It has been a long time since we last considered the search engine queries sending visitors towards the TV Licensing Blog.
As visitors are clearly interested, we thought we'd take the opportunity to address some of the more popular search terms landing here at the moment.
1. What are the new rules for the over-75 TV licence?
Ans: With effect from June 2020 the "free" TV licence, which is currently provided to every household with at least one occupant over the age of 75, will become means tested. It will only be available to those over-75 households with an occupant in receipt of pension credit. Any over-75 household not eligible for the new concession will have to pay the full price of a TV licence, should they wish to legally continue viewing TV programmes on any channel or BBC on-demand programmes.
You can read more about this in our article Fury and Condemnation of BBC TV Licence Shake Up.
2. How do you complain about TV Licensing?
Ans: As anyone who has watched the BBC's Points Of View or Newswatch programmes will already know, the national broadcaster doesn't readily acknowledge or respond well to criticism. The upper echelons of BBC management wrongly believe - or at least pretends to believe - that everything TV Licensing does is done with the utmost efficiency and integrity. Sadly, back in the real world, many thousands of people have genuine cause to complain about the abhorrent conduct of TV Licensing and its employees. The formal complaints process is long and convoluted, which results in many people abandoning their complaints before completion.
Should you wish to complain, please see our article TV Licensing Complaints.
Please also be aware that TV Licensing has a system of goodwill payments, which it sometimes offers to people it has wronged. You can read more in our article TV Licensing Compensation Payments - Claim Yours Today.
3. No TV licence required.
Ans: Legally speaking, as you may well know already, a TV licence is only required for those properties where equipment is used or installed to receive (e.g. watch, record or download) TV programmes on any channel or BBC on-demand programmes via the iPlayer. The occupier of any property that does not legally require a TV licence is under no legal obligation at all to confirm that fact to TV Licensing. Indeed contacting TV Licensing to make a No Licence Needed declaration is often a total waste of time, as it rarely puts an end to TV Licensing's sordid and legally baseless suspicions of wrongdoing.
You can read more in our article TV Licensing: No Licence Needed Declaration.
4. TV Licensing paperless.
Ans: Every single working day TV Licensing sends out the equivalent of 100,000 threatograms to unlicensing properties. By the BBC's own admission, at least 80,000 of those are destined for properties that do not legally require a TV licence. It is far cheaper for TV Licensing to threaten the law-abiding majority of non-payers, than it is to gather evidence of licence fee evasion and target specific addresses.
In an effort to bolster its green credentials TV Licensing announced that it was to go paperless by renewing as many licences as possible by email. TV Licensing didn't advertise the fact that it continues to churn out the equivalent of 100,000 paper threatograms every working day. Only giving half the story is typical of the deceitful way the BBC and TV Licensing operate.
TV Licensing reinforced its tree-huggy credentials by sending a paper leaflet to customers encouraging them to practice their origami skills on their now redundant paper TV licence. No joke.
You can read more in our article TV Licensing Goes Paperless.
5. TV licence Single Justice Procedure Notice.
Ans: New rules mean that every TV Licensing prosecution in England and Wales starts via the Single Justice Procedure. Unless the alleged licence fee evader indicates otherwise, a Magistrate will read TV Licensing's version of events - which could be riddled with error, inconsistency or fabrication - and sentence them on that basis. Suffice to say, that's not an ideal situation to arrive at.
6. What access rights do TV Licensing have?
Ans: TV Licensing does not have the automatic right of access to any property. In the unlikely event that a TV Licensing goon visits an unlicensed property, they will probably attempt to talk their way inside to confirm that a licence is not legally needed. However, the occupier can (and should) refuse them entry, because we know that some TV Licensing goons are very dishonest in their interactions once inside a property.
The only circumstances in which TV Licensing is legally entitled to access a property is when it has a search warrant to that effect. Search warrants are exceptionally rare and should not concern any legally licence free person, despite anything TV Licensing might infer to the contrary.
You can read more in our article TV Licensing Rights of Access.
If you've found this article useful please consider liking us on Facebook, following us on Twitter or downloading our free ebook.
No comments:
Post a Comment