BBC set to send ‘enforcers’ to 260,000 pensioners in TV licence fee claw back

BBC set to send ‘enforcers’ to 260,000 pensioners in TV licence fee claw back.

Hundreds of thousands of pensioners could see ‘enforcers’ turn up at their door to clawback TV licence fees.

After a row between the government and the BBC pensioners aged over 75 sadly lost their free TV licence entitlement. This happened 11 months ago and now the BBC are ready to ensure that they get their money.

Capita have been instructed by the BBC to start making “customer care visits” and the visits will begin in the autumn to pensioners’ homes. Pensioners were given a reprieve during the pandemic but this is set to end on July 31.

Anyone over 75 could face prosecution if they do not arrange payment. A spokesperson for the BBC said: “From the autumn, subject to covid restrictions, customers who have not made arrangements may receive a customer care visit from a specially trained support team to assist them in becoming correctly licensed.

“We are now planning how we arrange customer care visits and are looking at a range of options.”

The BBC also said that: “In line with general policy, anyone who watches or records live TV programmes on any channel, or downloads or watches BBC programmes on iPlayer, must be covered by a valid TV licence.”

The director of the Silver Voices campaign group, Dennis Reed, hopes that the government will prevent this from happening. He said: “The BBC is calling the people carrying out these visits ‘customer support officers’ but their job is to enforce payment. They will be asking people why they haven’t got a licence,”

“Clearly, the BBC is not going to do anything other than enforce the licence fee. It is now time for the government to act. I’m sure they don’t want to see senior citizens in their 80s and 90s, who have paid tax throughout their lives, fined up to £1,000 and carted off to jail.”

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