You need a license to watch TV in UK?!

Free TV licences for pensioners should be abolished, a Lords committee has recommended.

Other subsidies including free bus passes, winter fuel payments and the pensions triple lock should also be cut, the Committee on Intergenerational Fairness said.

Committee chairman Lord True said benefits must be rebalanced towards the young to prepare the country for 100-year lifespans.

“We are calling for some of the outdated benefits based purely on age to be removed,” he said. “Policies such as the state pension triple lock and free TV licences for over-75s were justified when pensioner households were at the bottom of the income scale but that is no longer the case.”

The report highlights how many pensioner households are now on average better off than many working age households, both in terms of income after housing costs as well as household wealth.