MORE than 319,000 people have signed a petition demanding the free TV licence for all over-75s be restored.
Age UK amassed the signatures amid fury over the BBC’s decision to penalise pensioners rather than cut the salaries of star presenters.
The BBC faced a ferocious backlash as Britain demanded: “Axe the tax.”
Angry pensioners blasted the move and urged the Beeb to save cash by instead cutting the salaries of big-name presenters.
Protesters from the National Pensioners Convention in Blackpool marched with a banner saying: “Save Our Free TV Licence.”
Tory leadership hopeful Matt Hancock said the BBC should reverse the decision and cut costs elsewhere.
Rivals Michael Gove and Esther McVey promised to decriminalise non-payment of the £154.50 licence fee.
Thousands are convicted every year, with a few offenders even sent to jail for failing to pay the £1,000 fines.
Ms McVey became the first Tory leadership candidate to publicly back decriminalising the offence.
The former TV presenter told The Sun: “If I became Prime Minister I would decriminalise non-payment of the BBC TV licence for everyone.
“You shouldn’t need the weight of the criminal law to force people to pay the licence fee – especially those the BBC had promised to pay it for in the first place.”
A source in Michael Gove’s leadership campaign said: “Michael argued for the decriminalisation of non-payment of the BBC licence fee as Justice Secretary and his views are unchanged.”
Six of the other Tories in the race to replace Theresa May condemned the BBC’s decision but stopped short of backing decriminalisation.
The end of the universal free TV licence for the over-75s is a breach of the 2017 Tory election manifesto but the current Government is powerless to step in because it handed over responsibility for funding the TV licence fee to the BBC in 2017 as part of its new charter.
Sign the petition at
We are backing Age UK’s Switched Off campaign to save free TV for older people. The charity is demanding that the Government takes back responsibility for funding free TV licences and has set up a petition on its website. Sign it on their site or on The Sun’s website.
But Matt Hancock, a former Culture Secretary, said the BBC should reverse the decision by slashing costs elsewhere in the organisation. He also said he would conduct a radical overhaul of the way the BBC is run so it is fit for the digital age.
The PM hopeful said: “They should live within their means. The bigger question is what the BBC will do to fund itself in the digital age where in a decade’s time it won’t be clear what a “TV” is anymore.”
It’s a Conservative election manifesto pledge…there’s no question that the over-75s must keep those free TV licences
Andrea Leadsom
Andrea Leadsom told The Sun: “It’s a Conservative election manifesto pledge – we have to make sure it happens so there’s no question that the over-75s must keep those free TV licences.”
By midnight, over 233,000 people had signed an Age UK petition calling for the Government to take back responsibility for funding free TV licences and reverse the BBC’s decision.
Meanwhile 38,000 backed a similar petition on Parliament’s website. And more than 110,000 signed another calling for the licence fee to be abolished altogether – saying the annual bill is “far too expensive for ordinary people”.
An unprecedented number of letters were sent in to The Sun following the BBC’s announcement on Monday that it would start means-testing for the giveaway from June 1 2020.
Furious pensioners registered their backing for our campaign to reverse the BBC decision. Many branded the concept of a licence fee as “outdated” in a world of digital streaming. Others said it was immoral for BBC boss Tony Hall to penalise pensioners when he was paying sky-high salaries to presenters such as Gary Lineker and Graham Norton.
Campaigners said that although the changes appear to make the system fairer it will make watching TV unaffordable for 650,000 pensioners.
Elderly Brits took to the airwaves to vent their anger and disappointment at the BBC yesterday, with GMB Presenter Susanna Reid fighting back tears when an elderly woman explained how TV was her main source of entertainment and begged the Beeb to rethink its decision.
This is really the Government’s doing: they pushed the scheme onto the BBC without asking any of us what we think
Age UK
THE SUN SAYS: END TELLY TAX
THE time has come to stop prosecuting TV viewers for non-payment of the licence fee.
This absurd tax on your telly belongs to another century. Not one in which fantastic subscription services open up a world of choice.
The BBC’s callous decision to sting 3.7million OAPs for £154 a year — pleading poverty despite its £4billion annual subsidy — should be the last straw.
Hundreds of thousands may forget to pay, or refuse. And it will be an outrage if ANY of society’s most vulnerable people are dragged to court and punished.
If the Government will not scrap the licence fee entirely, the BBC must cut executive salaries and waste, reduce its services and relent over old folk.
If it won’t, its power must be limited to cutting off services, like an energy firm does as a last resort, and only then the live TV or iPlayer the licence covers.
Luckily there’s plenty more now to watch.
On Monday the BBC shocked the nation by announcing that only over-75s who receive Pension Credit will be eligible to claim the free TV licence from next year.
It will see 3.7 million over-75s dragged into paying the £154.50 licence fee – the first time the age group will have to pay the charge since 2000.
Only 1.5 million will continue to get the free TV licence. Single OAPs over the age of 75 with a weekly income of less than £167.75 or couples with a weekly income of less than £255.25 will continue to qualify for the free TV licence.
Sign the petition at
We are backing Age UK’s Switched Off campaign to save free TV for older people. The charity is demanding that the Government takes back responsibility for funding free TV licences and has set up a petition on its website. Sign it on their site or on The Sun’s website.
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The Age UK petition states: “Means-testing may sound fair but in reality it means at least 650,000 of our poorest pensioners facing a big new annual bill they simply can’t afford.
“But this is really the Government’s doing: they pushed the scheme onto the BBC without asking any of us what we think or providing the funding to sustain it.
“Together, we must demand the Government takes back responsibility for funding free TV licences for everyone over 75.”
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