Jeremy Paxman and Michael Palin line up to blast licence fee decision

Stars including Jeremy Paxman and Sir Michael Palin have blasted the decision to axe BBC-funded free TV licences for 3.7million over-75s, as a petition to reverse the move topped 430,000 signatures. 

The former Newsnight host accused the BBC of ‘shooting itself in the foot’ for accepting responsibility for the benefit from the government. 

‘Benefits are the business of government, not broadcasters,’ he said. ‘Like many of the BBC’s friends, I keep wondering how the organisation can keep shooting itself in the foot. It must look like a chunk of Emmental by now.’ 

Newly-knighted Sir Michael said: ‘I know the BBC did a pretty bad deal [on licence fee negotiations]… I just wish it wasn’t at the expense of the people who now have to fork out for their licence.’

The fightback over the decision is continuing today, with furious viewers tweeting that they were cancelling their direct debit payments to the BBC in outrage. 

Other BBC stars also condemned the decision to restrict the benefit solely to people on Pension Credit, although many blamed the Government.

Baroness Bakewell, the presenter and former ‘tsar’ for the elderly, said responsibility for the over-75s concession was ‘a government decision imposed on the BBC’ and ‘pensioners who do not claim tax credits but are still needful should get a free licence’.

Meanwhile, broadcaster Ben Fogle announced he would donate his entire salary from this year’s BBC Animal Park to pay for pensioners’ TV licences

It is not known how much the former Countryfile Star will be donating, but he did not feature on last year’s list of BBC stars earning over £150,000.

In a post on Instagram, Fogle said: ‘I love the BBC. I think it is one of the greatest institutions in the world. It is the envy of most nations, it makes amazing content and I’d argue it is still value for money.

‘I also owe my whole career to the BBC. They gave me my first break and they (you) employed me for many years but I am disappointed in the recent announcement on the abolition of free licences to the over 75s.’ 

The generous move comes as the scandal added further attention to  the BBC’s ‘profligate’ spending, including the whopping salaries of its presenters, with Match of the Day host Gary Lineker topping the table with a £1.8m pay packet. 

Age UK’s petition, which calls on the government to return to funding free licence fees for the over-75s, has already racked up more than 430,000 signatures. 

Another 128,000 people have signed one of the Parliament website calling on the universal benefit to continue – breaching the 100,000 level needed for it to be considered for a debate. 

Meanwhile, another to abolish the licence fee altogether because it is ‘too expensive’ has attracted more than 186,000 supporters.  

The government used to cover the bill for free TV licences, but the responsibility was handed to the BBC in 2015.

This had saddled the broadcaster with a bill of at least £745m from 2021, rising to more than £1billion by 2029. In return, the Government gave the BBC permission to either limit or remove the entitlement. 

They were also allowed to raise the general licence fee by inflation.  

The changes, which come into effect in June 2020 will give the BBC a total saving of £495m from 2021. 

Six Tory leadership hopefuls have now spoken out against the move.  

As the backlash grew yesterday, furious pensioners posted pictures on social media of themselves ripping up their TV licences in a symbolic protest. 

On Twitter user wrote: ‘Just cancelled my DD for TV licence! If everyone in the UK done the same what could they do?!’

Another tweeted: ‘Just cancelled my BBC TV licence and disconnected my aerial in response to the BBC’s poor decision to cancel TV licence fee waiver for the over 75s!’

And a third said: ‘We must stop watching the BBC. I just cancelled my TV licence because I am annoyed they want to start charging over 75s to pay TV licences.’

World War Two veteran Victor Gregg led the condemnation yesterday, accusing the BBC of ‘robbing the piggy banks’ of the generation who saved the world from Hitler. 

Mr Gregg, 99, told Good Morning Britain: ‘It’s only two days ago that they were patting all these old people on the head and calling them heroes.

‘It’s disgraceful – they want money, they’re overspending. Who do they attack? Those who can’t answer back.’

These was further controversy last night as it emerged people forced to buy TV licences will help top up generous BBC staff pensions.

Some former corporation bosses are entitled to six-figure handouts in retirement as members of a gold-plated payment scheme.

But the BBC faces a financial crisis with a black hole in its pension pot, its accounts reveal. It plans to spend £2billion plugging the gap by 2028 at a rate of around £200million a year, some of which will come from licence payments.

Some have questioned whether the BBC’s pension crisis played a part in its decision to scrap most free TV licences. Corporation staff have long enjoyed enviable pension deals, with some entitled to six-figure sums because they are on a ‘final salary’ scheme.

Former BBC creative director Alan Yentob’s pension is at least £216,667 a year, according to a calculation by analysts in 2010. Ex-deputy director general Mark Byford gets at least £229,500 a year, according to analysts – although others say it is closer to £400,000.

The BBC’s final salary pension scheme was deemed unsustainable in 2006 and closed to new joiners in 2010. The broadcaster no longer publishes the entitlements of executive board members.

Pensions expert Baroness Altmann wrote in a letter to The Times yesterday: ‘One week our country salutes the magnificent D-Day veterans who fought for our freedom, the next it snatches away their much-valued benefit.’

The BBC said last night it ‘is no different to many organisations in having a deficit in its pension scheme caused by external market factors’. 

A spokesman added: ‘We closed the scheme to new joiners in 2010, are required by law to make payments to close the deficit and by managing this over the next decade we’re minimising the impact on our services. The reality is that the Government decided to stop funding free licences for all over-75s and the BBC has made the fairest decision on the future policy.’

