Pensioner Maureen also said she would no longer be able to pay for her own funeral as the licence fee hike would eat into money she was saving for it.

Speaking to the Jeremy Vine show, she said: ‘I’m going to be one of these that end up in prison by the sounds of it.’

The licence fee rise won’t immediately have an impact on the free over-75s TV licence but the BBC has said it will stop providing that from 1 June.

Maureen told the show: ‘I think I’m going to be one of those that’s in prison.

‘I paid from 1960 and then I had a contract that I wouldn’t pay after 75.

‘So I haven’t paid it for two years.

‘The difference is that money that I saved on the licence fee I’ve now spent on insurance policies for my funeral.

‘I’m going to be one of these that end up in prison.’

Jeremy asked her: ‘If you have to pay the licence fee then you won’t have a funeral?’

Maureen replied: ‘More or less, it seems to sound that way.

‘When you expect not to have to pay any more, you use that money for something else that you need.

‘Then they change it around and say you’ve got to pay again.’