Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment she has made of the effect of the BBC's decision to change the eligibility criteria for free TV licences on the incomes of over-75s households in the UK.

The future of the over 75 concession is the responsibility of the BBC, not Government. We are very disappointed with the BBC’s decision to restrict the concession to only those aged over 75 in receipt of Pension Credit.

The BBC published research from Frontier Economics in November 2018 which looked at the potential impact of changes to the concession on those aged 75 and over. This research is available here: https://www.frontier-economics.com/media/2896/bbc-licence-fee-report-nov-18.pdf