A cross-party group of nearly 30 Peers have written to the BBC’s director-general to demand that he ends the threat of prosecution of the over-75s for non-payment of the licence fee.
In a letter to Tim Davie, the Peers accuse the BBC of “causing immense distress amongst the vulnerable” by sending repeated payment demands.
The letter, organised by the former England cricket captain turned charity campaigner Lord Botham, has attracted support from 28 members of the Lords.
The peers wrote: “It is beyond doubt that these payment demands are causing immense distress among the vulnerable. We recognise that this is not your objective and that some efforts have been made to mitigate the impact.
“However, much more needs to be done. In particular, there should be an explicit pledge that TV Licensing will never prosecute anyone over 75.”
They went on to say there is “no moral justification for sending waves of threatening letters to people”.
The letter continued: “The BBC has many friends who want it to survive, but the treatment of the over-75s is undermining that goodwill. It is for you to work with DCMS [the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport] to resolve your long-term funding but the current situation, which is creating so much stress among our oldest citizens, is unacceptable.”
The BBC has denied claims of harassment and bullying of the over-75s and says it has attempted to collect the licence fee with “the greatest care”.
It is estimated that around 750,000 households occupied by the over-75s have refused to pay the annual £157.50 charge out of 3.5 million households now eligible to pay.
A TV licencing spokesman said that of the 3.5 million applications managed so far, “the vast majority have been dealt with quickly and without an issue”.
Unity News Network (UNN) Staff Writer | To find out more details about our staff, please head to the About Us section on our website.
