The list continues with an array of financial reliefs and benefits: “Free TV licence for over-75s (worth £169.50/yr). Housing Benefit worth £1,000s for some renters. Council tax reduction. This can be worth £1,000s/yr. Energy bill reductions. This includes £25/wk Cold Weather Payments and the £150 Warm Home Discount.”
Okay, he’s talking about pension credits here, but anyone can save that £169 a year very easily. Just cancel the telly tax. Job done. Why would anyone want to watch the constant onslaught of propaganda being spewed out by live broadcast TV anyway?
Especially when it won’t show you the news. See Rowley’s temper tantrum being completely absent for the 6:00 BBC News yesterday.
The amount of single persons state pension is £221.20 per week. To be eligible for pension credits you need to be on £218.15 or less. Of course if you rent and get housing benefits, or disability benefits it counts but carers allowance doesn’t. It’s a weird set up. Owning your own house still has expenses but that doesn’t count. There will be a load of pensioners that will be in poverty as they fall through the net.
Tim Worstal was having a little pop at Polly Toynbe who was saying that abolishing the winter fuel allowance was the right thing to do. Can you imagine what she would have said if the Tories had been the ones to do it?
I’ve been saving on the TV license (by not having one), since 2008.
Not only does it transition you away from life orbiting the gogglebox, but it also disables their main channel for propaganda. It’s quite funny how my view of the world is radically and obviously different from the narrative that’s pushed by the media.
The BBC are bad, but Channel 4 and Sky are often worse.
Since, 2008, I’ve been getting most of my “Breaking News” from Twitter/X and then following up the headlines with independent sources.
Even 9GAG, despite being largely uncensored (except of anti-Chinese content) is a better source of “Breaking News” than the BBC. At least 9GAG doesn’t pretend that shit never happened (or happened very differently) like the BBC does.
It’s funny how the opinion of the “News” talking heads and the actual facts often differ wildly.
I remember listening to commercial radio at work during the dying days of the previous Labour government. A constant barrage of crap about my diet and drinking habits. It really pissed me off that I was actually paying for this stuff. I haven’t listened to radio since I got my Spotify account. Put your playlist on shuffle, you have your own radio station, no ads, no prattling DJs, no fake news and only music that you actually like.