Dear Auntie BBC, put 3.7m OAPs in jail — they’ll get their free TV licences then as Sun readers call for u-turn NOW
SUN readers are outraged at plans by greedy BBC bosses to scrap free TV licences for nearly four million pensioners.
Fat-cat bosses at the corporation announced this week that next year up to 3.7million people aged over 75 will have to pay £154.50 for a licence – or face jail for non-payment.
It destroys a near-20 year tradition that all over 75s, many house-bound, have been able to get BBC TV for free.
From next June only low-income homes with someone on the Pension Credit benefit will be eligible for a free licence.
Many are now calling for viewers to stop paying the BBC in protest, and for not paying the licence fee to no longer be a crime. Others want government to fund the fee cost for over-75s.
Below, as we launch our Free TV Fees For Over-75s campaign, is a small selection of the mountain of angry letters we received just yesterday...
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.
WHAT is the BBC going to do if we stop paying the TV licence? Take us all to court, then lock us up in a five-star jail with free TV, three meals a day, medical care and more?
The BBC needs to look in-house to save money, starting with top salaries. No presenter is worth more than £100,000. Bring it on.
Christopher Houghton, Redhill, Surrey
THE BBC says there is no way it will reverse the decision to scrap free licences for over-75s. Oh yes there is.
Everyone stop paying, cancel your direct debits. What is the BBC going to do? Put us all in prison?
I don’t think so. The TV licence is an outdated tax that should be scrapped. Then let’s see how Lineker and the like get on in the real world.
Trevor Gray, Haywards Heath, West Sussex
WE are struggling to make ends meet but still paying tax at 82 years old. Say we refuse to pay. Will the BBC send us to prison? 3.7million is a lot of prisoners to look after.
Albert Hooper, Burley, Hants
I AM outraged at scrapping the free licence fee for the over-75s. We cannot one week celebrate those who gave so much to the nation, and the following week do this to them.
We are struggling to make ends meet but still paying tax at 82 years old.
Albert Hooper
Michael Deery, Birmingham
THE BBC licence fee is fundamentally an unfair tax. OAP couples share the licence cost out of two pensions, but if one partner dies then the full cost has to be paid out of one pension . . . effectively the price doubles.
Most pensioners will have been paying the BBC tax for 40 years or more. Don’t the over-75s deserve to be given a free licence by the BBC?
John Cooney, Wakefield, West Yorks
THE BBC, a national corporation, has decided to boost its finances by preying on the poorest in society. These people cannot go and get a well-paid job.
Tracey Moore, Chingford, East London
THE free licences for over-75s could be easily funded internally with cuts. Come on, Government, deal with YOUR corporation and do away with this rip-off now.
Eddie Stroud, Mildenhall, Suffolk
PENSIONERS who worked hard and saved for later years are penalised again while anyone who spent all their money and didn’t save takes advantage.
It’s time the BBC was made to earn its own income.
The BBC, a national corporation, has decided to boost its finances by preying on the poorest in society.
Tracey Moore
Alan Oakley, Doncaster
WE are a generation who scrimped and saved, putting many just a few pounds over the pension credit limit, yet live in meagre homes without up-to-date technology and other TV channels.
In ill-health or loneliness the TV is a life-saver.
The BBC bosses, with fancy holidays, homes and lifestyles, should hang their heads in shame. They don’t care a damn about normal pensioners in this country.
Sylvia Monk, Hayling Island, Hants
HERE we go again, with the free licence being taken from OAPs.
If there were better attempts at enforcing payment from those who evade it illegally there would be no need to punish the pensioners.
Roger Owen, Birmingham
THE BBC has clearly acted now while there is no effective Prime Minister. I hope whoever takes over as PM cuts the BBC down to size.
It is unfair to charge licence fees to those people who would rather subscribe to other providers. If the BBC has to shut down some services or introduce advertising to pay its way — that is life.”
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.
Bill Cummings, Bryncoch, Neath Port Talbot
COME June 2020, 3.7million pensioners will lose their free TV licence and be £3 a week worse off unless one of the candidates for the Conservative leadership promises to finance it.
Michael Gannon, Huddersfield
IT’S not just the over-75s who cannot pay their TV licence. It’s the disabled and people with young families.
The BBC has been one big gravy train for years and because it gets the TV licence money it thinks it can do what it wants. Scrap the TV licence for everyone.
The BBC has clearly acted now while there is no effective Prime Minister. I hope whoever takes over as PM cuts the BBC down to size.
Bill Cummings
Paul Nott, Southampton
I CAN understand scrapping a free licence for a rich person but I’m not, and the fact that my money goes to paying huge wages to so-called celebrities and to make interminable cooking programmes and game shows sticks in my throat.
Graham Austin, Braintree, Essex
HOW much will it cost to set up means-testing for the licence fee? As much as a licence?
Jacqueline Barker, Salisbury, Wilts
WHY not raise the fee for those of working age instead of making old people, whose TV may be their main source of company, pay?
Jean Cooper, Dunfermline, Fife
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WHAT’S next? When I eventually do retire will I even get a bus pass?
Come on Government, look after the pensioners.
Sue Spiller, Erith, SE London
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