THE Tory government is under fire for increasing TV licences as the Covid-19 pandemic continues.
From today the fee will go up by £1.50, from £157.50 to £159. It comes months after free TV licences for over-75s were controversially brought to an end.
Now only those who receive pension credit are entitled to free licences. Figures for 2018/19 show about 40% of over-75s do not claim this, meaning they may have missed out on £1700 a year as well as a free TV licence.
More than a quarter of a million people aged over 75 in Scotland are affected by the cut and are not claiming pension credit.
READ MORE: George Kerevan: Why it really is time for Scots to make a serious stand against the BBC
David Linden (below), the SNP’s work and pensions spokesperson, said scrapping free TV licences for over-75s and then increasing the price shows the Tories “have hit another new low”.
He went on: “The abject failure of the Tories at Westminster to protect free TV licences for the over 75s shows why Scotland must have full powers over broadcasting – so we can restore and retain free vital television services for older people.
"The issue at this election is this: who do we trust to secure a fair recovery for Scotland? The SNP has already prioritised action to boost pension credit uptake and mitigated callous Tory policies such as the bedroom tax while the Tories bulldozed ahead with cuts to Universal Credit and sat on their hands over protecting free TV licences.”
Last week a report from the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee at Westminster said the UK Government will be forced to rely on its current TV licence model until 2038. The fee is due to be reviewed before the charter ends in 2027.
The MPs found the Government had no choice but to stick with the licence fee model for the next 10-year charter period, because of failures to put necessary broadband infrastructure in place.
Moving to a digital system now would mean 1.8 million households losing access to public service broadcasting due to a lack of digital access, their report said.
The committee chair Julian Knight said the licence fee has a “limited shelf life” but the Government has “missed the boat to reform it”.
“Instead of coming up with a workable alternative, it has sealed its own fate through a failure to develop a broadband infrastructure that would allow serious consideration of other means to fund the BBC,” he said.
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