TV licensing...

[mumbojumbo]

Used to live on Parkhill Road,Dingle and was weaned on Higsons.

[merseymouth]

Failed to see the joke? Every Street used to be in Everton until they demolished it .
Higsons of course came after Cains, which is the name of the Brewers who occupy the old Higsons brewery site, along with film production storage facilities (Foyles War used the base).
It can be very difficult for me to watch many tv productions as they often use Liverpool as the set. (Sherlock Holmes, Jeremy Brett series, even the recent "War of the Worlds was shot here). London never looked so good as when it is Liverpool in shot. MM

[mercalia]

They're Coming to Take You Away, Ha-Haaa! ....soon

BBC will spend £100million chasing TV licence fees and hauling non-payers to court this year after over-75s were told to cough up

Private firm Capita being paid extra £38million to chase pensioners failing to pay

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8652315/BBC-spend-100million-chasing-TV-licence-fees.html

[simonineaston]

I think what I object to most about the new arrangement, is that the poorest 75+ pensioners are likely to be nevertheless targeted and will likely end up paying even when they are entitled to a free licence... scabby.

[Mick F]

They're Coming to Take You Away, Ha-Haaa! ....soon

BBC will spend £100million chasing TV licence fees and hauling non-payers to court this year after over-75s were told to cough up

Private firm Capita being paid extra £38million to chase pensioners failing to pay

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8652315/BBC-spend-100million-chasing-TV-licence-fees.html

Can't see the link as I refuse to disable my adblocker.

If Capita catch a lawbreaker, they should earn something. For all the false threatening letters with zero result, they should have funds deducted.

[mercalia]

They're Coming to Take You Away, Ha-Haaa! ....soon

BBC will spend £100million chasing TV licence fees and hauling non-payers to court this year after over-75s were told to cough up

Private firm Capita being paid extra £38million to chase pensioners failing to pay

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8652315/BBC-spend-100million-chasing-TV-licence-fees.html

Can't see the link as I refuse to disable my adblocker.

If Capita catch a lawbreaker, they should earn something. For all the false threatening letters with zero result, they should have funds deducted.

If Capita’s overall collection contract remains the same in 2019/20, it means up to £97.9million of taxpayers’ cash could go to the firm this year – a figure described as ‘sickening’ by older people’s groups.

The shocking figures are highlighted in documents published by TV Licensing and the BBC online.

Capita was widely criticised for using aggressive door-to-door tactics and paying staff hefty bonuses of up to £15,000 a year if they hit targets of catching 28 fee evaders a week in a Daily Mail investigation in February 2017.

It prompted the resignation of the firm’s £2.7million-a-year boss Andy Parker a month later.
Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said scrapping the free licence is ‘a cynical betrayal’ and that he doesn’t ‘know how the BBC management and its talent sleep at night knowing their wages are paid by taking money from our elderly and infirm’


Last night the BBC insisted no over-75s without a TV licence would be visited by enforcement staff and no on-the-spot payments would be taken during a ‘transition period’ of an unspecified length while changes are made.

But campaigners say it is only a matter of time before vulnerable pensioners are threatened with fines, court and prosecution on their doorsteps.

Dennis Reed, director of pensioner campaign group Silver Voices which highlighted the figures to the Mail, said: ‘It is sickening.

The £100million 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.’

He said the group does not believe enforcers will ‘go easy’ on the elderly, adding: ‘We need to know that instructions have been given to enforcers to treat vulnerable people with respect.’

According to figures from TV Licensing online, Capita was paid £59.9million in 2018/19 to chase and collect the TV levy from all age groups – a drop of £1.5million on the previous 12 months and a figure which the National Audit Office subsequently insisted was value for money for taxpayers.

[thirdcrank]

... up to £97.9million of taxpayers’ cash could go to the firm ...

I presume that means "licence payers' cash."

The BBC is required to issue TV Licences and collect the licence fee under the Communications Act 2003 (opens in a new window). "TV Licensing” is a trade mark used by companies contracted by the BBC to administer the collection of television licence fees and enforcement of the television licensing system.

https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/about/foi ... nsing-AB15

I can see that most TV Licence Holders will be taxpayers, but they don't pay for a licence in that capacity.

[[XAP]Bob]

... up to £97.9million of taxpayers’ cash could go to the firm ...

I presume that means "licence payers' cash."

The BBC is required to issue TV Licences and collect the licence fee under the Communications Act 2003 (opens in a new window). "TV Licensing” is a trade mark used by companies contracted by the BBC to administer the collection of television licence fees and enforcement of the television licensing system.

https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/about/foi ... nsing-AB15

I can see that most TV Licence Holders will be taxpayers, but they don't pay for a licence in that capacity.

Depends whether you see the license fee as a tax “by another name”.
It is a government mandated payment for doing “something”, so it much like VED, or tobacco tax. Both are technically avoidable (don’t drive, or drive a subset of vehicles, and don’t smoke), but they are tax - backed by legislation.

[thirdcrank]

The comparison with VED seems to illustrate what I was saying.

Although people still refer to road fund licences and argue as though vehicle duties in their various guises go directly to paying for roads that is simply not the case. That do goes into the government's coffers and may be spent on anything, including roads.

OTOH, the TV Licence money is collected by and for the BBC. The BBC has other income, including the sales of programmes. Against the background of the Daily Mail report on which I was commenting, the money spent by the BBC on collection is AFAIK a cost to the BBC. Obviously, if enforcement gets to the prosecution stage, then the courts and indeed prisons are financed from taxation.

[Scudders]

I've not had a license for a few years and have advised that I no longer require one. I had a few emails at first which died down eventually, but recently have a had a letter saying the legal occupier is under investigation.

I interpreted this as BBC are sensing the financial loss of so many people cancelling their TV license because they no longer require it. And now the BBC are sending letters in the hope to make up the massive deficit.

The letter went into the bin.

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
Letters can go in the bin because there is no proof you've ever received it or read it.
A summons might be a different matter altogether, but then they would have to prove that you should have a license?

[simonineaston]

People keep talking about contact from this agency as if it represented some sort of difficulty - I've said it before and I'll say it again - if you don't watch licensed content, you don't need a licence. That's all there is to it. Whatever your age. Really.

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,

People keep talking about contact from this agency as if it represented some sort of difficulty - I've said it before and I'll say it again - if you don't watch licensed content, you don't need a licence. That's all there is to it. Whatever your age. Really.

So why are people who haven't owned a license for several years or have decided to give up paying the license still being contacted?
I can't be the only one who thinks that you have some inside knowledge of the workings and or some dealings with the firm?
You certainly like to blow their trumpet

[simonineaston]

I can only comment from my own point of view and my own experience. And while it's true I'm an avid consumer of (unlicensed *) BBC content, I don't give a fig for Capita, while acting as the BBC's debt collector. Once I'd established the full facts on the company's role, its methods and practices, I simply crossed it off my list of things to think about. I recommend that everyone else who doesn't consume licensed content do the same. There's a ton of more pressing stuff to be concerned about, as those of you with children, grand-children or even great-grandchildren, will know.
* That is to say, content that does not require a licence to access...

[Mick F]

I file and number mine because I'm an obsessive sort of chap.
I don't chuck them in the bin or light the fire with them, but studiously read them, number them, and compare them to previous ones. I also list who signs them.

........... not that anyone actually does sign them.
The names of these people DO NOT EXIST, but it's fun (to me at least) to read the letters and file them.

The story so far.

Note that Jackie Garswood wrote to us personally, but two years later didn't know who we were.