Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has urged Theresa May to honour her party's promise to protect free TV licences for over-75s.
The Conservative Party's 2017 election manifesto pledged to keep free-of-charge TV licences for the elderly until at least 2020.
But the BBC has said the concession will only be available to households receiving Pension Credit benefits from June 2020. The decision was made after as the Government prepared to transfer the financial burden of providing free licences to the broadcaster.
It means many pensioners will have to fork out £154.50 for the licence, which allows households to legally watch television and use catch-up services like BBC iPlayer.
Former Labour Prime Minister Mr Brown has written to outgoing Tory leader Mrs May , asking her to keep the promise her party made before being re-elected in 2017.
Mr Brown, in his letter to the Prime Minister, said: "I am writing to ask you to consider ensuring that the manifesto promise - that the TV Licence would be free for over-75s until 2022 - is honoured.
"The BBC is now proposing to charge 3.7 million pensioner households the full licence fee from next year.
"I am enclosing the submission I made to the BBC, which shows not only that this decision contradicts the Conservative manifesto promise of 2017, but also that it changes the balance between universal and targeted benefits and makes the BBC an agency for the means testing of elderly pensioners."
A licence for a colour television costs £154.50 a year while a black and white television licence costs £52.