The licence fee debate has focused further attention on the BBC’s spending decisions, which have repeatedly caused controversy. 

It has lavished licence fee payer cash on behind-the-scenes staff. More than 100 of them are paid more than the Prime Minister, according to the most recent annual report.

Some of its biggest earners have such nonsensical job titles, that most members of the public will have little idea of what they actually do.

In 2017, the Corporation said it had paid between £150,000 and £200,000 a year to its ‘integration lead’ Richard Smith and ‘identity architect’ Colin Brown.

BBC bosses defend its spending on talent, arguing that it needs to compete with rivals for the best staff.

However, they would be hard-pressed to justify many of the other costs they rack up. The BBC wasted £200,000 of licence fee payer’s money on taxi, train and hotel bookings that were never used between 2015 and 2018. According to the Sun on Sunday, bosses paid £172,000 for 3,418 rail tickets, £15,000 on 944 taxi trips and £32,000 for 233 hotel rooms that were cancelled.

The BBC was unable to claim refunds on any of them. The Corporation also seems to be remarkably bad at finding flights that are good value for money.

Last year, an unnamed BBC boss spent £9,000 on a return flight to Miami – which wasn’t even first class.

Business class flights costing £3,000 less than this were easily found by reporters.

The Miami trip was one of 20 eye-watering fares for back office staff for the 12 months to December, which together cost nearly £100,000.

The BBC claims that a lot of its travel arrangements have to be made last minute to accommodate its executives’ busy schedules.

But they keep some spending strictly under wraps. They refuse to disclose how much it costs for the army of hundreds of staff that cover Glastonbury festival every year, claiming it would breach EU human rights laws.

However, it has admitted to lavishing money on holidays for its stars. In 2016, it spent around £5,000 on a pair of business class flights for Undercover actress Sophie Okonedo and her boyfriend. They used them to go wine tasting and whale watching in Cape Town after she had finished filming in Johannesburg.

However, these sums pale in comparison to the huge sums the Corporation has overspent on landmark projects.

In 2013, it was forced to cancel its ‘Digital Media Initiative’, having spent £100million. It also blew £12.5million on the BBC Store, a download service supposed to bring in millions by cashing in on viewers’ nostalgia. It closed after just over a year.

Its building projects have also been a disaster for the coffers. In 2015, the NAO censured the BBC over its £1billion London headquarters, which went £107million over budget. 

A BBC spokesman said: ‘The BBC is assessed as one of the most efficient telecoms and media companies and by significantly cutting running costs we’ve made sure as much money as possible goes straight into programmes which audiences love.’        

Elderly women and vulnerable groups such as the disabled and dementia sufferers will be the worst hit by BBC’s decision to withdraw free licences for pensioners, figures reveal

By Katherine Rushton for The Daily Mail 

Vulnerable elderly women will bear the brunt of the BBC’s decision to strip millions of pensioners of free TV licences.

Women are two-and-a-half times more likely than men to be dragged through the courts after failing to pay the £154.50 annual charge, according to 2018 statistics disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act. They are also far more likely to end up in jail.

Last night, licence fee abolition campaigner Caroline Levesque- Bartlett said: ‘There is something deeply wrong with a system that routinely punishes women more than men, despite overwhelming evidence that men commit more crimes.

‘The TV licence is a regressive tax and a deeply sexist one.’

The BBC’s own research into licence fee reform has revealed the corporation knew that elderly women and other vulnerable groups such as the disabled and dementia sufferers would be the worst hit by its decision.

‘Any decision other than copying the existing concession would affect more women than men, more of those from a BAME [black, Asian and minority ethnic] background, and more disabled people and people with long-term health issues like dementia,’ its ‘equality impact assessment’ said.

‘Any decision other than copying the existing concession will also adversely affect more women than men as women tend to live longer.’

The decision to strip free TV licences from the 3.7million over-75s not on pension credit will also ‘have a more significant qualitative effect on women than men because women, especially older women, are more likely to be single, and so be reliant on TV for information and companionship’, the BBC’s research said.

Figures obtained by the Mail show that of the 139,719 people prosecuted for licence fee evasion last year, 100,725 were women. Around 9,300 were found not guilty, meaning they suffered the ordeal needlessly.

The vast majority of convicted evaders got a criminal record and a court fine of up to £1,000. But in 65 cases people were jailed after they failed to pay the fine, spending an average of 19 days each behind bars.

Of those sentences, 40 were for women – more than 60 per cent of the total. By contrast, less than 5 per cent of the general prison population is female, Ministry of Justice figures show.

Some people jailed in Northern Ireland for failing to pay their fine went to prison more than once over the issue.

Age UK director Caroline Abrahams said: ‘Many older women are missing out on pension credit and are therefore set to lose their free TV licence, despite living on a very low income. A big extra bill on top of the other challenges that many will be facing by this age will be a bitter blow. For many, the possibility of being taken to court for non-payment will be a source of huge anxiety.’

A TV Licensing spokesman said: ‘Individuals cannot be imprisoned for licence fee evasion, only for non-payment of court-ordered fines.

‘The number of women imprisoned in England and Wales in 2018 was four, a 50 per cent reduction from the previous year’s eight women.

‘Prosecutions in England and Wales have fallen by 6 per cent from 138,000 to 129,000 over the same period.’