Overview
- By 12 June the campaign had nearly 40,000 signatures and needs 100,000 by 21 July to require a Parliamentary debate on state-funded free TV licences for all pensioners.
- The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has said it is keeping an open mind on new concessions while also confirming the government will keep the current fee and existing concessions through the end of the BBC Charter period in 2027.
- Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has expressed receptivity to a tiered licence-fee model as a possible reform, but ministers have made no policy change and any move remains unconfirmed.
- The BBC receives most of its funding from the £180 annual licence fee, which generated £3.8 billion and 23.8 million licences in 2024/25, and ministers previously estimated universal free over-75 licences would have cost about £745 million a year and risked service cuts.
- Campaigners say many pensioners face rising costs and loneliness and that the petition could force a wider debate about fairness in the flat-fee system and the shape of funding when the Charter is reviewed after 2027.