The Impoverished BBC Spends £100m on TV Licence Enforcement

The impoverished BBC, which claims it can barely afford a pot to piss in, spends £100 million a year enforcing the TV licence fee.

That figure is old news to us, but it has recently been re-publicised by an article in the Daily Mail.

The BBC's TV Licensing operations contractor, Capita Business Services Ltd, received £59.9 million from the Corporation last year.

Capita is responsible for the majority of TV Licensing enforcement an administration work - in employs the useless people in the TV Licensing call centre, the equally worthless goons that visit unlicensed properties and the legally unqualified Court Presenters that criminalise thousands of legitimate non-viewers every year.

Capita is not, curiously enough, responsible for the TV Licensing mailings - dubbed threatograms for their menacing tone - which cause the occupiers of legitimately unlicensed properties such anguish, annoyance and frustration every month.

The BBC has confirmed that Capita will receive an additional £38 million to hire 800 new staff to target the over-75s in the wake of punitive new concessionary TV licence rules. That will take the BBC's annual payment to Capita to a smidgen under £100 million.

It is important to stress, for the benefit of any newcomers to the TV Licensing Blog, that the BBC, as statutory Television Licensing Authority, retains full legal responsibility for the administration, collection and enforcement of the TV licence fee.

TV Licensing is a BBC brand name. The BBC is ultimately responsible for everything done in the name of TV Licensing and is well aware, and often turns a blind eye, to TV Licensing's heinous methods of enquiry. A senior BBC manager approves the selective and dishonest wording of every TV Licensing threatogram, without batting an eyelid about their impact on vulnerable recipients.

Fresh back from another week's holiday, you may be able to sense that just typing the name "TV Licensing" has already got my blood boiling!

Dennis Reed, director of pensioner campaign group Silver Voices, described the BBC's payments to Capita as "sickening".

"The £100 million 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", Mr Reed said.

He added that Silver Voices does not believe enforcers will 'go easy' on the elderly, saying: "We need to know that instructions have been given to enforcers to treat vulnerable people with respect."

The BBC, as is always the case, dishonestly denies that TV Licensing is heavy-handed in its enforcement methods. It also reiterated its dishonest denials that TV Licensing goons have a financial incentive to nab as many potential evaders as possible - a claim that was blown wide apart by Capita TV Licensing manager Ian Doyle when he was caught in an undercover Daily Mail sting.

Caroline Abrahams, Age UK's charity director, added: "The fact that these free TV licences have been taken away in such an underhand way has offended many older people's sense of fair play and significant numbers seem committed to doing everything they can to frustrate the new scheme."

A spokesman for TV Licensing, on behalf of the BBC, said: "No one needs to do anything until they have received a letter from TV Licensing."

We would remind all over-75s of the golden rules when dealing with TV Licensing: If you do not legally need a TV licence then you are under no legal obligation whatsoever to communicate or co-operate with TV Licensing. You should immediately identify any caller to your property and do not engage with TV Licensing.

Tell TV Licensing nothing, keep the door firmly closed and keep any visiting scum from TV Licensing out in the cold.

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