{"id":139565,"date":"2025-05-28T20:11:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T20:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/139565\/"},"modified":"2025-05-28T20:11:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T20:11:09","slug":"bbc-amnesty-for-over-75s-who-do-not-pay-their-tv-licence-fee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/139565\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC ‘amnesty’ for over-75s who do not pay their TV licence fee"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\t\t\t\tThe BBC is not taking over-75s to court – but a green light to pensioner non-payment would cost it \u00a3500m, says insider\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

The BBC is operating an unofficial \u201camnesty\u201d for pensioners over the age of 75 who refuse to pay the licence fee<\/a>, The i Paper can reveal. <\/p>\n

Pensioners as old as 100 are being sent letters<\/a> threatening them with prosecution for failing to pay their TV licence fee when the BBC has no intention of taking legal action. Campaigners described it as a \u201cscandal\u201d and \u201cwaste of public resources\u201d.<\/p>\n

The BBC ended universal free licences for over-75s in 2020 as a cost-cutting measure. But figures from the Ministry of Justice, obtained through a Freedom of Information request, show that the BBC is yet to prosecute anyone over that age found not to be paying the \u00a3174.50 annual charge.<\/p>\n

The data shows just two cases between 2020 and 2024. One person was prosecuted aged 76 for licence fee evasion last year. A 77-year-old man was prosecuted in 2023.<\/p>\n

But in both cases the offences may have been committed when the individuals were under 75, with the process \u2013 involving warning letters, house visits and finally court appearances \u2013 taking up to two years to result in a prosecution.<\/p>\n

\"\"Aileen Boor received letters calling on her to pay up until her death aged 100 (Photos: Supplied\/PA)<\/p>\n

In October 2023, the then media minister, Sir John Whittingdale told Parliament that no over-75s had been prosecuted since the universal concession ended.<\/p>\n

By comparison, 28,541 people under 75 were prosecuted for licence fee evasion last year alone, according to the Ministry of Justice. Of those, 237 were aged between 70 and 74.<\/p>\n

A BBC insider said: \u201cWhen free licences ended, the BBC wanted to encourage over-75s to pay for them so it didn\u2019t initially send legal letters to avoid antagonising pensioners. Then Covid made it impossible to conduct doorstep visits.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, not enforcing payment has become an unofficial policy. But the BBC can\u2019t admit that because it would give the green light to widespread non-payment. If every over 75 stopped paying, that would blow a \u00a3500m black hole in the BBC\u2019s income.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elderly people sent \u2018threatening\u2019 letters<\/p>\n

Elderly pensioners who have received warnings from TV Licensing included Aileen Boor, from Stockport. She was sent letters threatening action for four years up to her death at the age of 100<\/a> last year. <\/p>\n

Her daughter said Mrs Boor had \u201cpicked out her outfit\u201d she planned to wear in court. <\/p>\n

Silver Voices, a non-profit campaign group for the over-60s, said the BBC must come clean over its unofficial \u201camnesty\u201d and stop sending letters threatening legal action that it has no intention of following through.<\/p>\n

\"\"The text of a TV licence fee letter that was sent to Aileen Boor<\/p>\n

Its director Dennis Reed said: \u201cThis is a shocking policy and a financial scandal. Not one over-75, of the several million who previously received a free licence, has been prosecuted for non-payment since the policy was scrapped five years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe BBC must now come clean and admit that an amnesty is in place for this group and stop sending them threatening letters. Threatening enforcement when there is no intention to prosecute is cruel and a scandalous waste of public resources.\u201d <\/p>\n

Silver Voices said it was aware of cases where more than 50 \u201cthreatening and intimidating letters\u201d demanding payment had been sent to individuals over the last five years. <\/p>\n

Reed said his organisation estimated that at least 250,000 over-75s have been refusing to pay since 2020, costing the BBC more than \u00a340m a year.<\/p>\n

BBC: \u2018Prosecution is last resort\u2019<\/p>\n

The BBC has said more than 3.6 million households where one person is over 75 have transitioned to paying for their licence since 2020. <\/p>\n

The corporation is subsidising 800,000 free licences for people over 75 who claim pension credit, plus an additional 190,000 for people in care homes. The BBC does not keep figures for the number of households not paying for a licence.<\/p>\n

A TV Licensing spokesperson, also speaking for the BBC, said: \u201cOur primary aim is to support customers, particularly those with vulnerabilities, and to help them get and stay licensed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen there is evidence that someone has avoided paying for a TV licence when they need one, we have a duty to enforce the law and this applies to everyone. In all cases, prosecution is a last resort.\u201d<\/p>\n

The BBC added that evasion \u201cremains relatively low\u201d across all age groups with the overwhelming majority \u2013 \u201caround nine in 10 households\u201d \u2013 paying the licence fee. <\/p>\n

The corporation does not collect \u201ccomprehensive data on the age of TV licence holders and in some cases, visits are made, and letters are sent, to addresses where we do not have a named occupier on our records\u201d.<\/p>\n

It added that \u201cevidential and public interest tests\u201d must be passed before any evasion case proceeds to court.<\/p>\n

Ministers are discussing decriminalising non-payment of the licence fee amid concern over the cost of prosecutions to taxpayers.<\/p>\n

The BBC disclosed last year that it spent \u00a3169m on a five-year contract with Whistl and Royal Mail to deliver letters to those suspected of not paying their TV licence.<\/p>\n

In April, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy warned that the charge was becoming \u201cunenforceable\u201d with \u201cfewer people paying it\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said \u201cwomen \u2013 particularly vulnerable women\u201d were being \u201ctargeted for enforcement action\u201d with 73 per cent of those prosecuted in 2024 being female. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The BBC is not taking over-75s to court – but a green light to pensioner non-payment would cost…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3937],"tags":[192,30,77,24705,3126,11727,382,37725,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-139565","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-bbc","9":"tag-courts","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-pension-credit","12":"tag-pensioners","13":"tag-television","14":"tag-tv","15":"tag-tv-licence","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114587283343575912","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}