Tv license

[borderbilly]

I read somewhere that pensioners will get a free tv license , not just the over 70,s. Any truth in this?

 

[JTQ]

https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/for-your-home/aged-74-and-over-aud3

 

[RogerL]

I read somewhere that pensioners will get a free tv license , not just the over 70,s. Any truth in this?

There's continuing requests for this but I doubt it'll happen - although the Scots may do.

Free TV licences are presently only available to those over 75 AND receiving pension credit - so only the least well off.

 

[Mr Plodd]

With the current financial situation I reckon you have more chance of seeing the devil ice skating to work!

 

[Johnb]

There's continuing requests for this but I doubt it'll happen - although the Scots may do.

Free TV licences are presently only available to those over 75 AND receiving pension credit - so only the least well off.

Can't say I have any argument about licences being "means tested". I'm all in favour of helping those in genuine need but can't say I feel the licence should be free for simply because they are of a certain age.

Bit like the winter fuel. I have always received it and, since I don't need it, have given to a charity. Why should the tax payer be asked to pay me, and countless others, money they simply do not need to be able to stay warm?

Unfortunately the "means testing" that's going to happen from now on will work by taking money to the value of the fuel amount through taxation. Not going to make any difference to the cash coming into our home and although to give away to a charity can certainly be still done it felt a "cleaner" transaction when simply transferring money from our account when the winter fuel arrived - sort of straight in and out.

 

[borderbilly]

Can't say I have any argument about licences being "means tested". I'm all in favour of helping those in genuine need but can't say I feel the licence should be free for simply because they are of a certain age.

Bit like the winter fuel. I have always received it and, since I don't need it, have given to a charity. Why should the tax payer be asked to pay me, and countless others, money they simply do not need to be able to stay warm?

Unfortunately the "means testing" that's going to happen from now on will work by taking money to the value of the fuel amount through taxation. Not going to make any difference to the cash coming into our home and although to give away to a charity can certainly be still done it felt a "cleaner" transaction when simply transferring money from our account when the winter fuel arrived - sort of straight in and out.

Unfortunately, not everybody is in the same position as you.
Just spoke to an 80-year-old man down the town and he showed me a invoice for £240 from his dentist for 2 fillings. Hasn't had them done yet, but they want payment up front. He already pays them £22 a month just for the privilege to be robbed blind. What is this country coming to!

 

[GUMPY]

£22pcm covers my 2 checkups and hygienist visits.
Yesterday £131 for a filling, earlier this year £600 for root canal treatment. The crown fell off that one a month ago so it's another £670 or thereabouts later this month for a new crown. Oh and another crown earlier in the year £670.
At least I only have to pay on completion and I've needed no major work for 30 years before that so it averages out.

 

[otherclive]

Unfortunately, not everybody is in the same position as you.
Just spoke to an 80-year-old man down the town and he showed me a invoice for £240 from his dentist for 2 fillings. Hasn't had them done yet, but they want payment up front. He already pays them £22 a month just for the privilege to be robbed blind. What is this country coming to!

Our dentist is £90 for an amalgam filling and £120 for a white filling. So the prices that you quoted are not far out. But prices do vary. One practice inSomerset is £199 for any filling!! For NHS treatment our grandson has to travel to Gloucester some 40 miles each way. I assume that the elderly chap has to pay privately at that price. Our national dental services via the NHS are the pitts, but it's not surprising when you see the NHS charges are so artificially low.

 

[RogerL]

Can't say I have any argument about licences being "means tested". I'm all in favour of helping those in genuine need but can't say I feel the licence should be free for simply because they are of a certain age.

Bit like the winter fuel. I have always received it and, since I don't need it, have given to a charity. Why should the tax payer be asked to pay me, and countless others, money they simply do not need to be able to stay warm?

Unfortunately the "means testing" that's going to happen from now on will work by taking money to the value of the fuel amount through taxation. Not going to make any difference to the cash coming into our home and although to give away to a charity can certainly be still done it felt a "cleaner" transaction when simply transferring money from our account when the winter fuel arrived - sort of straight in and out.

I take the opposite view - the freezing of personal allowances mean that every increase in state pension is taxed at 20% which devalues the "triple lock"- basic state pension is only about half the National Living Wage and large numbers of pensioners are above the Pension Credit level but still not very well off.

