According to The Mirror, Dame Helen Mirren today backs the fight to save free TV licences for the over-75s, as more than 11,000 pensioners aged 100 or over face being stripped of the lifeline. The Oscar-winning actress throws her weight behind the battle to preserve the benefit as campaigners take their crusade to Conservative HQ. Activists will deliver 36,000 letters addressed to Tory leadership hopefuls to Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt, demanding the party honour its 2017 election pledge to maintain the concession for the length of this Parliament. And we can reveal how curbs meaning only over-75s receiving Pension Credit will continue to benefit, will clobber the very oldest in society. Analysis by Labour shows 469,622 people aged 90-plus; 109,083 aged 95 and over; and 11,688 people aged 100 and over will lose their free licences next year. Age UK’s charity director Caroline Abrahams said: “So many of those in their 90s and beyond are in fragile or declining health, confined to their home and almost entirely dependent on their TV for entertainment and company. Read More“For this vulnerable group, the inevitable hassle and expense of buying a licence or having to self-validate their entitlement to Pension Credit to get a free licence may prove too much, consigning them to a life without television and stripping them of their connection to the outside world.” Bectu broadcasting union chief Philippa Childs said: “This staggering statistic demonstrates the real human impact on potentially the most vulnerable pensioners of the Government’s cynical decision to pass responsibility for making decisions about future funding of the licence fee for over 75s to the BBC.” The complete article can be read over at The Mirror.
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