BBC presenters 'driven to brink of SUICIDE' over tax problems caused by their employer
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BBC presenters will claim they were driven to the brink of suicide over tax problems caused by their employer.
Scores of on-air talent claiming bad treatment will be heard by the Department of Culture, Media & Sport today, with most claiming they were forced to set up a Personal Service Company against their will, in order to be paid – and now face huge tax bills.
In evidence to be presented today, one presenter says: “I’m grateful to do a job I love. I have always loved working for the BBC but the way they have behaved has reduced me to more than tears. It’s one of the factors that three days ago took me into my loft where I tried to hang myself.”
Another anonymous presenter agreed: “My physical and mental health has suffered and the quality of life with my young family has been impacted. In the darkest of days and the spectre of retrospective action from HMRC hanging over me daily, I contemplated taking my own life.
“On the back of my BBC pass it says trust/honesty is the foundation of the BBC. I feel cheated.”
Another broadcaster says during 18 years of continuous presenting she has had no staff benefits - no holiday pay, no sick pay, no maternity pay, and no BBC pension contributions.
She explains: “I have suffered life-altering levels of stress and worry which affect me daily and have had a deeply detrimental effect on my family, my children, my health and my wellbeing. Over many years I have been utterly let down and mistreated by the corporation, treated like an alien species because I am a presenter. I am concerned that it has done irreparable damage to me.”
One other freelance worker said they had been “strong-armed” into a PSC along with thousands of others. “I now see the arrangement for what it was - a brazen attempt to minimise the BBC’s tax outlay while insulating itself from any future claim that it had avoided tax.”
Charles Nove of BBC Radio Oxford claims he “faces homelessness” over the BBC’s decision to recoup tax and National Insurance from him, when the company he was forced to set up has already paid. “We cannot afford to be ‘double taxed’ on these earnings and we are left with an unholy mess to resolve.”
Many presenters complain they were bullied into forming a PSC with the threat of losing their job, then but were told by HMRC afterwards that they were considered employed by the BBC despite having received none of the benefits. One explained: “They’ve demanded a substantial five-figure payment. I cannot sleep, experience constant anxiety, and now feel I was totally duped by the BBC, an organisation I had once trusted implicitly.”
One long-serving presenter explained they were made to set up a service company in 2008 or work with no contract. “It was made clear this would offer no job security whatsoever. I would say I was effectively bullied into a decision I did not want to make. I have now been asked for £56,000 pounds back tax which I do not have.”
(Image: Handout)
Last night one BBC source said that many of the current management team were not in their roles during the period when PSCs were being encouraged, after 2010. “We’re not unsympathetic to many of these stories but everything has to be examined on a case by case basis – we can’t write a blank cheque.”
Commenting on the evidence, Chair of the Committee Damian Collins MP, said:“It is highly disturbing to hear stories of talented broadcasters and journalists allegedly being forced on to contractual arrangements that have had serious and damaging consequences for them – not only on their financial circumstances but, in some cases, their mental health.
“By allegedly being coerced into these contracts these individuals may have been denied employment rights, and some face liability for huge tax bills. The evidence presented gives a distressing insight into the effect the protracted discussions on pay have had on staff and their families. Some have faced working without contracts and pay for extended periods, causing untold stress and financial insecurity.
“This evidence indicates that the BBC is falling well below the standards we would expect in terms of how it treats its staff.”
MPs will also reveal a letter in which the corporation advises Radio 6 DJ Liz Kershaw that it will use her only on an ‘ad hoc’ basis unless she has a PSC.