Latest news with #TVlicence
The Sun
3 days ago
- Business
- The Sun
I accidentally paid £159 for a TV licence then realised I'm entitled to a free one – now I can't get a refund
Q. In March 2022 I paid £159 to renew my TV licence. I then realised I am entitled to a free licence as I am over 75 and receive pension credit. 1 Around the same time I developed cancer, so I didn't contact TV Licensing until a year later. I was told to send photos of my passport and a letter from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to TV Licensing to prove my age and that I receive pension credit. But TV Licensing then said my pictures were not the right type. I was so focused on my cancer that I decided to leave it at that. Thankfully, my cancer responded to the treatment and I am now in good health. I decided to try and reclaim the refund this year but can't find any information on how to do so. I've received a free TV licence since 2023 so I know I am entitled to it. Can you help? David Platt, Liverpool. A. This was already a difficult time in your life, so I can understand that chasing a refund was not your top priority. I went on the TV Licensing website to see for myself how difficult it is to get a refund. It was hard to track down the information on your situation, so I can see why you found it tricky. Although you made a mistake, it should not be difficult to get your money back. When I contacted the company about your case it told me that the letter you sent to prove that you get pension credit was for the wrong year. It also said it was not aware that you were 75 when you applied for your licence. TV Licensing has now been in touch with you to help you apply for your refund. I'm glad this is sorted - but it's not good enough that you were initially let down. The company has told me that it has recently made a change that should make it easier for people who are eligible for a free licence to get one. It now automatically checks with the DWP to see whether someone who applies for a TV licence gets pension credit. This is a step in the right direction but there is more that can be done to make it simpler for people to get refunds.
Yahoo
06-08-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
DWP state pensioners able to cut TV licence to £0 in fully legally manoeuvre
TV licence costs are one of the most controversial taxes in the UK - along with the likes of Inheritance Tax - which can leave pensioners in particular trying to search for ways to make ends meet on their weekly state pension. Despite the surge in popularity of streaming platforms like Netflix, Disney Plus and Amazon Prime Video, the TV licence is still required for nearly all households, as watching any live programme as it's broadcast, or any BBC show, obligates you to pay the charge which is now set at £174.50, reports While some are happy to fund the BBC and the free-to-air broadcast infrastructure the TV licence funds, others are increasingly asking why they are paying up for something they find themselves not using. READ MORE: Warning over rise of DWP pension age in the future Get breaking news on BirminghamLive WhatsApp, click the link to join There's never been a better time to see if you can cut the costs of your TV licence, possibly all the way to £0, depending on your income and personal circumstances, according to the rules set by TV Licensing. State pensioners don't automatically qualify for a TV licence that's free. Instead, they need to be aged 74 or over, with an income beneath a certain threshold. Your income also needs to be low enough to qualify for Pension Credit. The benefit is given to those who have less than £227.10 per week income (£346.60 for a couple), based on the new rates which were introduced in April. Anyone who hit state pension age before April 2016, will be on the old basic state pension, which only pays £176.45, unless you have other top ups like the Pre-97 Additional State Pension. Therefore, unless you have other income or savings, everyone on the old state pension will be eligible to claim Pension Credit. This is not automatic, and it must be claimed from the DWP with an application. In turn, those who are claiming Pension Credit will be able to apply for a free TV licence. If you were already claiming Pension Credit, you can make your free TV licence application aged 74, instead of waiting until you're 75. TV Licensing says: "You can apply for a free TV licence if you, as the licence holder, are 75 years or older AND you, or your partner living at the same address, receive Pension Credit. "If you already receive Pension Credit, you can apply for your free licence when you are 74 years old. "We'll update your payments to cover you until your 75th birthday, and then you'll be covered by your free licence. "We'll confirm this in writing." Even if you have too much income to qualify for pension credit, if anyone in your household is legally blind, you could at least cut your TV licence in half to just £84. It only needs one person in the household to be legally blind to cut the whole household bill in half.
