TV License attacks again...

paikea

News on the Irish Independent today: Retired couple with health problems taken to prison over non-payment of TV licence

What is going on? Have we lost our respect for people completely now? I am not going to go into the subject of whether or not that stupid tax is necessary or not or even about the fact that it was around 40 pounds not long ago and now its 160... But putting a couple of retired people on jail for not paying the tax is way beyond my tolerance. It is abusive. :mad::mad::mad:

View

paikea wrote: »

News on the Irish Independent today: Retired couple with health problems taken to prison over non-payment of TV licence

Did their health problems prevent the retired couple from either getting rid of their TV or popping into their post office to get a TV license?

dukedalton

These being people who in all likelihood have no mortgage to pay and are in receipt of a pension and medical card, free travel and all the rest. I'm in my early 30s and I'm hit for every tax and charge. If these people don't have a TV licence they shouldn't have a TV. Simple.

Galwayguy35

Getting old doesn't mean that people get to stop paying bills and obeying the law.

johnnyskeleton

paikea wrote: »

News on the Irish Independent today: Retired couple with health problems taken to prison over non-payment of TV licence

What is going on? Have we lost our respect for people completely now? I am not going to go into the subject of whether or not that stupid tax is necessary or not or even about the fact that it was around 40 pounds not long ago and now its 160... But putting a couple of retired people on jail for not paying the tax is way beyond my tolerance. It is abusive. :mad::mad::mad:

Sigh. Without even reading the article, they were not jailed for not paying their TV licence. They were jailed because they failed or refused to pay the fine, akin to contempt of court.

Not paying your tv licence is not a serious offence and doesn't deserve jail. But thinking that you can ignore a lawful decision of the courts because you don't agree with the law is.

If putting them in jail for a few days teaches them to respect the courts, then it's worth doing IMO

Umekichi

We are on a very tight budget and manage to pay our tv licence, in fact my nan is in her 70's has health problems and can afford her licence.
You don't even have to pay it all in one go, we are nearly complete our book of stamps(2 more to go) as we buy 2 - 3 depending on how we are that week.

It's not that hard to pay.

Manach

Well at least there is likely free TV in Jail.

Saying that, if the law is designed to prop up a bulwark of the social establishment, reform of it being keep in check by entrenched media interests and with barely anyone outside the legal circles being able to track current laws - never mind been in any way able to influence them in a meaningful way then a blithe obey the law statement is as devoid of content as of meaning.

jetfiremuck

Its a common ruse to get people to pay up.....stick it to the elderly.....thought it was free to them.

mcmoustache

Is it not an open secret anyway that they will be let go in under two hours?

spank_inferno

There is already a thread on this poorly written story in After Hours.

Rightwing

spank_inferno wrote: »

There is already a thread on this poorly written story in After Hours.

Indeed, what this rubbish has got to do with the economy is beyond me.

Busted Flat.

jetfiremuck wrote: »

Its a common ruse to get people to pay up.....stick it to the elderly.....thought it was free to them.

It is means tested, they must have been above the level.

mathepac

dukedalton wrote: »

These being people who in all likelihood have no mortgage to pay and are in receipt of a pension and medical card, free travel and all the rest. I'm in my early 30s and I'm hit for every tax and charge. If these people don't have a TV licence they shouldn't have a TV. Simple.

That being the case they'd also be entitled to a free TV licence, but of course thinking the situation through logically before posting your outrage would take effort.

Why not find a suitable target for your ire? If they are mortgage-free, fair play to them, they paid it off. If they have pensions, they worked for the entitlement as no doubt they did for any other benefits they have, by contributing to the State during their working lives.

I dislike your bullying self-righteous tone adopted against an elderly couple for the wrong reasons. They have refused to pay a fine and they are being charged with being jailed for contempt of a court order, not because they don't have a licence.

mathepac

Umekichi wrote: »

... in fact my nan is in her 70's has health problems and can afford her licence ...

Fair play to her but if she's living alone she should be entitled to a free TV licence as well as the other benefits (winter fuel allowance, subsidised ESB, travel pass, medical card, etc.)

Umekichi

mathepac wrote: »

Fair play to her but if she's living alone she should be entitled to a free TV licence as well as the other benefits (winter fuel allowance, subsidised ESB, travel pass, medical card, etc.)

I'll have a chat to her the next time I see her and see if she is getting all of her entitlements, AFAIK she is still paying her licence.
If it's a case of she isn't getting her entitlements then I'll help her get sorted.

hfallada

Since when is a person age a good reason for tax evasion? What they did was illegal and I imagine due to prison over crowding they will spend about 30 mins at most in jail.

OAPs have a lot of tax credits that young people don't have. They pay no prsi, they have oap tax credits. The tax system is too progessive for older people. It doesn't make a sense an OAP pays a lower rate of tax than a recent college graduate or a household with young families.

dukedalton

mathepac wrote: »

That being the case they'd also be entitled to a free TV licence, but of course thinking the situation through logically before posting your outrage would take effort.

Why not find a suitable target for your ire? If they are mortgage-free, fair play to them, they paid it off. If they have pensions, they worked for the entitlement as no doubt they did for any other benefits they have, by contributing to the State during their working lives.

I dislike your bullying self-righteous tone adopted against an elderly couple for the wrong reasons. They have refused to pay a fine and they are being charged with being jailed for contempt of a court order, not because they don't have a licence.

If they don't have a TV licence, they shouldn't have a TV. And, elderly or not, should be subject to the law of the land.

