BRIDGWATER pensioners from the National Pensioners Convention demonstrated outside the Bristol BBC studios on Tuesday, February 12 to show their anger over BBC proposals to end current arrangements for free TV licences for the over-75s.
In 2015, the Government passed responsibility for the free TV licence for the over-75s to the BBC, and said they would cease to fund it from 2020. The BBC has launched a consultation process, which made it clear that they do not wish to continue the current arrangement.
Glen Burrows, chairman of the National Pensioners Convention for Gloucestershire, Avon and Somerset, said: "The consultation ended on February 12, but you can still make your views known to your local MP, or to the BBC.
"One of the reasons we have the free TV licence for over-75s in the first place is that our state pension is one the lowest in the developed world, and we have too many pensioners living below the poverty level."
The National Pensioners Convention says it was a cynical move by the government to outsource part of its wider welfare policy to an un-elected body - and then wash its hands of the consequences.
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