension Credit, will be eligible to apply for a free TV license paid for by the BBC.

In 2015, the government announced that the BBC would take over the costs of providing free TV licenses for the over 75's by 2020 as part of the fee settlement. In 2017, the Conservative prime minister, Theresa May, made an election pledge to preserve pensioner benefits "for the lifetime of this Parliament", due to run util 2022. But the BBC said that the costs of providing free TV licenses for the over 75's, £745 million, amounted to a fifth of the BBC's total budget by 2021/22. The BBC said: "Funding free TV licenses for all over-75's would have resulted in unprecedented closures."According to the BBC, around 900,000 households are claiming Pension Credit but some 1.5 may be eligible but don't claim the benefit. 

Although the Conservative government have reneged on a manifesto commitment to guarantee free TV licenses for the over 75's until 2022, by passing the buck to the BBC to provide them,  the current Conservative prime minister, Boris Johnson, has talked of scrapping the BBC license fee.

From 1st April 2020, the cost of a TV license will increase from £154.50 to £157.50. It is a criminal offence to watch live TV or use BBC iplayer unless you have a valid TV license. You can be prosecuted and issued a fine of up to £1,000 plus court costs. Nineteen people were jailed in 2017, for defaulting on their TV license. The majority of those jailed, were women. A total of 129,446 people were prosecuted for not having a TV license in 2018. TV license enforcement officers also carry out checks at properties, (see above video). One measure that is increasingly being adopted by householders is to serve notice on TV Licensing "Withdrawing Implied Right of Access" to a property and deeming any subsequent approach as harassment.