BBC ‘FORCES OVER-75s TO PAY LICENCE FEE’: According to Breitbart London, the BBC had announced it would scrap fee licence fees for the over-75s from August 1, thus boosting its income by £472.5 million a year. The article noted that the ‘kick in the teeth’ to pensioners had followed an announcement by director general Tony Hall that the Corporation would spend £100 million to boost ‘diversity’ both on and off-screen.
In the Daily Express, Simon Osborne reported that the Help the Aged charity had appealed to the government and the BBC to continue with the free licence scheme because and had claimed it would disproportionately impact the millions of pensioners on the poverty line. Help the Aged had also claimed that those who could claim exemption because they received pension credit would be put at heightened risk of contracting Covid-19 because they would have to leave home to claim it.