'Scrooge' BBC bosses accused of threatening pensioners with Christmas Day calls to check for TV licences
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BBC bosses have been accused of harassing pensioners by sending them letters threatening to call them on Christmas Day if they have no TV licence. A campaign group accused the Beeb of utilising 'thuggish' tactics to pile pressure onto OAPs. The notice, which threatens to slap elderly viewers with penalties of £1,000 and legal costs, reads: 'Will you be in on December 25?.
![[The BBC collects licence fees to help pay for programming (File image)]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/16/01/93180257-14196157-image-a-16_1734312741738.jpg)
'As there's no record of a TV licence at your address, you should expect a visit from an enforcement officer. 'It may be on December 25 or another day. You could be prosecuted if you are caught watching, recording or downloading programmes illegally. Our officers visit an address every 10 seconds.
'And if no one answers, they can come back.'. Dennis Reed, from the Silver Voices campaign group, told the Sun: 'Such threatening behaviour is thuggish. 'It's an underhanded, desperate attempt to try to pressure older and vulnerable people into paying. BBC bosses have been accused of harassing pensioners by sending them letters threatening to call them on Christmas Day if they have no TV licence (File image).
The BBC collects licence fees to help pay for programming (File image). 'To specify Christmas Day of all days is astonishing. Clearly they won't be calling on December 25.'. A spokesperson for TV Licensing, the body in charge of collections, told the Sun: 'We apologise to anyone who received [a letter].
'There will be no visits on Christmas Day.'. MailOnline has contacted the BBC's press office for comment. The increased enforcement comes after the government revealed just last month that the TV licence fee will increase by £5 or 2.9 per cent from £169.50 to £174.50 next April.
