The BBC has denied rumours that there will be an amnesty for new over-75 TV licence payers due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.
Campaign group Silver Voices, which represents pensioners, had called for an amnesty on the £157.50 fee, for those over-75 households that have recently become eligible to pay in full.
In a letter to Silver Voices the BBC Director General, Tim Davie, said: "More and more people are now getting a licence - now over 3 million - including 2.34 million who have paid and over 700,000 who have claimed free licences.
"This means around 70% of households have transitioned to the new system."
According to Davie, more than 1 million calls have been made to TV Licensing's new dedicated over-75 helpline, although there is no way of knowing how satisfactory the outcome of those calls was.
Davie's letter continued: "When Covid first started it cost the BBC around £70 million to delay the new policy by two months.
"We could not afford to defer the scheme for any longer without cutting programmes and services which would have affected everyone."
The implication of Davie's comments is that as two-thirds of pensioners have already been coerced into paying the TV licence fee, despite the ongoing health crisis, then the other third have no excuse for not doing the same.
Just for good measure Davie also managed to get in a hint about how impoverished the BBC is at the moment, it having stumped up £70 million to "help" over-75s already.
Mr Reed said: "We are sad and disappointed that the Director General has chosen to ignore our request for a licence amnesty for the next six months.
"The mental health of senior citizens is already frayed by months of virtual isolation and to receive threatening enforcement letters during the lockdown may push some over the edge."
According to the BBC, TV Licensing are not currently undertaking enforcement visits to over-75 households now eligible to pay the TV licence fee. Those households are, however, receiving caustic missives from TV Licensing.
1 comment:
How many over 75s have been affected financially by COVID-19 and the lockdown? It's not as if they've been furloughed on 80% of their pensions!
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