TV Licence demand

Thanks for the replies.
I'll post the cheque.
Even though we've previously been entitled to a free license for years.

I’m watching BBC on my TV now.
I can multi task!
I think that it is totally great value for money.
I do appreciate that some people may now be able to afford it and they should be given help.
However when you consider that buying a new iPhone (and I know that you aren’t!) would cost about £60/month for a contract I think that the license fee is good value.
It’s just a shame that they don’t have a system that would give us a choice. Don’t pay, don’t get.

i think you need a tv licence if you watch anything live.
not just bbc. but i think if you watch non-bbc after it has been broadcast, then you don't need one.
if you have a tv you need one, even if you don't watch bbc.
and you need one if you watch any bbc online, even if later than it is broadcast.
as to how they know, online,, you have to register and log in to access bbc online, so they are compiling a database.

annsixty

If only I could buy one.
I have been trying to sort my license out for weeks.
When my H died his licence was rescinded but nobody told me!!

I have been watching and listening illegally for a year.Trying to sort that out has been and is continuing to be a nightmare.
Yesterday I managed to get through to them, after two long conversations in the last six weeks , only to be put on hold to be transferred to the right department, after42 minutes of The Four Seasons I rang off.

They have sent me forms to apply for a free licence , I do not qualify for a free licence as I am tired of telling them, I cannot do it on line as I keep getting told a licence for this address already exists, no It doesn’t.

Head against a brick wall syndrome.
I am now waiting for a knock on the door when I will tell them to listen to all the phone calls I have made as I am told every time that the call is being recorded.

Oh annsixty I feel for you, we had awful problems when my boss died, the tv licence for where I work was in his name. It took many calls, with them initially refusing to speak to me because I was not the named person on the licence )

I resorted to email, got contradicting responses from various people, who obviously did communicate with each other.

In the end I wrote a very strongly worded letter of complaint, printed off 16 pages of email correspondence and posted it to them.

All paid of course it would have been nice to get my first free one but I watch tv so of course I have to pay it Dishonest not to

I got the letter this week, as I'm older than husband ( both well over 75.)
I've written the cheque for a year (£157.50) and signed the form but will wait awhile and contemplate before posting.
If I was 20 years younger I would relish the challenge of refusing to pay but can't be bothered now, just grateful we can afford it.
We don't have a TV but watch BBCiplayer regularly on our
'puters.

Seonaid we are still waiting for a letter. I shall then drag my heels about paying .

I may not like paying the licence but I do appreciate not having to sit through endless adverts.

We don't have a tv but can access BBCiplayer on our 'puters.
Is there any way the 'authorities' can find out about that? from outside or inside our house.
I'm normally an honest person but this has annoyed me so much I'm willing to take the risk and deny all liability for payment.
We're both well over 75.

Blossoming

I haven’t had a TV licence for years, we got rid of the TV. They still keep hounding us though ...

We didn't have a TV for many years. We both worked odd hours and what free time we enjoyed together we spent ballroom dancing.

It must have been at least twenty years without a TV, that didn't stop them hounding us for licence payment. I would ask them to send us the proof that we had a TV, the letter would be ignored and a final demand would arrive. It never got to the point of threatening court action but it was grief that we could have done without.

Coincidentally, I get at least three letters every year from our council asking me to sign up to monthly direct debit council tax payment. There's always a sense of threat about their demands, I wouldn't mind, I live in a house with a high tax bracket and pay the whole amount when the bill comes in. Doesn't stop the council from sending out their odious mail.

In fact, if pensioners in this country received state pensions in line with that of most other countries in Europe, then all these little 'handouts' (£1- Xma grant!!!, £200 winter warmer money, 25p per week to over-80's, etc._could cease.

They won't do that though, Franbern because they'd have to pay annual increases on the increase in pensions whereas the little handouts don't get increased.

Don't pay your TV Licence. Gary Lineker the crisp man and Zoe Ball on nearly one and a half million each and they are threatening OAPs with demand letters.

About a month ago I received a threatening letter addressed to DH demanding that he pay for a TV licence as his free one had expired (he's almost 81) I 'returned it to sender' marked 'No longer at this address'. This was true as a month ago he was in a Care Home, is currently in hospital recovering from a fall in which he broke his hip and waiting for a place in a Nursing Home. I will decide what to do if I get a letter asking me to pay. I have never had a TV licence, always been in DH's name.

Two things I will bare in mind when deciding are - firstly the fact that my under 75 Dsis received a letter within days of her over 75 DH's death demanding that she purchase a licence. Secondly, when Thatcher introduced the Poll TAX (in Scotland only) I was part of the Can Pay - Won't Pay Campaign. I carefully set aside our dues each month in a savings account and in spite of threats of Sheriff Officers and penalties, kept going until the legislation was repealed. Then I paid in full, having made a small profit as savings interest was higher then.

ATM I am complying with the Act Daft Go Half Fare Scenario and will see what, if anything, happens next.

I have not received notification regarding now having to pay for my television licence after having had a free one. Is anyone else waiting to receive it. Everyone else I have spoken have received theirs.

About 2015 Tony Hall, recently retired Chairman BBC, conducted a review the result of which televised. His intention very clear, to attract a younger audience. Even then very few programmes broadcast for a more discerning audience. BBC mandate to inform, educate and entertain long since descended into meaningless juvenile left-wing brainwashing and or foul-mouthed idiocy. If the BBC is intent on providing a limited service for a younger audience and or adult intellectually challenged, why should I at over 75 pay to provide such demeaning drivel?

SueDonim - thanks but I do not use any of BBC - so do I still have to pay the BBC licence is what I want to know?

SueDonim
You can access i player in the US. You can access it anywhere in the world. But you have to pay. Look to buy a Nord VPN ( that's a number) It's not expensive.

Do I need to buy a BBC TV license? I am over 75 but my TV has been broken for some time and I never watch BBC - only SKY News and other things online. I'm getting a form and email to pay. In France you get to pay something called an audio visual tax (in French of course) which you pay with the annual property tax - that seems more logical but here the fee only goes to BBC .

You mean I'll get an extra 25p in October ? Can't wait. I'll be asking them what they think I'll propose doing with it.
It'll cost them more than that to let me know

I've heard that too SD, goodness only knows why the BBC doesn't tap this particular income! Perhaps someone on here knows?!

We didn’t even know what the extra £10 was in dh’s pension! We thought our bank account had been hacked or that it was a phishing scam.

I don’t know why the BBC doesn’t market iplayer abroad. I have friends in the US who would love to watch BBC programmes via iPlayer but currently there is no legal means to do so, that I’m aware of. That seems to me to be an obvious source of income.

The £10 at Xmas is quite absurd. My parents first received this way back when and it wasn't exactly a fortune then. It should have been quietly stopped years ago! £ 200 winter fuel allowance? Yes I think we can kiss that good by along with triple lock! Oh well, we were unaffected during austerity so perhaps it's only fair that we should have to pull our weight now!

Jabberwok is correct. I was just about to say the same.

The deal with the BBC was brokered in 2015 with George Osbourne. In return for taking on the free licence paid for by the government up till Jan 2020, when they themselves would take it on, the BBC by their own admission got a very generous deal, one of which was the necessity of a licence to watch iPlayer which up to Jan 2020 was not an obligation! The BBC have decided not to keep the free licence but have happily accepted all the benefits to them from this deal but sadly couldn't fund the over 75's even for one day!

That would not surprise me because the general feeling is we can all afford to lose that money. I would not mind if the Christmas tenner vanished- that must cost a lot to administer.