Closed petition Fund free TV licences for the Severely Sight Impaired and the Blind

Closed on 22 October 2021

On receipt of bona fide evidence in the form of documentation as to severe sight impairment or blindness, the Government should grant the recipient a free TV licence.

In the UK there is no legal requirement to hold a licence when using a radio for domestic purposes. Severely sight impaired or Blind individuals have little or no vision and use a TV as a listening device only. Therefore, the same rule needs to apply to these individuals when using a TV as another listening device; they should be free free.

There are 2,250,000 blind and severely sighted people in the UK, and 390,000 deaf- blind people and it is simply unreasonable that these people, already having to manage with disability, are required to pay 50% of the licence fee, for something they can't fully access. With almost 26 million TV licences issued last year, granting 2.5 million, challenged citizens a free licence is a reasonable, fair and humane thing to do.