What part of that do you have difficulty with?

dukedalton

I find it funny that people seem to think that being elderly is literally a "get out of jail free" card. Despite all the taxes and charges I have to pay, I'm sure I wouldn't get much sympathy or press coverage if I started to pick and choose what laws I would/wouldn't follow.

shedweller

Funny how "the law of the land" gets thrown about when we're talking about a few euro. Throw in six or seven zeroes and the law of the land is conveniently forgotten...

mathepac

hfallada wrote: »

Since when is a person age a good reason for tax evasion? ...

Tax evasion? You seem to be on a different page to other posters

hfallada wrote: »

... OAPs have a lot of tax credits that young people don't have. ...

I object strongly to your use of the term OAP. It gives your post a strongly ageist slant IMHO and might lead people to conclude you were posting from an ageist perspective.

Maybe you could give us a few examples of these "tax credits" from the Revenue web-site

hfallada wrote: »

... They pay no prsi, they have oap tax credits. ...

Whether they pay PRSI, USC or other deductions is dependent on the amount of their income, which you can't possibly know. Again maybe you could give us a few examples of these "oap tax credits" as your repulsively ageist language terms them.

hfallada wrote: »

... It doesn't make a sense an OAP pays a lower rate of tax than a recent college graduate or a household with young families.

Whatever tax they pay is dependent on the amount of their income, which you can't possibly know. Maybe you could show us from the Revenue web-site where an "OAP", to use your own disgusting ageist term, pays a different rate of tax to other citizens.

dukedalton

mathepac wrote: »

Tax evasion? You seem to be on a different page to other posters
I object strongly to your use of the term OAP. It gives your post a strongly ageist slant IMHO and might lead people to conclude you were posting from an ageist perspective.

Maybe you could give us a few examples of these "tax credits" from the Revenue web-site
Whether they pay PRSI, USC or other deductions is dependent on the amount of their income, which you can't possibly know. Again maybe you could give us a few examples of these "oap tax credits" as your repulsively ageist language terms them.
Whatever tax they pay is dependent on the amount of their income, which you can't possibly know. Maybe you could show us from the Revenue web-site where an "OAP", to use your own disgusting ageist term, pays a different rate of tax to other citizens.

How is OAP a "disgusting ageist term"? Surely it's an objective description? You yourself referred to them as "elderly", is that not an ageist term?!

ezra_pound

Guys. In fairness if you break the law, get fined in court and fail to pay that fine then the only recourse the state has its to lock them up.

ezra_pound

Very suspect that they never knew about fine until ' a month ago'. If bothered to turn up to court would not have received 1200 fine! Sounds like they just ignored the state. Poor show not showing up in court.

seanie_c

Probably a sign in/sign out job.

Guy in my neighbourhood joked about a fine he refused to pay, wasn't that small but I won't say how much exactly.

Taxi took him to jail, dropped him off. He was sent to his cell where he got dinner. Slept that night. Next day he got breakfast and jail sent him home in a taxi.

He was laughing when he got back. The taxis alone with dinner/breakfast probably added up to the same amount as the fine.

A Taxi driver told me about this fella he dropped off at the jail and no sooner had driver turned around to journey back, fella was walking out the door with money to get a bus home.

Going Forward

dukedalton wrote: »

How is OAP a "disgusting ageist term"? Surely it's an objective description? You yourself referred to them as "elderly", is that not an ageist term?!

Abhorrent. The buzz word at the mo is "seniors".

srsly78

mathepac wrote: »

Maybe you could show us from the Revenue web-site where an "OAP", to use your own disgusting ageist term, pays a different rate of tax to other citizens.

Here you go: http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/it/leaflets/it45.html

Bog Standard User

the problem i have with this is the incarceration & "free legal aid+ judicial system fees" costs alot more to the tax payer than the bloody license fee is worth

OU812

Convicted licence avoiders should have all their TVs confiscated and only returned on production of a licence.

Waste of money & resources sending them to jail.

Maura74

seanie_c wrote: »

Probably a sign in/sign out job.

Guy in my neighbourhood joked about a fine he refused to pay, wasn't that small but I won't say how much exactly.

Taxi took him to jail, dropped him off. He was sent to his cell where he got dinner. Slept that night. Next day he got breakfast and jail sent him home in a taxi.

He was laughing when he got back. The taxis alone with dinner/breakfast probably added up to the same amount as the fine.

A Taxi driver told me about this fella he dropped off at the jail and no sooner had driver turned around to journey back, fella was walking out the door with money to get a bus home.

Well, s/he is far better off in jail than any care home that abuse their resident and the tax payer will have to substitute his/her pensions and when all the money has gone the tax payer will have to pay for all of it and it is not cheap, the greedy care home owners will want ever last penny from the unfortunately people in their clutches their premises this normally happens when the person is there and no loves to look out for them in these home. In care home there is no outside space for 60 or 70 residents that they lump together to do that simple pleasure in life like being able to go outside for a walk etc. S/he is far better off in prison, no abuse in there and will get look after as well.
Since the recent scandals in the BBC organisation with the top executives abuses pulse getting very large salaries. I have stopped paying for licenses as I am the internet for catch up programs, this save money and also leaves the day free to things like trying to keep fit like going for walks etc. I cannot understand TV licenses been still in existence, the airwave should be free for everyone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_sexual_abuse_cases

tayto lover

hfallada wrote: »

Since when is a person age a good reason for tax evasion? What they did was illegal and I imagine due to prison over crowding they will spend about 30 mins at most in jail.

OAPs have a lot of tax credits that young people don't have. They pay no prsi, they have oap tax credits. The tax system is too progessive for older people. It doesn't make a sense an OAP pays a lower rate of tax than a recent college graduate or a household with young families.

Don't worry lad. Don't get downhearted.
You will get old soon enough.

ezra_pound

OAPs do pay prsi.