Pensioners are paying too much for their BBC television licences because the website does not provide enough help, experts have warned.
The BBC ended universal free licences for all over-75s on August 1. Although the elderly are not obliged to act until they receive a letter outlining the changes this month or next, some have tried to pay.
But clicking “pay” or “pay for your new BBC TV licence” — both in bold on the licensing site — is not followed by a chance to input age or select an over-75 payment plan. This means that pensioners will be charged as ordinary licence holders, at £26.25 for the first six months or £31.50 for the first five, when they should be paying £13.18 per month.
Ian Scott, 76, from Fife, initially fell into this trap. “[More than £30] is not a small sum for people to have to fork out just at the drop of a hat,” he said.
A standard BBC licence costs £157.50 for a year. Usually the BBC demands new licence holders pay that sum within the first six months.
The rule does not apply to over-75s, but to access the exemption they have to click on “Changes to the over 75 free BBC TV licence”, which does not look like a payment link. “It’s alarming just how clunky and counterintuitive the BBC TV Licensing website is turning out to be,” said Caroline Abrahams, charity director of Age UK.
The million over-75s who receive pension credit are still eligible for a free licence.
BBC TV Licensing halted prosecutions for non-payment in March because of the coronavirus, but in the first week of July it restarted work on cases for which evidence had been gathered on doorsteps before the lockdown.
Since 2014, more than a million Britons have been prosecuted for licence fee evasion or dealt with out of court in Scotland.
The data was obtained by Caroline Lévesque-Bartlett, an anti-licence fee campaigner, using freedom of information laws.
Nearly three-quarters of those prosecuted last year were women. One possible explanation is that women may be more likely to answer the door to licence fee inspectors.
BBC TV Licensing says it withdraws cases that are not in the public interest.
The BBC said: “Nobody needs to do anything until they’ve received [the] letter. For those who will now pay, the letter offers the option of a new 75+ payment plan . . . in equal weekly, fortnightly or monthly instalments without the need for upfront payments.”