Free TV Licences Are the Wrong Way to Help the Elderly
Some pensioners have other priorities.
For those people not aware of this, households in the UK need a TV licence to legally watch TV. The licence now costs £154.50 per year. This money is used to fund the BBC.
Currently, everyone over 75 years old can get a TV licence for free, but this concession is about to end. And some people, including some celebrities, have been expressing their outrage at this decision.
Instinctively, one might be tempted to support this expression of outrage. After all, on the one side, we have some sweet little old ladies and charming little old men, many of whom have worked hard for decades and deserve to be able to enjoy their retirement, watching their favourite TV shows. And on the other side, we have the dastardly Tory government conniving and scheming with the overpaid executives at the BBC to fiddle these fine pensioners out of their free TV licences.
It’s very laudable, of course, to want to help the elderly — some of whom have only rather modest pensions. But free TV licences are a terrible way to do that. And the same can be said for the free bus passes that many pensioners get.
TV is still an important service for many people, but not for everyone. It’s an important form of entertainment…
