The great licence fee farce: Pensioners are pressured to pay twice amid delays and system chaos… then can’t get refunds
- Pensioners pressured into paying the £157.50 fee twice due to processing delays
- They have also been left out of pocket for months as refund requests are ignored
- Around 4.2million pensioners were claiming free licence when it was scrapped
BBC licence fee enforcers have been slammed as incompetent as chaos engulfs the system.
Pensioners have been pressured into paying the £157.50 fee twice after processing delays meant their first payment went unnoticed.
They have then been left out of pocket for months as refund requests are ignored.
One Daily Mail reader was even warned that officers would visit him at home even though he had sent in a cheque for his licence two months earlier.
Others said ‘incompetent’ officials were chasing them for payment when they were entitled to a free licence.
About 4.2million pensioners were claiming a free licence when this perk was scrapped in August for all over-75s except those claiming pension credit.
Pensioners have been forced to pay their BBC licence fee twice after processing delays meant their first payment was not registered, meaning some have been chased for their payments
This has caused processing delays, with cheques not cashed for months. By the end of November, TV Licensing, the group of contractors that collect the fee for the BBC, says it had sent more than half a million ‘reminder letters’ to over-75s over the fee.
Yet Valerie Manning, 75, who receives pension credit, has been trying to register for a free licence for six months.
The Londoner said she has been asked repeatedly for documents she has already sent and many of her emails have gone unanswered.
She eventually received an email in December confirming she could watch TV for free but another letter demanding payment arrived a month later.
She said: ‘The whole situation has been so stressful.’
Pub landlord John Lainchbury, 68, who lives with his wife Alison, 67, in Norwich, sent in his £157.50 cheque in October but received a letter in December claiming he had not paid.
Demonstrators protest outside BBC Broadcasting House in Portland Place, London in protest over the corporation’s decision to means-test the TV licence for older people from June 2020
It warned an officer would visit his home for an inspection at the end of the month, causing him to panic and pay again.
Mr Lainchbury said: ‘It was a very threatening letter and so I went online to make the payment again by credit card.’
He then discovered his cheque had been cashed a month earlier and he is yet to receive a refund.
A TV Licensing spokesman said: ‘We would like to apologise to customers who have had an experience that has fallen short of the standards we expect.’