Why asking the over 75s to start paying for TV licences is a really really bad idea.

November 2019 The free TV licence for all over 75s is set to be withdrawn in 2020 under plans announced by TV Licensing and described by the BBC here.

This is a really bad idea for the following reasons:

1) The costs of doing business with this demographic will be high and is unlikely to return the expected value to BBC.  The plan announcement above already lists extra costs with the need for extra call centre staff and "outreach programme delivered by specially trained customer care field staff."

2) The decision to charge for the TVL will be based knowing if the customer is "in receipt" of pension credit. This will involve the delving into the finances of old folks, a notorious area for confusion and uncertainty.

3) Asking someone to pay for something that used to be free is a very tough ask especially when done without showing extra value.  Saying that the TVL supports iPlayer, Sounds and lots of websites is not a convincing sell to the over 75s.

4) There is a banner on the TVL  announcement page that says

"Watch out for scam emails and phone calls asking you to provide 

your bank, card or personal details. 

For more information, please check our  help and advice on scams.

Financial organisations world wide have a pitiful record of protecting elderly customers from financial cons, frauds and abuse even when large sums are involved. The chances of preventing cold calls about "You have not paid your TVL - pay by card now." will be the fraud challenge of 2020.

5) Recovery of non-payment of £157 + fine from over 75s via the courts will be a legal challenge too far. Any widespread attempts to take frail pensioners through the courts system for non-payments of TVL, a cause for which there is little public support, is just going to create noise and repetitional damage to the BBC. Remember the poll tax riots of the 80' ? An unpopular and badly thought out tax that eventually factored in the downfall of a government. Remember the RIAA suing downloaders ?

6) The outsourcing business partners who implement the TV Licensing collections will hide behind the skirts of the BBC transferring all the noise and upset potentially changing the BBC reputation from a "much loved auntie" into a rapacious beast.

7) The justification for scrapping the free licence scheme was based on a result of

"The BBC's consultation was announced in 

November last year. Nearly half of respondents (48%) 

said they were in favour of continuing concessions to over-75s."

This type of result is not consensus for scrapping something that will financially impact up to 3.7 million over 75s. The Brexit question has a similar result and look how divisive the fallout from that has been.

What comes next

TVLicence gift cards.