"bert" wrote in message
...
In article , "Dave Plowman (News)"
writes
In article ,
T i m wrote:
On 1 Aug 2020 23:44:33 GMT, Bob Eager wrote:

On Sat, 01 Aug 2020 22:16:10 +0100, T i m wrote:

On Sat, 1 Aug 2020 18:03:26 +0100, Andrew
wrote:

Anyone had the letter from TV LIcensing yet ?.

BBC Moneybox says they will send out letters, so any emails,
texts or phone calls will be from scammers. Some folks will fall for
a
scammer though.

But there are still free licences aren't there, over 75 and on
pension
credits, 1.5M of them?

Of course, there may be unexpected consequences. Lots of eligible
people,
who haven't doen it until now, deciding to apply for pension credit.

I think the real issue here is giving the licence free to some in the
first place. People were paying and were ok with that (few other
choices, good content, no advertising etc), just as all those who know
if they want to watch Netflix or Amazon Video now they have to pay for
it. The problem arises when you make it free to anyone and then decide
to take that away again.

I think the biggest insult is what I remember being only a tiny
discount to 'viewers' (as that's the primary interface of 'TV'
(compared with radio)) who were registered blind?

I appreciate the impact would vary depending on what was on ... and
how good the narration was, but still. ;-(


To me, the main issue is expecting the BBC to pay for a 'benefit' If this
is fair, perhaps the energy companies should pay the winter fuel
allowance? Or supermarkets providing free food to poor pensioners? But
then given how much many of them contribute to Tory party funds, unlikely.

BBC agreed to it in return for index linked licence fee and the covering
of iplayer.

BBC were strong armed into it

I suspect that they didn't fully realise the effect that it had on their
income

Personally, I resent the idea that I should subsidise (though my license
payments), "family in main home, granny in a granny annex" getting a free TV
licence. (yes, it does work like that!)

and if putting in a very simple means test to avoid that (and similar) abuse
of the system causes a number of others who might more reasonably qualify
not to do so, then so be it. HMG should have solved that problem before
foisting the concession onto the BBC.