TV licensing

[Amethyst]

In my newly skint position I'm finding an awful lot of things are biased against people on limited incomes.

TV Licencing seems to be yet another of these I have come up against.

In order to make the budget work out I need to pay weekly, in cash. (TV Licensing - Cash payment plan) So I can take benefits out of the post office - pop to the paypoint and pay my tv licence fee at an affordable rate.

I have just called to arrange this and this appears to be the system (which I will confirm when I get it all in writing in 5-7 days)



First Six Months (26 weeks)- Pay £5.50 per week - total £143

from then on pay £5.50 fortnightly (so I will do £2.75 per week over 26 weeks) - total £71.50

So this means for the first year I will pay £214.50 (£79.00 more)


A colour TV licence is currently £135.50.

I will continue to pay fortnightly after the first year which will be £143.00 a year

But will always be £79.00 ahead.

I am assuming when you move you either have that £79.00 refunded or transferred to the new property. But again no doubt you will have to claim it or transfer it and I bet a lot of people don't.

So firstly you are paying £7.50 more a year for paying by cash. (ALTHOUGH I am assuming the amount varies for last few weeks to make it the correct amount per year but I am not sure on that)

Plus you are forced to pay double for the first six months tv licence.


If you pay by direct debit - this is £11.75 a month - total £141.00

You arent forced to pay £23.50 a month for first six months are you ? so why do it for cash ?




The usual point of you paying weekly by cash is cause its hard to afford to pay the full annual fee in one, or don't have an account to pay monthly.

So seems to be you are being penalised and treated differently for being on a low income.


Does anyone understand what I am going on about, am I mad, really bad at maths ? or is this more unfairness to the less well off in society ?

Thoughts ?

[Mochamoos]

Re: TV licencing

It is yet another way of grabbing extra money out of people, and once again preying on people who can afford it the least.


This seems to bethe theme du jour, and something needs to be done about it.

No good at making plans but will whole heartedly support any smarty pants who do have a plan.

[Mochamoos]

Re: TV licencing

Bank Charges,
Extra charges for no DD
Higher Cost Electricity / Gas when on prepayment meter
astronomical intrest charges on 'poor' credit history

there is a longer list...

[Amethyst]

Re: TV licencing

Paying in Cash - interestng article and comments Cash used to be king, but now we pay for paying up - Telegraph

[littlesally]

Re: TV licencing

Ame, I'm sure I paid a double amount for the first six months, paying by direct debit. No idea how much, £22+ sounds about right though.
Love Sally xx

[Mochamoos]

Re: TV licencing

good article

[Amethyst]

Re: TV licencing

Providing a range of payment methods
18 An important part of reducing evasion is making it easy to pay the licence fee,
and the BBC has been successful at this by introducing a range of payment
methods. A 1998 survey commissioned by the BBC showed that only
0.2 per cent of respondents claimed that payment was not possible under any
of the methods available (paragraph 3.7).

19 Of the various methods, payment by direct debit has several advantages - it
ensures timely payment; is highly effective in securing renewals; and, as payment
is made direct to the TV Licensing agent, the BBC avoids the need to pay any of
its other agents (for example Post Office Counters Limited) for processing the
payment. The proportion of people paying their licence fee by direct debit has
increased from 15 per cent in 1991 to 49 per cent in 2001. A survey
commissioned in 2000 by the then TV Licensing agent suggested an achievable
'longer term goal' of 55 per cent direct debit take-up. The BBC now aims to reach
the levels of take-up achieved by the utility companies - which ranged between
35 per cent and 58 per cent in 2001 (paragraphs 3.9 - 3.10, 3.12).
Page 7
6
executi
v
e
summary
THE BBC: COLLECTING THE TELEVISION LICENCE FEE
20 The new TV Licensing agent, Capita, will have targets for transferring customers
to direct debit. There are no explicit contractual incentives for the new
TV Licensing agent to increase take-up of direct debit, but there is a contractual
incentive to retain customers, which direct debit helps to achieve. We
understand that staff incentive schemes will be provided to promote efforts to
increase take-up of direct debit (paragraph 3.12).

21 The BBC does not have the freedom to offer customers a discount for payment
by direct debit, nor can it refuse its services if customers do not accept a
particular method of payment, in the way that utility companies and cable and
satellite television providers can. Indeed, because payment is partly in arrears,
customers on the quarterly scheme are required to pay a premium, and
monthly scheme customers are required to pay one and a half times the cost of
a licence in the first year (paragraph 3.11).
22 The Cash Easy Entry scheme was introduced to help those people who find it
difficult to pay the licence fee, and from its inception in August 1996 to
March 2001 some 1.38 million people have been accepted into the scheme of
whom 0.86 million (63 per cent) were previously unlicensed. A significant
number of people join the scheme as a result of visits carried out by the
TV Licensing agent's enquiry officers. Of those evaders caught by visits carried
out in 1999 - 2000, 47 per cent signed up to the scheme, thereby reducing the
risk of prosecution. But there are problems with people leaving the scheme or
getting into arrears with their payments. Our analysis of payment records for
people who joined the scheme in 1999-2000 showed that of those who had
previously been unlicensed, 19 per cent left the scheme without making any
payments and a further 29 per cent did not complete the first six months'
payments. A factor in this may be that the cost is front-loaded, with the first
year's licence to be paid for over six months (paragraphs 3.13 - 3.14, 3.17).
23 The direct debit instalment schemes and Cash Easy Entry are regulated by the
Department for Culture, Media and Sport and any changes to the payment
schemes would need to be in regulations made by the Secretary of State and
approved by Parliament (paragraph 3.8)

[Amethyst]

Re: TV licencing

http://www.nao.org.uk/publications/n.../0102821es.pdf

[Celestine]

Re: TV licencing

I was pretty stunned by this, so I called them.

