Kill your Television - BBC, DWP, Sky, TV Licence fee and the Tory Party over 75's hate campaign.

On the evening of Friday 31st July 2020 I removed my 20 year old TV from its cabinet and out of the house it went.

The Tory government decision to stop the Department of Work and Pensions funding over – 75’s TV licences and Boris Johnson’s failure to support this group was the final cut for me. All but some of the poorest of over 75’s (those who have claimed and subsequently are in receipt of pension credit) now have to pay for a TV Licence. Don’t be fooled by the right wing tory press, this is not the BBC’s doing.

For quite some time now my TV has struggled to show any picture, but the sound remained good. The standby indicator on the TV flashes and according to the Troubleshooting page of the Trinitron Colour Television Instruction Manual the suggested solution was to contact your nearest Sony service centre. I did not bother to do this!

I watch Sky TV with a 85 years plus senior friend at his house and despite the addition of dozens of channels, the output is channel after channel of utter crap. He recently was paying about ￡58 per month for Sky and when he contacted them asking to cancel his subscription and then re-join a week later at the new customer rate of about ￡39 a month, he was told he could not do that. Eventually they agreed to reduce the very old tariff (circa 10 years old) that he was on, to a new 18 month contract at about ￡32 per month. The issue is that had he not contacted Sky and threatened to leave, they would have just kept him on the ￡58 per month ‘deal’ and in addition keep putting up the price at regular intervals, just like they have been doing over the past 10 years. No thought or consideration would have been given to how or if he would be able to pay for this.

Most of the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and the rest’s output is just as bad, mainly repeats, with overpaid and talentless presenters and they no longer appeal to me. I’ve found solace in considering TV in the following way:

I saw a T-shirt with a picture of a television being blown up on it and the words “Kill Your Television.” Can you change your life by turning off your television? Even cutting down on watching television could be terrifying to those addicted to the medium.

Ask yourself the question: “Which side of the screen do you want to live on?” People on television do what they love for a living. They are having fun and getting money for it! Watching television is like being on the wrong side of the screen, you are passively watching other people having fun.

I see nothing wrong with occasionally watching other people do what they love doing. But not for hours each day. I start to wonder how watching on this side of the screen will advance my or anyone else’s life.

Interacting and communicating with others in whatever form it takes is an improvement on television and it serves to grow your brain. Watching television does the opposite.

Earlier this year I attended what was described as a ‘Sandpit event’ regarding Collaborative Research and Innovation for Technology that Supports Social Justice. One of the issues I think it would be interesting to look into I described as follows:

Tech NOT TV

What are you interested in exploring? 

As the end of free TV licences for the vast majority of senior citizens fast approaches (by the end of May 2020) this group faces a stark choice - pay up or lose your television! I know of numerous senior citizens for whom TV is the only entertainment, sometimes the only voice they may hear on a daily basis for the vast majority of the day. 

One guy (in his mid 80's) that I know already is paying almost ￡60 per month to watch a limited number of football games which he really enjoys. You can imagine that he's not pleased by what he's currently paying, so the addition of a TV licence fee is not welcome news.

I, having just started to get into tech in my mid 40's have heard a lot of stories about how younger people no longer watch TV or the kind of entertainment that requires a TV licence, for example some online content. I would like to explore how easy it would be to introduce technology and possibly alternative ways of obtaining entertainment, to this cohort. Could it possibly work?

What is you motivation for exploring this? Why is it important?

A little know fact about TV licence rules relates to when an elderly person moves from home to a care home setting, but does not require a TV in the room that they live in at the care home.

For example a mother and son live in a property, the free TV licence resides in the name of the mother at her home residence. On moving to a care home after dementia taking hold and mother losing capacity, she no longer recognises what a TV is, so does not require a TV. The free TV licence is still valid for the home property owned by mother and son, so the TV at home remains in use for free.

The TV is old and it stops working (sound works but not the picture). Free TV licences are due to end so the TV needs to go to avoid a fine being payable by the son who has gone off watch TV in the year or so that TV has been partially working. He worries about his senior citizen neighbours who threaten not to pay for a TV licence in protest. He considers if any alternative to TV for him and for them exists.

Notes for Editors

My main priority is to my mum who has Alzheimer's Dementia, no longer has capacity and is cared for in a local care home. Whilst visiting I talk with many of the residents who look out for me when I visit mum.  I also speak with the staff and other visitors during my visits. I am pleased to report that my mum is happy and settled and the staff enjoy looking after her. They provide her with good care.  

I work with a group of elderly people in my local neighbourhood on an ad-hoc basis and provide help and assistance to them with everything from gardening and shopping through to legal and financial matters. In addition, I am interested in elders who are not always well represented, such as my mum. 