Times
27-07-2025
- Business
- Times
RTE loses €58m in licence fees after Ryan Tubridy scandal
RTE has lost more than €58 million in TV licence revenue since the fallout from the Ryan Tubridy payments scandal, according to new figures from the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport. Government sources have described the decline as 'the real cost of the collapse in public trust' in the national broadcaster with the scale of the loss dwarfing the RTE controversies, including the €2.2 million lost on Toy Show the Musical, the €3.3 million in executive exit packages and the €345,000 in undisclosed payments made to Tubridy. The department's figures compare first-time sales and renewals of TV licenses, which cost €160 a year, from July 2021 to June 2023 with those from July 2023 to June 2025, after the emergence of the Tubridy controversy in mid-2023. Between July 2021 and June 2023, RTE collected €306 million in licence revenue. Over the following two-year period that figure dropped by €58.4 million to €247.6 million. In that time, licence transactions fell by more than 365,000, from 1,912,500 to 1,547,357. An Post, which is responsible for collecting the annual fee, said the revenue fall stemmed from a range of factors but acknowledged: 'The RTE payments issue has also had an impact on TV licence sales and renewals.' A shrinking pool of potential licence holders is contributing to the loss, due to both changing media consumption and rising eligibility for free licences under the Department of Social Protection (DSP). 'An ever-increasing number of people are entitled to a DSP free licence,' An Post said. 'Just under half of the database is now made up of addresses either entitled to free licences or listed as having 'no TV'.' An Post is collaborating with the government's TV licence technical working group to overhaul the licence collection system. As The Sunday Times previously reported, An Post submitted a report in July last year outlining proposed reforms. Among the proposals: commercial premises such as hotels, bookmakers and bars would pay €169.50 for the first 15 screens, and the same amount for every additional five screens. Property owners, rather than tenants or occupiers, would become liable for payment — a change An Post estimates could improve compliance by up to 20 per cent. Patrick O'Donovan, the arts and media minister, is expecting to receive a report in mid-November on reforms and enhancements to the TV licence model from the taskforce; once he has considered it, he will decide next steps. The government's decision to retain the current TV licence system last year proved controversial, particularly as the Future of Media Commission had recommended its abolition and replacement with a new public funding model. Kevin Bakhurst, the RTE director-general, has previously described the TV licence model as 'broken' and warned it was no longer a sustainable source of funding. Despite the overall drop, the latest figures show a modest improvement: from 761,762 transactions between July 2023 and June last year to 785,595 in the following 12 months — a year-on-year increase of 23,833. However, this still represents a sharp fall from the 947,999 transactions recorded in the 12 months leading to June 2023 — a decline of 162,404. Speaking to The Sunday Times, Bakhurst welcomed the recent uptick in payments but stressed the need for long-term stability. 'We remain grateful to the vast majority of the audience who have paid their TV licences and are encouraged by the recent increase in the number paying compared to last year,' he said. 'We have made very significant changes to the way RTE is run and will continue to do everything we can to demonstrate to licence fee payers that for around €3 a week, they are getting great programmes and content across TV, radio and online — and receiving value for money. 'It is incredibly important that we now have multi-annual funding for three years. That allows us to deliver the ambitious strategy, plan programmes and commission them over that period.' Bakhurst also pointed out that the TV licence fee had remained unchanged at €160 since 2008.
BBC News
15-07-2025
- Business
- BBC News
BBC TV licence fee: How much is it and who needs to have one?
The licence fee raised £3.8bn for the BBC in the year ending March 2025, according to the corporation's latest annual report. That was an increase of £183m on the previous 12-month period, and represented 65% of the the BBC's total income of £5.90bn. However, the number of households paying for the licence fee fell by 359,000 to 22.8 takes top spot on BBC earnings for eighth year running How much is the BBC TV licence fee and what does it pay for? The TV licence fee is currently £174.50 a year, up from £169.50 in 2024. It costs £58.50 for black and white TV sets. Money raised from the licence fee pays for BBC shows and services, including:eight TV channelsmultiple national and local radio stations, BBC iPlayerthe BBC website podcastsapps including those covering news, sports, CBeebies and weather The BBC's remaining income comes from commercial and other activities - such as programme sales, grants, royalties and rental exchange for licence fee money, the BBC is required to provide public service to its Royal Charter, this means its mission is "to act in the public interest" by providing "impartial, high-quality and distinctive" content, which will "inform, educate and entertain" everyone who pays the licence fee. Who needs to pay for a TV licence? By law, each household in the UK - with some exceptions - has to pay the licence fee if they:watch or record programmes as they're being shown live on any TV channelwatch programmes live on streaming servicesdownload or watch programmes on BBC iPlayerThe rules apply to any device on which a programme is viewed, including a TV, desktop or