At first they stated "It doesn't cost a penny more to pay by cash"

Then it was explained that, though it is a savings scheme the system does mean that you will end up £79 in credit....perpetually??

I asked, "When will the customer get this back?"

"When the customer switches to DD or another payment method"

"What if the customer was, say, on benefits or disabled and could never switch?"

"Ermmmm"

"I mean even if they lived to 99, they would only effectively get their money back on death? Meaning you would have had that £79 for all that time, they never had benefit of that money, so it's gone effectively"

"Ermmmm...I'll ask my manager"

The manager had left for the evening and will call me tomorrow to clarify, maybe I'm wrong....but it just seems a scheme to relieve you of £79.

Anyway, I was honest that I was from LB and that I'd really like a decent explanation of the benefits of this scheme. Otherwise...that £79 seems like an unfair (and hidden) penalty.

[Amethyst]

Re: TV licencing

Cash Easy Entry (Introduced in 1998 and is available to licence fee payers on income
related benefits. It involves licence fee payers making weekly cash payments - £3.90
for the first 25 weeks then one week at £3.50 for the £101 fee - designed to pay for the
first licence in six months. They then pay for their second licence over the next 26
weeks. Then, in the second year of the scheme, they have a full 52 weeks to pay for
their third licence. After the first six months, all payments are therefore being made in
advance);
• Monthly Cash Plan (currently being piloted - licence fee payers make cash payments
on the same basis as the Monthly Budget Plan above);
• Savings Stamps Scheme (allows licence fee payers to save up for their licences in
advance and the stamps are then accepted effectively as cash in whole or part payment
for the full fee).
The Panel commented (p 130):
Take up of Cash Easy Entry has been particularly rapid (from about 75,000 in April
1998 to 273,000 in March 1999), helped by the fact that there is no longer an
insistence that those who use the scheme must be unable to use direct debit facilities.
The Panel has noted, however, that although Cash Easy Entry is in some ways more
generous than other schemes, in that it allows for weekly and fortnightly payments, it
does require its users to pay for two licences in the first year of operation, whereas
the Monthly Cash Plan scheme only requires the user to pay for one licence in six
months and then allows the user twelve months to pay for their second licence.
Moving the Cash Easy Entry scheme on to a similar payment schedule to the
Monthly Cash Plan scheme would therefore reduce payments for its users during the
second six months of their licences. This would put the scheme on a par with the
monthly instalment schemes and be of real benefit to households paying via the
scheme.
The Panel recommends therefore that the Cash Easy Entry Scheme should be put on
a similar payment schedule to the Monthly Cash Plan.
This too was agreed to and implemented by the Wireless Telegraphy (Television Licence
Fees) (Amendment) Regulations 2000
48
, the schedule to which sets out the costs for each
method of payment to take account of the general increase to £104 for a colour licence:
48
SI 2000/630

[Amethyst]

Re: TV licencing

I was pretty stunned by this, so I called them.

At first they stated "It doesn't cost a penny more to pay by cash"

Then it was explained that, though it is a savings scheme the system does mean that you will end up £79 in credit....perpetually??

I asked, "When will the customer get this back?"

"When the customer switches to DD or another payment method"

"What if the customer was, say, on benefits or disabled and could never switch?"

"Ermmmm"

"I mean even if they lived to 99, they would only effectively get their money back on death? Meaning you would have had that £79 for all that time, they never had benefit of that money, so it's gone effectively"

"Ermmmm...I'll ask my manager"

The manager had left for the evening and will call me tomorrow to clarify, maybe I'm wrong....but it just seems a scheme to relieve you of £79.

Anyway, I was honest that I was from LB and that I'd really like a decent explanation of the benefits of this scheme. Otherwise...that £79 seems like an unfair (and hidden) penalty.

FABULOUS Cel ... I love you

So what we going to do about it

[Celestine]

Re: TV licencing

First we will see if they call back.........if they don't I'll pester them until they confirm or deny that this £79 is a hidden penalty of paying cash.

If it is a hidden penalty then its a big campaign in its own right, it would be interesting to research the legalities and come up with a decent letter and POC for a claim. I wonder what the outcome would be....might be worth a go just to test the system. Small claims...no risk

[Mochamoos]

Re: TV licencing

Did the manager call you?

[Celestine]

Re: TV licencing

Yes, he did. In fact I had a call from their Media and Communications dept.

We went round in circles for a bit, then he asked me to email him a specific scenario to see if he could clarify whether this £79 would be until age 75.
From what he has said....it would seem so.

I will email him tonight for further clarification.

[calamity jane]

Re: TV licencing

When you pay for your licence monthly, quarterly or on payment plan you pay the first 6 months in advance.
For anything other than monthly DD or paying in full they charge a fee
for quarterly it's £1.25 making total payable £140.50.

The £5.50 x 26 = £143.00 for the first licence includes £7.50 (yrly)instalment fee
£2.75 x 26 = £71.50 first 6 months 2nd licence includes £3.75 (6mths)instalment fee.

Hope that makes sense.