New over-75s TV licence scheme ‘in chaos’

Up to 4.5million currently eligible households may be left in the lurch because of delays to payment system

PENSIONERS forced to begin paying for TV licences could be unable to meet the Aug 1 deadline because the payment system is already in chaos, it emerged last night.

Around 4.5million households currently have free licences and will receive letters in the coming weeks telling them that they are required to pay the £157.50 or prove that they are eligible for Pension Credit.

The letters will direct people to the TV Licensing call centre. But a message on TV Licensing’s website said: “Due to reduced staff levels, we are prioritising customers in most urgent need. We’re sorry but this means we may not be able to answer all your calls, and it’s taking us much longer to respond to emails and letters.” Julian Knight, the Tory chairman of the digital, culture, media and sport select committee, told The Daily Telegraph: “This is very concerning indeed and I am not convinced that they are ready for this.”

He added: “It will be an own goal of epic proportions to start hauling people over 75 in front of the courts. There needs to be common sense here.”

The BBC announced that the current scheme will begin on Aug 1, but said “no one needs to take any immediate action” until they receive a letter from TV Licensing – some of which will not be posted until after Aug 1.

A spokesman for TV Licensing said it had “increased the size of its customer call centre and has launched a free telephone information line where older customers and their relatives can access recorded information on the new policy” after the decision.

The BBC said it was protecting the poorest pensioners by continuing to pay the licences of those eligible for Pension Credit. But of the 1.5million households that are eligible, only 450,000 have applied so far. Esther Rantzen, the campaigner and founder of the Silver Line charity, criticised the Government for pushing the over-75s concession on to the BBC.

She added: “I didn’t like the constant references to ‘the poorest’. Older people have a lot of pride, a lot of dignity. They don’t like taking charity. And one of the problems about Pension Credit is that so much of the money goes unclaimed because older people don’t like being described as the poorest.

“Let’s say ‘the people who find it most difficult’ should go and claim this Pension Credit, which they have earned with a lifetime of survival and getting through the tough times, and the BBC should make programmes with the money to make sure that older people still enjoy [its] output and still feel valued.”

Lord Hall of Birkenhead, the outgoing director-general, has said that free licences for over-75s were unfair to the young.

The BBC’S decision to scrap them relied on a report published by Frontier Economics, an organisation chaired by Lord O’donnell, the former Cabinet secretary.

The report stated that older people were richer now as a group than they were in 2000, when the concession was introduced by Gordon Brown.

Last night, Sir David Clementi, the BBC chairman, said: “The BBC could not continue delaying the scheme without impacting on programmes and services... critically, it is not the BBC making that judgment about poverty. It is the Government who sets and controls that measure.”

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