Families struggling to pay for their TV licence will get more support under new plans published by the BBC.
The corporation is aiming to help women in particular, and is hoping to cut the number of prosecutions among those who are unable to pay their fee in the cost of living crisis.
The report revealed that the BBC plans to work with debt advice charity StepChange to ensure households in financial difficulty can access help, introducing a two-month breathing space on enforcement action if they agree to a debt advice referral from TV Licensing. It will also extend its payment plan – allowing the cost of a TV Licence to be spread over 12 months through instalments – to all unlicensed households, breaking the fee down into smaller payments.
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Watching live TV without a licence is against the law and TV Licensing has enforcement officers that carry out checks. Fee dodgers can face prosecution plus a fine of up to £1,000 if they're found to be watching live TV or BBC iPlayer without a licence.
The rules around TV licencing are complicated. If you watch or record shows as they're being broadcast, you need a TV licence. You also need one if you use BBC iPlayer, but not for other catch-up channels, such as C4. The rules apply regardless of the device you're watching on, so even watching live TV on a phone requires a licence at your home address. However, you do not need a TV licence if you only watch content that's downloaded or streamed after broadcast – apart from if it's on BBC iPlayer. More details are on the TV Licensing website.
According to the most recent data from the Ministry of Justice, there were 47,622 prosecutions and 44,106 convictions for failing to pay the television licence in the year ending June 2022. The BBC plan is a response to the its Gender Disparity Review, commissioned to analyse the reason behind the high levels of prosecutions among low-income women, who currently make up 75 per cent of those penalised.
Overall, the review concluded that this disparity was caused by factors such as more women experience severe financial hardship than men, are more likely to be at home to answer the door, and are more frequently named as a contact for bills.
Clare Sumner, director of policy at the BBC told The Mirror: "While we know societal factors drive the gender disparity, we’re committed to making improvements to our own processes wherever possible. Our action plan will improve support for people in real financial difficulty to help them stay licensed and reduce risk of prosecution. We look forward to the new partnership with StepChange and we will closely monitor its impact."
"As I have said in the report, women and men do not appear to be treated differently. Rather, the societal factors at play are also often present alongside disparities in the criminal justice system, and health and other services."
Other proposals put forward in the BBC's action plan include better training for TV Licence visiting officers to help them have a "deeper understanding" of debt and financial hardship and more opportunities to buy a licence before prosecution.
The annual cost of a TV licence looks set to rise sharply next year, adding more expense for households feeling the pressure. The licence fee has been frozen for two years, but according to The Telegraph, the fee will rise in line with inflation by 8.2%or an additional £13, bringing the price up to £172 from £159.
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However, some do not believe the pledges go far enough. Emma Torr, legal director at the law charity APPEAL told The Mirror that the action plan focuses on "getting more people to pay their licence fee rather than on ensuring that those in genuine hardship". She said: "This review came about because women, and those in genuine financial difficulty, have been disproportionately bearing the burden of the BBC's enforcement scheme for years. Previous efforts by the BBC to address the disparity have failed so it’s clear that tinkering around the edges does not work - there needs to be a fundamental shift in the way that they enforce license fee payment.
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