Ealing MP Backs Campaign To Save Free TV Licences
Virendra Sharma says Government is picking pockets of pensioners
The Ealing Southall MP says local pensioners will be punished to the tune of thousands if they are forced to pay for TV licences.
As part of the last BBC Charter, the Government devolved responsibility for the free TV licence policy, and the cost, to the BBC. The BBC’s consultation on the future of free TV Licences for over-75s closes today (12th of February)
Millions of older people across the country could lose their free TV licence in 2020 despite the Conservatives’ 2017 Manifesto promise to protect free TV licences until 2022.
New research by the Labour Party shows if free TV licences are scrapped completely, this will cost over-75s in Ealing, Southall a combined total of £665,210 a year.
If the age threshold is raised to 80, local over-75s will pay a combined total of £273,910 a year. If free TV licences are linked to Pension Credit, altogether oldest citizens will pay a total of £398,825 a year.
Labour say by outsourcing responsibility for paying for free TV licences, the Government will be saving £745 million across the UK in 2021/22. This is in addition to the £220 million the Government will be saving that same year through changes to pension credit. Labour say this money, nearly a billion pounds, is coming directly out of the pockets of pensioners.
Virendra Sharma MP for Ealing, Southall said, “This Government has broken its manifesto promise to keep free TV licences until 2022, and now millions of elderly people are facing losing their free TV licences.
If these plans go ahead, people over the age of 75 in our community will pay a combined total of hundreds of thousands of pounds a year.
This is yet another Tory policy that punishes pensioners. Through scrapping free TV licences and changing pension credit alone, this Government would offload almost a billion pounds of costs onto our oldest citizens in a single year.
This Tory Government is picking pensioners’ pockets. Labour is calling on the Government to urgently reconsider and save free TV licences for over-75s.”
February 12 2019