The BBC rakes in an extra £16m a year by forcing quarterly Direct Debit customers to pay a £5 premium on their TV licence fees.
The revelation is not new, but has come back into focus following the appearance of BBC executives Anne Bulford and Pipa Doubtfire before the House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee last week.
The dynamic duo were appearing before the Committee to answer (not so probing) questions about the way the TV licence fee is enforced. The BBC contractor responsible for collecting and enforcing the TV licence fee, Capita Business Services Ltd, made the headlines back in March when an undercover investigation revealed (or rather confirmed) that some of its people are unscrupulous, dishonest shitbags.
The Committee expressed concern that vulnerable and disadvantaged TV licence holders, many of whom pay the fee by quarterly Direct Debit, were charged an extra £5 a year for choosing that method of payment.
Doubtfire confirmed to the Committee that the £5 premium raised an extra £16m for the BBC every year. Clearly astounded by the extent of the BBC's money grab, Meg Hillier MP responded: "Wow".
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I am surprised that eveyone seems to have missed the VAST amounts of cash that Capita rake-in YEARLY from 'court-costs'.The BBC/Capita prosecute..(from their own published figures) 380,000 people per year. We know that most of these roll-over and plead 'guilty' which means that BBC/TVL are awarded 'costs'. I have estimated, from my own Court records and from figures published in local Newspaper 'shame-lists', that the average costs award is in the region of £60.00. 308,000 x £60.00 = £22,800,00.00 .... thats a whopping 22.8 million extra income per year. Even if you dont accept my 'estimate' and halve it... that still £11,400,000.00.. but I would say that my estimate is in the lower regions... if the scumbags would actually PUBLISH the true figures, it might be in the reagion of 30-40 million.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the subject of a further blog-post...?
Regards
Shakey.
To be fair though the payment schemes are actually set by government regulations, Capita/BBC don't actually control that. The £5 premium is set in the regulations and is there basically to cover the interest on the licence fee as it is not being paid up front but in installments.
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