I've got a background in the administration of government funded legal advice and assistance and spent some time before the funding of scheme ended as a Subject Matter Expert and User Acceptance Testing, mainly working in the London Head office with system analysts, programmers and developers who were trying to computerise paper based systems. 

I also spent time working for NHS England investigating clinical complaints mainly in primary care settings (GP's Dentists, Opticians and Pharmacies). Then I became a full-time care giver for my mum. 

When it was decided that mum needed 24 hour care in a nursing home and following many unsatisfactory experiences with both the health and social care systems and government services in general, I decided to try to work with organisations to make things work better for others. This is what I now do.

I have taken part in some user testing regarding the Department of Work and Pensions future state pension service. I also gave another researcher the benefit of my rather disappointing experience of Universal Credit and how I navigated the benefits system on behalf of my mum, such as access to Cares Credit, Attendance Allowance and Cares Allowance. Explaining about the assistance I was given by Newcastle City Council and why I decided not to take part in a full assessment of welfare benefits by one of the council’s staff.

Via membership of Newcastle Elders Council I got involved with a video being made by a company called I-Motus on behalf of Fujitsu regarding government services now and what citizens would see the future systems to be like in 13 years-time. This was to be shown to senior civil servants and government with a view to discussing the future of public services. I also wrote an article for the Newcastle Elders Council magazine regarding the Citizens Computer Network of free computer access at local libraries.

I am a member of Newcastle University's VOICE-GLOBAL.ORG organisation. VOICE is a unique organisation, comprising a large network of citizens across the UK and internationally. Members contribute immense insights, experience, ideas and vision to identify unmet needs and opportunities, to drive innovation on ageing and improve health research.

In 2019 I took part in a Panel discussion with 3 other VOICE members in London to support the ZINC Accelerator Event - Technology Session. The Zinc Programme brings together 50 bright minds for 9 months to find their co-founders and build new ventures. This is year 3 of the programme and the mission for this year related to adding 5 more high-quality years to later life.

I took part as a co-facilitator in Super Network North East Innovation in Ageing Accelerator Program Workshop. This was concerning the challenges and opportunities in an ageing society. I got involved with this following attending a workshop at Venture Fest 2018 regarding businesses and the health and social care landscape in the region. Venture Fest North East is a free, full-day event focusing on how businesses can grow through innovation, designed to connect businesses, corporate's, investors, academics and people with specific expertise in innovation. I have continued to be involved in the Ageing Accelerator Program providing feedback via events organised by VOICE and the National Innovation Centre for Ageing.

As a member of VOICE - Research Support Group I take part in providing guidance to researchers. We split into small groups to provide medical researchers with advice and guidance regarding how best to communicate to potential lay participants and families the aims and objectives of a specific piece of research.

I am a member of three Patient, Public, Carer involvement groups at Newcastle Hospitals: APEX - Advising on Patient Experience, PIMS - Patient and Public Involvement in Musculoskeletal Services and the Oral and Dental Patient, Carer and Public Involvement group. I am also involved as a reviewer of information and documents for the hospital Patient Information Review Panel.

My interest in Health, Care of the Elderly and Ageing is wide ranging. I take part as a volunteer in research across Newcastle University including some brain testing work at the Institute of Neuroscience. I attend public and patient/carer meetings at the Newcastle Gateshead Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), Newcastle Hospital Trust, Newcastle University and Newcastle City Council. I am a public member of Newcastle Hospitals, North East Ambulance Service and Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust.  

I take part in Newcastle Disability Forum as a member of its Disability Advisory Group. This is facilitated and supported by Newcastle City Council and Disability North and allows me to find out about both ongoing work and new developments in the Newcastle area and beyond. By sharing my experiences with the group, I aim to make a difference to the processes and services offered.

In addition, I take part in activities that help in the development and learning of university students and attend Newcastle University regularly and work with various students. As a volunteer patient at Newcastle Dental Hospital I have worked with a group of the Dental School staff and students, they provide treatment to me and I provide my time, commitment and feedback on my treatment. I work with first, and second year medical students during the Clinical Skill teaching part of the course. They practice physical examination skills and I provide comments and feedback on how they treat me as a patient.

Through Newcastle University and its Knowledge Exchange Seminar Series I am exploring how as a citizen I can make an impact on policy and decision making. I also take part in the Bank of England’s Citizen Panel as a member of the public who is interested in sharing my thoughts and asking questions about the bank’s role and responsibilities.

Having taken part in many events organised by the Not Equal Network at Newcastle University’s Open Lab, I share my views and opinions regarding the work they do in collaborative research and innovation for technology that supports social justice. As part of Not Equal Network’s 2020 commissioning process I have joined Not Equal’s Virtual Community Panel. 