 

[JTQ]

It is also nice in its way to realise that the government arms, other than in taxing you, actually are aware you exist.

 

[otherclive]

I take the opposite view - the freezing of personal allowances mean that every increase in state pension is taxed at 20% which devalues the "triple lock"- basic state pension is only about half the National Living Wage and large numbers of pensioners are above the Pension Credit level but still not very well off.

I thought that the basic state pension is about 1/3rd of the National Living Wage. Not all pensioners pay tax so the Triple Lock increases are not all taxed at basic rate. Triple Lock has stood pensioners quite well over the period of high inflation, better than workers wages. But it really needs to be looked at on grounds of national affordability, but which politicians would have the courage to ensure that resources go to those most in need and not just everybody.

 

[Buckman]

In my opinion they should do away with the tax called a TV licence. All it does is keep the fat cat BBC directors salaries high plus all their bonuses. We hardly ever watch BBC as a waste of time. Why should we pay if the majority of our stuff is streamed or perhaps recorded and if recorded it is ITV or Ch5?

 

[RogerL]

In my opinion they should do away with the tax called a TV licence. All it does is keep the fat cat BBC directors salaries high plus all their bonuses. We hardly ever watch BBC as a waste of time. Why should we pay if the majority of our stuff is streamed or perhaps recorded and if recorded it is ITV or Ch5?

It's good competition to have publicly-funded TV without adverts competing with advert-funded commercial TV.

Without the BBC, then ITV standards would drop even further.

In this day and age, it doesn't matter whether programmes are transmitted live over the airwaves or streamed on the internet.

 

[Mr Plodd]

In regards to winter fuel allowance we simply went on line and said we didnt wish to claim it. Therefore we dont have to think about the taxman grabbing it back from us at some point.
It took less than 5 minutes to do.

 

[otherclive]

In regards to winter fuel allowance we simply went on line and said we didnt wish to claim it. Therefore we dont have to think about the taxman grabbing it back from us at some point.
It took less than 5 minutes to do.

Thanks, I had not realised you could do that. As I will get it and then have it recouped under tax. Saves unnecessary hassle for all.

 

[otherclive]

In my opinion they should do away with the tax called a TV licence. All it does is keep the fat cat BBC directors salaries high plus all their bonuses. We hardly ever watch BBC as a waste of time. Why should we pay if the majority of our stuff is streamed or perhaps recorded and if recorded it is ITV or Ch5?

We don’t begrudge paying the tv licence as we watch quite a lot of BBC programmes although mostly recorded as it gives us flexibility when the tribe ring home. The dramas, political-investigative, FTA sports like rugby, and of course the excellent nature/wildlife programmes. When away we tune in to local bbc radio too. Even for the other channels we try and record so can FF through the adverts. Apart from subscribing to Virgin Media for broadband tv and phone, our only subscription service is Netflix basic, and I get Prime video as part of my Amazon Prime. Overall we are happy with our arrangements.

 

[Buckman]

It's good competition to have publicly-funded TV without adverts competing with advert-funded commercial TV.

Without the BBC, then ITV standards would drop even further.

In this day and age, it doesn't matter whether programmes are transmitted live over the airwaves or streamed on the internet.

Not sure how anyone can think that it is good competition to have publicly-funded TV without adverts competing with advert-funded commercial TV. The last time I checked the BBC was full of adverts with no decent quality programs. Surely the BBC could still exist without the licence fee as the BBC also gets income from adverts and lots of them?

I cannot recall the last time we watched live TV and I have been reliably informed that if we do not watch live TV, then there is no need to pay the licence fee? In addition to the fee being paid to the BBC, a good chunk goes to Capita who collect the fee on behalf of the BBC! We have never had a TV aerial on our home even when they were dishing them out for free.

According to many people, if it is not soaps, it is fly on the wall or repeats. If repeats, why can't they repeat the fee paid the previous year to the current year. The BBC does not anything of value or interest to us, however it does gall us to pay the fee only to see it wasted on fat cat salaries so the BBC can go with whatever the government of the day dictates.

 

[Johnb]

In regards to winter fuel allowance we simply went on line and said we didnt wish to claim it. Therefore we dont have to think about the taxman grabbing it back from us at some point.
It took less than 5 minutes to do.

