Crompton Liberal Democrat Councillors Diane Williamson, Dave Murphy and Louie Hamblett are outraged by current proposals to scrap the entitlement to a free television licence for all those aged 75 or over.
Crompton has the highest ratio of residents of retirement age of any electoral ward in Oldham, and the three local Lib Dem Councillors know that this will hurt a lot of their older constituents hard financially.
Speaking on behalf of her ward colleagues, Councillor Williamson said: “The current Conservative Government decided to no longer fund free TV licence fees for everyone aged 75 or over, and instead placed the financial responsibility for maintaining them on the BBC.
To save money, the BBC has now decided to withdraw free TV licences from anyone not in receipt of Pension Credit. However, it is important not to deflect the blame upon the BBC, but to instead place the blame fair-and-square with those who are ultimately responsible – parsimonious ministers in this current Government.”
Councillor Williamson added: “Sadly more and more of our older residents are housebound and live their lives alone. A television represents their ‘window to the world’ and a social companion; is it too much to expect the Government to foot the bill to pay for free licences for everyone aged 75 or over who have paid their taxes all their working lives? It has been estimated that up to 5,000 older people in Oldham will be affected, many because they do not claim Pension Credit even though they are entitled too. Quite a few will live in Crompton.”
Crompton Liberal Democrat Councillors are supporting the Age UK petition calling for the British Government to take back responsibility for meeting the cost of a free TV licence for all those aged 75-and-over. Councillor Williamson concluded: “The petition represents one way that anyone can register their opposition to this monumental decision. If our constituents are as angry about this as we are, we would ask them to sign it, because together we can stop this Government-sponsored switch off and restore free licences for our over-75’s!”
The Age UK petition can be found at:
Liberal controlled BBC, not Tories are altering TV licence for over 75!
BTW I’m not Tory
Technically correct but this was a political decision taken by the Government that is having to be implemented by the BBC. An organisation I carry no torch for!