Big changes to discount phone scheme for pensioners

Wednesday 15 July 2015

Bad news appears to come in threes for pensioners - after ministers announced the end of the Christmas Bonus and the phasing out of free TV licences for the over 75s, now JT say that they're ending the subsidised Prime Talk phone discount scheme for the elderly.

At the end of the month they'll start phasing out Prime Talk and replacing it with a cheaper mobile service.

JT say that a typical Prime Talk customer makes 35 calls a month, and the average duration of the calls is 4.57 minutes - they say that they have designed the new service so that those typical customers will pay less. They accept that won't be the case for every customer, but that a "typical customer" would be spending £3.20 a month instead of £4.44.

From 31 July, all those turning 65 will be offered the chance to join the new scheme, which is being called the Senior Home Service. They'll need a new handset to use the service.

The 10,000 or so pensioners who are already using PrimeTalk won't be affected and will still benefit from the discount service that has never been means tested. They will continue to pay £1.99 line rental and can still call make half hour local calls for just 7p.

JT says PrimeTalk is so heavily subsidised the company needs to set aside £10m so that it can continue providing it.