Sunday, August 23, 2020
More trouble on over-75 TV licences
As if the government was not in enough trouble for abolishing free TV licences for the over-75s by proxy, the consequences of that decision continue to reverberate and could well come back to bite them again.
Not wanting to take the decision themselves, Conservative Ministers decided that the BBC should be responsible for funding the over-75 concession in future, but failed to give them the money to pay for that policy. The outcome was inevitable. Only those on pension credit are now eligible to watch their television without charge.
Unfortunately, this decision also requires enforcement and, as this article outlines, that means that the BBC are now going to have to spend around £100million of taxpayers’ cash chasing pensioners failing to cough up.
Apparently, the private firm Capita is being paid another £38million to hire 800 new staff to send out letters and chase non-payers:
The company, which outsources the collection of the £157.50 annual levy for the BBC, last year received £59.9million from TV licensing.
If Capita’s overall collection contract remains the same in 2019/20, it means up to £97.9million of taxpayers’ cash could go to the firm this year.
Capita was widely criticised for using aggressive door-to-door tactics and paying staff hefty bonuses of up to £15,000 a year if they hit targets of catching 28 fee evaders a week in a Daily Mail investigation in February 2017.
It prompted the resignation of the firm’s £2.7million-a-year boss Andy Parker a month later.
The BBC has insisted no over-75s without a TV licence would be visited by enforcement staff and no on-the-spot payments would be taken during a ‘“transition period” of an unspecified length while changes are made.
But campaigners fear it is only a matter of time before vulnerable pensioners are threatened with fines, court and prosecution on their doorsteps.
Dennis Reed, director of pensioner campaign group Silver Voices, said: “It is sickening. The £100million contract with the BBC would pay for 635,000 licences for older people and the annual salary of Capita’s chief executive would pay for [another] 12,700.”
The fact that the BBC is making these decisions should not detract from the fact that the ultimate responsibility lies with the Conservative government. This is their farce and they should take ownership of it.
Not wanting to take the decision themselves, Conservative Ministers decided that the BBC should be responsible for funding the over-75 concession in future, but failed to give them the money to pay for that policy. The outcome was inevitable. Only those on pension credit are now eligible to watch their television without charge.
Unfortunately, this decision also requires enforcement and, as this article outlines, that means that the BBC are now going to have to spend around £100million of taxpayers’ cash chasing pensioners failing to cough up.
Apparently, the private firm Capita is being paid another £38million to hire 800 new staff to send out letters and chase non-payers:
The company, which outsources the collection of the £157.50 annual levy for the BBC, last year received £59.9million from TV licensing.
If Capita’s overall collection contract remains the same in 2019/20, it means up to £97.9million of taxpayers’ cash could go to the firm this year.
Capita was widely criticised for using aggressive door-to-door tactics and paying staff hefty bonuses of up to £15,000 a year if they hit targets of catching 28 fee evaders a week in a Daily Mail investigation in February 2017.
It prompted the resignation of the firm’s £2.7million-a-year boss Andy Parker a month later.
The BBC has insisted no over-75s without a TV licence would be visited by enforcement staff and no on-the-spot payments would be taken during a ‘“transition period” of an unspecified length while changes are made.
But campaigners fear it is only a matter of time before vulnerable pensioners are threatened with fines, court and prosecution on their doorsteps.
Dennis Reed, director of pensioner campaign group Silver Voices, said: “It is sickening. The £100million contract with the BBC would pay for 635,000 licences for older people and the annual salary of Capita’s chief executive would pay for [another] 12,700.”
The fact that the BBC is making these decisions should not detract from the fact that the ultimate responsibility lies with the Conservative government. This is their farce and they should take ownership of it.
