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SCORES of pensioners protested outside the Department for Media, Culture and Sport (DCMS) today against Tories breaking a manifesto promise to protect free TV licences.
The National Pensioners Convention (NPC) demo over the government “outsourcing” the concession for over-75s to the BBC came weeks after the closing of the broadcaster’s consultation on its future.
The NPC claims the BBC is planning to either scrap or means-test the benefit which would adversely affect millions of older people.
NPC general secretary Jan Shortt said: “One in four over-75s say the TV is their main form of companionship, and the scale of loneliness among older people is growing.
“Pensioner poverty is also on the rise for the first time in a number of years, and scrapping the concession will only make that worse.
“It’s been said that at least 50,000 more pensioners will fall into hardship if they end up having to pay for their TV licence.
“We know that one of the main reasons the concession was introduced in the first place was because Britains’s state pension was so low – and sadly that’s still the case.
“Frankly, it’s not the job of the BBC to fund part of our social policy. That’s the job of government.”
At a parliamentary meeting after the protest charity Age UK’s director Caroline Abrahams said: “The government should do the decent thing by stumping up the cash.”
Labour MP Emma Lewell-Buck said that TV “should not be a subsitute for real human contact – but sadly it is a lifeline for so many older persons.”
Shadow public health minister Sharon Hodgson said the government should pay for the licences to show “gratitude and recognition” of older people’s contribution to society.
In the Commons, shadow culture secretary Tom Watson said Labour in government would reverse the Tory policy to cut government funding for TV licences for the over-75s.
Shadow arts minister Kevin Brennan told Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright during DCMS questions: “Right now the NPC is protesting outside DCMS, not outside the BBC, because this policy was invented by this government.”