laptop computer, mobile phone, tablet or set-top most cases, people with second homes need to pay for a separate TV are responsible for ensuring they have a TV licence unless their tenancy agreement says their landlord will provide it. In 2020, the BBC became responsible for paying the licence fee for all over-75s. The cost was previously covered by the government. Since then, it has only funded free licences for households where someone of that age also receives the means-tested pension credit. The BBC funded more than a million free licences in 2024-25. Anyone who is registered blind can get a 50% discount. Customers who struggling to pay can spread the cost across 12 months. How many people are prosecuted for not paying the licence fee? If you do not pay the licence fee, you can be taken to court, and fined up to £1,000 plus legal costs and/or compensation. The most recent figures show there were 25,550 convictions for licence fee evasion in 2024. You cannot be sent to prison for licence fee evasion, but you can be jailed for failing to pay the resulting March 2025, the TV licensing body estimated that around 88% of households which need a TV licence had one. It said officers visited more than 1.9 million addresses over the previous 12 months, and found more than 64,000 people watching live TV without a said £166m had been spent collecting the licence fee during the period. What do critics of the licence fee say? The licence fee was introduced in 1946, when the BBC was the sole UK it now competes not only with advertising-funded TV channels, but also online content such as YouTube and subscription streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+ and Now people ask why they should be forced to pay for the BBC if it is a service they do not licence fee is also a flat-rate payment, which means that the poorest households pay as much as the have been raised about whether non-payment of the licence fee is a serious enough issue to merit criminal prosecution. How could the licence fee change in the future? The licence fee's existence is guaranteed until 31 December government will begin a review exploring how the BBC might be funded after that point later in 2025. It follows an earlier review launched by the previous Conservative government in December a speech in May 2025, BBC director general Tim Davie said the system for funding the BBC should be reformed and said he was not asking for the "status quo" to continue, but would "keep an open mind" about the future of the licence fee or what could replace it.A number of alternative funding models have been suggested:a tax on broadband connectionsa government grant funded out of general taxationpart-funding through advertisinga subscription modelIn January 2025, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy ruled out funding the BBC from general taxation, and said that she was thinking "quite radically and creatively" about alternatives.
Irish Times
26-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
O'Donovan has ‘no notion' of abolishing TV licence fee or replacing it with tax on tech companies
Minister for Communications Patrick O'Donovan has insisted he has 'no notion' of abolishing the TV licence fee or replacing it with a tax on big tech companies. Mr O'Donovan was responding in the Dáil to People Before Profit (PBP) TD Paul Murphy , who described the licence fee as a 'regressive, unjust tax' where the richest and poorest households pay the same €160 fee. Mr Murphy said increasing numbers are 'boycotting' the licence as he asked the Minister to instead tax the social media and technology giants to fund public service broadcasting. 'No, I won't, so that's the end of that,' said Mr O'Donovan. 'I have no notion of doing it. This is a fund that's in place to support RTÉ and public service broadcasters.' READ MORE It also supports the 'sound and vision' sectors, he said. 'I have no intention of replacing it and I have no intention of going down a cul-de-sac that Deputy Murphy would like us to do, which is a road to nowhere for RTÉ and everybody associated with broadcasting,' the Minister said. 'So the short answer is no.' Mr Murphy said the 'tax is deeply unpopular and licence sales have plummeted '. He said 950,000 paid in 2022. That figure dropped to 825,000 in 2023 and to 790,000 in 2024. Mr Murphy said that was a fall of more than 155,000 households 'who are refusing to pay either in protest or because they cannot afford to pay this regressive flat tax, which takes no account of ability to pay'. [ Why I stopped paying my TV licence fee: 'The whole model is broken' Opens in new window ] The Minister replied that 'the licence fee is not a tax. I don't see references to that anywhere in the legislation'. Describing it as an 'important funding mechanism for RTÉ,' Mr O'Donovan said Mr Murphy seems 'to think that there's a phantom entity out there that can pay for everything'. Mr Murphy said the licence accounted for just more than a third of funding for public service broadcasting. He said his party's proposals included a 'radical plan' to increase funding for public service broadcasting by taxing big tech corporations. Mr Murphy said they had a 'parasitical role' in journalism, not creating content but getting most of the advertising from it and it 'clearly makes sense to allow them to pay'. 'I'll continue to support those who refuse to pay the TV licence, and I warn you that that number is increasing,' he said, adding that the number of prosecutions was also dropping. 'You're entitled to start whatever campaign it is you want to start to undermine another public service,' Mr O'Donovan replied. 'I don't support it… and I don't think most people do either.' He said if Mr Murphy gets an opportunity to be in government, he will 'actually see that there's more to running a public service than a megaphone'.
