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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Benefits for older people  →  Thread

Blanket Free TV Licence for over 75’s to be scrapped

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gw
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Helen Rogers
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Of course the poorest pensioners aren’t those on Pension Credit.  They are the ones who are entitled to it, but - for whatever reason - aren’t receiving it and those who have a partner who is under pension age and so have to claim Universal Credit with the sanctions, bedroom tax etc which that brings.

Mike Hughes
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An interesting recognition that older people’s votes don’t quite as much as we think they might. Not even an attempt to dress it up as re-targeting assistance etc.

Benny Fitzpatrick
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Isn’t Pension Credit due to be phased out over the next few years. The New State Pension quite frequently pays at just above the PC applicable amount, thus precluding an award of the latter. So for the BBC to pin entitlement to a free licence to PC, abenefit which is going to become available to fewer and fewer, is somewhat disingenuous at best, and downright cynical at worst.

Paul_Treloar_AgeUK
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You’re completely correct Benny, the rate of the new State Pension has deliberately been set at a slightly higher rate than Pension Credit which will reduce the number of claimants over time.

Further, we know that four in ten households that could claim Pension Credit do not claim it as Helen says.

Finally, on Mike’s point, this actually represents the Conservative Party breaking one of their manifesto pledges (page 66) from 2017 General Election - We will maintain all other pensioner benefits, including free bus passes, eye tests, prescriptions and TV licences, for the duration of this parliament

All in all, a pretty shabby state of affairs if you ask me.

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Benny Fitzpatrick - 11 June 2019 09:38 AM

Isn’t Pension Credit due to be phased out over the next few years. The New State Pension quite frequently pays at just above the PC applicable amount, thus precluding an award of the latter

No!

A full New State Pension (nSP) is a few pence more than basic MIG in GPC.  but:

i) only about a third of nSP age people are getting the full rate of nSP
ii) many more people are on the lower old SP (and can still get Savings PC as well)
iii) disability, caring and children put up the needs element of GPC well above nSP levels

cont.p94

 

Gareth Morgan
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ps.  This might actually increase Pension Credit take-up.

gw
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think we will do another take up campaign on the back of this.

Mike Hughes
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Paul_Treloar_AgeUK - 11 June 2019 10:19 AM

You’re completely correct Benny, the rate of the new State Pension has deliberately been set at a slightly higher rate than Pension Credit which will reduce the number of claimants over time.

Further, we know that four in ten households that could claim Pension Credit do not claim it as Helen says.

Finally, on Mike’s point, this actually represents the Conservative Party breaking one of their manifesto pledges (page 66) from 2017 General Election - We will maintain all other pensioner benefits, including free bus passes, eye tests, prescriptions and TV licences, for the duration of this parliament

All in all, a pretty shabby state of affairs if you ask me.

If there were a “like” button…

ClairemHodgson
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Paul_Treloar_AgeUK - 11 June 2019 10:19 AM

Y
Finally, on Mike’s point, this actually represents the Conservative Party breaking one of their manifesto pledges (page 66) from 2017 General Election - We will maintain all other pensioner benefits, including free bus passes, eye tests, prescriptions and TV licences, for the duration of this parliament

but it dates back to george osborne redoing the BBC’s finances, and putting the pensioner’s licences under the BEEB’s remit - presumably to try and hide the fact that the end result would be exactly this, given that they want the BEEB to be as self financing as possible….


they can now say “not us guv” whilst not mentioning what went before.

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A former Work and Pensions Secretary has said that she is ‘ashamed’ of the BBC’s decision

Link ...

Paul_Treloar_AgeUK
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ClairemHodgson - 11 June 2019 11:48 AM

but it dates back to george osborne redoing the BBC’s finances, and putting the pensioner’s licences under the BEEB’s remit - presumably to try and hide the fact that the end result would be exactly this, given that they want the BEEB to be as self financing as possible….


they can now say “not us guv” whilst not mentioning what went before.

That’s what is particularly peculiar about the 2017 Conservative Party manifesto pledge - it was drafted two years after Osborne pulled that wheeze in 2015.

Daphne
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Rehousing Advice.
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It is a shocking statistic that the average age of a licence holder is 62.  Ok… its pretty nice, for me, to be under the average age at anything…….

Still….. if true I cant see the Beeb surviving in its current form. Essentially its SAGA but with a few young uns…. with a plan to have more paying oldies over 75.

Not good.

Benny Fitzpatrick
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Gareth Morgan - 11 June 2019 10:32 AM
Benny Fitzpatrick - 11 June 2019 09:38 AM

Isn’t Pension Credit due to be phased out over the next few years. The New State Pension quite frequently pays at just above the PC applicable amount, thus precluding an award of the latter

No!

A full New State Pension (nSP) is a few pence more than basic MIG in GPC.  but:

i) only about a third of nSP age people are getting the full rate of nSP
ii) many more people are on the lower old SP (and can still get Savings PC as well)
iii) disability, caring and children put up the needs element of GPC well above nSP levels

cont.p94

Sorry Gareth. My head was full of two recent cases, both single people who have just reached pension age and are moving to full NSP. Both will not qualify for PC.

Of course, where additional premiums apply, I would expect some PC to be payable.

Paul_Treloar_AgeUK
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Benny Fitzpatrick - 12 June 2019 09:09 AM

Sorry Gareth. My head was full of two recent cases, both single people who have just reached pension age and are moving to full NSP. Both will not qualify for PC.

Of course, where additional premiums apply, I would expect some PC to be payable.

I don’t dispute Gareth’s data for the current situation but the official estimates paint a very different picture of diminishing eligibility:

The proportion of pensioners in the scope of Pension Credit, for example, will fall gradually from around 40 per cent of pensioners today to around ten per cent by 2050

Section 8, page 7 of The single-tier pension: a simple foundation for saving

Add to that the underclaiming that already exists (4 in 10 households as above) and the proportion of people who will find themselves eligible could be vanishingly small.