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Opinion : Should pensioners get a free TV licence?

| June 11, 2019

As someone approaching retirement my good self was looking forward to soon being eligible for a free TV licence.

As regular readers know yours truly doesn’t have a television at the moment due to the high cost of the licence, indeed a highlight of my retirement was to be able to have a TV in the drawing room of my ancestral home.

However it seems that yesterday the entitlement for all pensioners (over 75) to receive a free TV licence will soon been removed.

Once the free licence goes it raises the prospect that pensioners over 75 could be hauled before the courts and fined if they don’t have a licence. The licence, currently costing £154.50 for a colour licence, is in my opinion a tax on entertainment.

Considering the amount of poor quality and what can only be described as ‘rubbish’ programmes currently on TV my good self feels the TV licence is too much for too little especially considering the huge wages paid to the celebrities who appear on the TV.

To make the licence situation even more farcical it seems one needs a licence to watch any channel and not just those delivered by the BBC. In the modern digital satellite age this is surely just stupid?

In my opinion all pensioners in receipt of state pension should get a free licence.

In fact yours truly would like to see a free, or heavily discounted, TV licence given to anyone in receipt of child benefit too so youngsters all have access to the educational programmes broadcast on the television.

Why not take things one step further and create an ‘Open School’ that broadcasts educational lessons on TV for both youngsters and adults so the general population can gain education and learn from the television?

Sadly we live in world that is driven by financial costs and the benefits of the modern technology to the general population come second to money.

Those who have contribute most to modern society, namely the pensioners, should be able to relax and enjoy life, but with the removal of the free over 75’s TV licence they are being hit with a TV tax at a time in life when they can least afford it.

What do you think?

My blogs are published regularly here on the WycombeToday.com website.

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