Yes. Unfortunately we were not in the UK at the time and couldn't complete the form. Next year we will be sure to do it.

 

[JTQ]

The last time I checked the BBC was full of adverts with no decent quality programs. Surely the BBC could still exist without the licence fee as the BBC also gets income from adverts and lots of them?

Can you give any examples where these fund yielding adverts are happening on BBC TV channels?

All I see are trailers for, well BBC programmes, nothing commercial that could be tapped to run such an inherently costly venture as the BBC is, even minus some of its obscene salaries for presenters, and possibly higher management.

I have little doubt the latter higher salaries could be pruned and that untapped talent is out there who would jump at doing these tasks, aren't the universities churning out many hopefuls?
Even with this the cost to create programmes like period dramas, nature, sporting coverage etc plus providing independent news coverage has to be massive, it can't happen for little.

I certainly want it to survive, you only need spent a little time in the US to see what the alternative yields.

 

[RogerL]

Not sure how anyone can think that it is good competition to have publicly-funded TV without adverts competing with advert-funded commercial TV. The last time I checked the BBC was full of adverts with no decent quality programs. Surely the BBC could still exist without the licence fee as the BBC also gets income from adverts and lots of them?

I cannot recall the last time we watched live TV and I have been reliably informed that if we do not watch live TV, then there is no need to pay the licence fee? In addition to the fee being paid to the BBC, a good chunk goes to Capita who collect the fee on behalf of the BBC! We have never had a TV aerial on our home even when they were dishing them out for free.

According to many people, if it is not soaps, it is fly on the wall or repeats. If repeats, why can't they repeat the fee paid the previous year to the current year. The BBC does not anything of value or interest to us, however it does gall us to pay the fee only to see it wasted on fat cat salaries so the BBC can go with whatever the government of the day dictates.

We obviously disagree on programme quality of BBC vs ITV.

 

[JTQ]

We obviously disagree on programme quality of BBC vs ITV.

To us commercial TV has become unwatchable other than via our recorder, the adverts make just about anything so irritatingly fragmented.

Even at our age we have an attention span to keep focused, if we hadn't then surely that programme has to be so uninteresting to serve no better purpose than a "wall paper" background, definitely not worth sitting down and watching?

 

[Sam Vimes]

Can you give any examples where these fund yielding adverts are happening on BBC TV channels?

All I see are trailers for, well BBC programmes, nothing commercial that could be tapped to run such an inherently costly venture as the BBC is, even minus some of its obscene salaries for presenters, and possibly higher management.

I have little doubt the latter higher salaries could be pruned and that untapped talent is out there who would jump at doing these tasks, aren't the universities churning out many hopefuls?
Even with this the cost to create programmes like period dramas, nature, sporting coverage etc plus providing independent news coverage has to be massive, it can't happen for little.

I certainly want it to survive, you only need spent a little time in the US to see what the alternative yields.

I don't have TV but understand that the BBC own several channels under UKTV that are ad based.

Having lived over the pond their TV is absolutely appalling. Difficult to tell the difference between the programmes and the ads

 

[otherclive]

I don't have TV but understand that the BBC own several channels under UKTV that are ad based.

Having lived over the pond their TV is absolutely appalling. Difficult to tell the difference between the programmes and the ads

The ads in Canada, US and Oz were more interesting and sometime more humourous than the tv programmes. I developed the art of channel hopping to a degree level. 😂

 

[Jcloughie]

I am very much in favour of the BBC. No doubt there is overspending in some areas. There are also many programmes I dislike. And some overpaid presenters. News programmes are balanced there are first class documentaries, period dramas, the proms, and world-class nature programmes. I feel that the news is mostly balanced and unbiased, the world service carries the flag and the OU does fantastic work.

I am happy to pat my licence fee and just turn off the bits I dislike.

John

 

[Buckman]

News programmes are balanced there are first class documentaries, period dramas, the proms, and world-class nature programmes.

I am happy to pat my licence fee and just turn off the bits I dislike.

John

It seems some official channels will disagree about BBC news items and documentaries being balanced as we have seen recently. The former overseas news was very unbalanced and blatant lies were being told to be world.