The corporation admitted to Express.co.uk that its phone lines were experiencing an overwhelming amount of calls. This has resulted in a backlog of people being delayed as they opt out of paying the £157.50 annual fee. Rebecca Ryan, campaign director at Defund the BBC, said the online form says customers have to call, but then the call system says to go online as all agents are busy, before hanging up.
She told Express.co.uk: “The BBC appears to be deliberately preventing people from cancelling their TV licences by bouncing them back and forth between their website and call centre, neither of which are currently functional.
“This is deeply worrying. People should not be trapped into paying a licence for a service they do not use, particularly when it is under the guise of a public service and categorised as a tax.
“Imagine if this happened with vehicle tax? There would rightly be uproar.”
Ms Ryan also offered advice for people struggling to cancel their licence fee.
She said: “Those wanting to cancel their licence but finding themselves blocked in this way should simply cancel their direct debit and write TV licensing an email confirming that they no longer need a licence.”
Customers are able to cancel their TV licence for a number of reasons.
This includes if they no longer watch or record programmes as they are being shown on TV, on any channel.
They can also cancel if they watch or streams programmes live on an online TV service or downloads or watch any BBC programmes on iPlayer.
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Ms Ryan also accused the BBC of targeting women and vulnerable people in order to change their mind over cancelling their licence fee.
According to figures from the Ministry of Justice, 93,319 of 129,446 prosecutions in 2018 for TV licence evasion prosecutions were brought against women (72 percent), up from 71 percent in 2017 and 67 percent in 2012.
She told Express.co.uk: “The BBC disproportionately prosecutes women and the vulnerable as they are more likely to be at home and more easily intimidated by ‘inspectors’ when they call.
“For example, 70 percent of those prosecuted are women, whereas on average they only carry out 20 percent of all crimes.
“The BBC’s method of prosecution is clearly discriminatory and the government must tackle this urgently.”
A total of 129,446 people were prosecuted for not paying their licence fee in 2018.
The majority were found guilty through fast-track prosecutions.
And three-quarters of those prosecuted were women, possible because they were more likely to be at home during the day when licensing officers called.
A BBC spokesperson told Express.co.uk: “The Government’s own independent review of TV licence fee enforcement found ‘no evidence to suggest that activity is unfairly and intentionally targeted at women’.
“When TV Licensing visits an unlicensed property, a statement is taken from any responsible adult present.
“TV Licensing’s role is to collect the licence fee and inform people about the need to buy a TV Licence.
“Our database of more than 30 million UK addresses is the primary tool for checking which households have not paid for their TV Licence.”
