The BBC is operating an unofficial “amnesty” for pensioners over the age of 75 who refuse to pay the licence fee, The i Paper can reveal.
Pensioners as old as 100 are being sent letters threatening them with prosecution for failing to pay their TV licence fee when the BBC has no intention of taking legal action. Campaigners described it as a “scandal” and “waste of public resources”.
The BBC ended universal free licences for over-75s in 2020 as a cost-cutting measure. But figures from the Ministry of Justice, obtained through a Freedom of Information request, show that the BBC is yet to prosecute anyone over that age found not to be paying the £174.50 annual charge.
The data shows just two cases between 2020 and 2024. One person was prosecuted aged 76 for licence fee evasion in 2024. A 77-year-old man was prosecuted in 2023.
But in both cases the offences may have been committed when the individuals were under 75, with the process – involving warning letters, house visits and finally court appearances – taking up to two years to result in a prosecution.
square TV LICENCE Exclusive100-year-old woman among pensioners threatened with court over TV licence fee
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In October 2023, the then media minister Sir John Whittingdale told Parliament that no over-75s had been prosecuted since the universal concession ended.
By comparison, 28,541 people under 75 were prosecuted for licence fee evasion in 2024 alone, according to the MoJ. Of those, 237 were aged between 70 and 74.
A BBC insider said: “When free licences ended, the BBC wanted to encourage over-75s to pay for them so it didn’t initially send legal letters to avoid antagonising pensioners. Then Covid made it impossible to conduct doorstep visits.
“Now not enforcing payment has become an unofficial policy. But the BBC can’t admit that because it would give the green light to widespread non-payment. If every over 75 stopped paying, that would blow a £500m black hole in the BBC’s income.”
Elderly pensioners who have received warnings from TV Licensing included Aileen Boor, from Stockport. She was sent letters threatening action for four years up to her death at the age of 100 last year.
Her daughter said Mrs Boor had “picked out her outfit” she planned to wear in court.
Aileen Boor received letters calling on her to pay up until her death aged 100 (Photos: Supplied/PA)Silver Voices, a non-profit campaign group for the over-60s, said the BBC must come clean over its unofficial “amnesty” and stop sending letters threatening legal action that it has no intention of following through.
Its director Dennis Reed said: “This is a shocking policy and a financial scandal. Not one over 75, of the several million who previously received a free licence, has been prosecuted for non-payment since the policy was scrapped five years ago.
“The BBC must now come clean and admit that an amnesty is in place for this group and stop sending them threatening letters. Threatening enforcement when there is no intention to prosecute is cruel and a scandalous waste of public resources.”
Silver Voices said it was aware of cases where more than 50 “threatening and intimidating letters” demanding payment had been sent to individuals over the last five years.
Reed said his organisation estimated that at least 250,000 over-75s have been refusing to pay since 2020, costing the BBC more than £40m a year.
The text of a TV licence fee letter that was sent to Aileen BoorBBC: ‘Prosecution is last resort’
The BBC has said more than 3.6 million households where one person is over 75 have transitioned to paying for their licence since 2020.
The corporation is subsidising 800,000 free licences for people over 75 who claim the pension credit benefit, plus an additional 190,000 for people in care homes. The BBC does not keep figures for the number of households not paying for a licence.
A TV Licensing spokesperson, also speaking for the BBC, said: “Our primary aim is to support customers, particularly those with vulnerabilities, and to help them get and stay licensed.
“When there is evidence that someone has avoided paying for a TV Licence when they need one, we have a duty to enforce the law and this applies to everyone. In all cases, prosecution is a last resort.”
The BBC added that evasion “remains relatively low” across all age groups with the overwhelming majority – “around nine in 10 households” – paying the licence fee.
The corporation does not collect “comprehensive data on the age of TV licence holders and in some cases, visits are made, and letters are sent, to addresses where we do not have a named occupier on our records”.
“Evidential and public interest tests” must be passed before any evasion case proceeds to court, the BBC added.
Ministers are discussing decriminalising non-payment of the licence fee amid concern over the cost of prosecutions to taxpayers.
The BBC disclosed last year that it spent £169m on a five-year contract with Whistl and Royal Mail to deliver letters to those suspected of not paying their TV licence.
In April, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy warned that the charge was becoming “unenforceable” with “fewer people paying it”.
She said “women – particularly vulnerable women” were being “targeted for enforcement action” with 73 per cent of those prosecuted in 2024 being female.
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