As part of the UK government’s Healthy Ageing Grand Challenge I am taking part in assessing funding applications and reviewing proposals for the Healthy Ageing Catalyst Awards 2020. Assessing them on the basis of their potential importance, timeliness and effectiveness in enabling the UK to meet the goal of ensuring people can enjoy five extra healthy, independent, years of life by 2035 whilst also narrowing the gap between the experiences of the richest and poorest. Some of the applications require experience of dementia and care settings which particularly interests me.

I am a member of the Care Home Interest Group (CHIG) working with researchers at the Population Health Sciences Institute at Newcastle University. In addition, I take part as a patient/public representative on three ongoing research studies:

The PriDem Patient and Public Advisory Board based at the Institute of Health and Society. The full title of this research is: Primary care led post diagnostic Dementia care (PriDem): developing evidence-based, person centred sustainable models for future care. The research is being conducted by a multi-disciplinary research team lead by Professor Dame Louise Robinson at Newcastle University.

IMPACT Study Patient and Public Involvement Panel based at the School of Dental Sciences, Newcastle University. The full title of this research is: Investigating Problem Orientated Patient Pathways, Toothache to Treatment.

Recently I became the PPI Co-applicant on a study entitled: Newcastle Dementia Care Leaders Toolkit realist evaluation of patient outcomes (DemCLIP). As PPI lead for this study, I will ensure that the views of patients and carers are an integral part of this research. As a member of the research team, I will lead the patient and carer reference group, providing an essential link between the reference group and the research team. This research is being led by Dr Clare Abley, Nurse Consultant Vulnerable Older Adults, The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer, Newcastle University.

As you will appreciate this all keeps me busy and only represents some of what I am involved in.  

Please feel free to contact me if you wish to discuss matters further.

David Black Foundation UK – 2020 onward focus - Dementia discrimination:

Nobody with dementia should be asked to pay to be looked after. We are seeking funds to assist those with dementia who need to reside in a care home. In addition, we seek to provide support and assistance to individuals at risk from dementia as they access health, social care and other products and services.

If you have dementia and require a care home or nursing home place it needs to be paid for. Three broad categories of funding may be available, they are dependent on the circumstances of the person with dementia and can also be dependent on the persons current family and any current carer.

At present residents of these homes fall into one of the following three funding methods:

Local Authority Funding - currently about 40% of places are funded in this way.

Other methods of funding - currently about 40% of places are funded in this way.

NHS Continuing Healthcare Funding – currently about 20% are funded in this way.

For over 20 years, governments have undertaken numerous reviews and have had many reports written about how to solve the issues regarding a long-term solution of funding care for those with dementia and other serious medical conditions. Despite the three main political parties having a go at solving this issue, they have all failed to find a solution both at national and local levels of government.

Dementia charities keep raising concerns, writing reports and carrying out numerous campaigns, but no solution is forthcoming.

As a small foundation our aim is to bring forward potential alternative solutions to improve the funding of care for those with dementia. We also wish to improve the overall health and care services available for both those with dementia, and families and carers. We propose to do this by focusing on four activities:

Advocacy

Using my experience of the Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) application and registration process I have assisted many local families who were seeking to have an LPA in place but were not seeking expensive legal advice with the practicalities of completing the application and registration process.

Innovation

Taking part in workshops and discussions, such as at the UK’s National Innovation Centre for Ageing (NICA) a world-leading organisation, created with a ￡40 million investment from UK Government and Newcastle University, to help create a world in which we all live better, for longer.

Research

Participating as a Patient Public Involvement representative on research projects, including Newcastle Dementia Care Leaders Toolkit realist evaluation of patient outcomes (DemCLIP), and Primary care led post diagnostic Dementia care (PriDem). Working with VOICE-GLOBAL.ORG.

Support

Working with a group of elders who are mostly 80 years plus in age, including supporting a person with mild cognitive impairment. It is mainly very hands off on my part, with individuals in the group approaching me for assistance, advice and help as and when they need it.

Regarding funding, the area of initial focus will be those with dementia that have been ultimately unsuccessful in obtaining substantive NHS Continuing Healthcare Funding, don’t yet qualify for local government funding, and have been left to find other methods of funding care in a care home. This group of individuals is smaller than some of the other groups seeking funding, but still represents a significant range of people requiring care home funding. 

The process of applying for NHS funding is time consuming, involves dealing with numerous faceless organisations and can feel quite a draconian process if undertaken on your own and without significant assistance from costly specialists in Continuing Health Care Funding. Historically, it is not unusual for the process to take many years to complete and we are aware of a case ongoing eight years after the death of the resident.