LICENCE TO BILL
BBC wage bill for stars goes up by £11MILLION as bosses slash free TV licences for OAPs
BBC stars on huge salaries were paid £11million even more than last year - at the same time the corporation has decided to take TV licences away from over 75s.
The Beeb revealed today the total wage bill for its big on-air stars reached £158million, up from £147million the previous year.
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That includes 78 stars who are paid more than £150,000 a year.
The rich list included Match Of The Day's Gary Lineker who came top yet again, and Radio 2 DJ and chat show host Graham Norton who came in at number three.
There are three women in the top ten for the first time this year - Claudia Winkleman, Zoe Ball and Vanessa Feltz.
But some top stars' pay is excluded from the annual reports thanks to a loophole in pay rules.
Stars working on Top Gear, Sherlock and Strictly aren't shown - meaning Claudia's total paypacket will be far higher.
But the Beeb was under fire as just five of the top 20 best-paid stars were women this year.
Last year there were none in the top ten at all.
They claimed to have pushed up the pay of top-paid women to 45 per cent, compared to 25 per cent three years ago.
Last year several high-profile BBC stars agreed to take huge pay cuts to try and level the playing field.
And their annual report also shows they have made £150million of efficiency cuts.
But their gender pay gap is still 6.7 per cent across the whole firm.
And Match Of The Day pundit Alan Shearer's salary has gone up at least £20,000 since last year.
Meanwhile the number of executives earning in excess of £150,000 has risen from 92 to 106.
From June 2020 only those with a low income who get pension credit will be able to get a free TV licence, worth £154.50 a year.
That means that pensioners on as little as £8,700 a year could see the freebie axed.
The number of people getting one for free is expected to drop from 4.6million down to 1.5million.
The move is expected to save the corporation £500million a year, and has sparked outrage among Brits and MPs.
Harry Fone, Grassroots Campaign Manager for the TaxPayers’ Alliance blasted the firm for paying out more to stars at the same time as cutting licences for the elderly.
He stormed: "After announcing that many pensioners will now be forced to pay the dreaded TV tax, you’d think the BBC would have shown more respect to taxpayers by cutting back on unnecessary spending.
"How can the BBC justify giving so many sky-high salaries - that most licence-fee payers can only dream of - when whacking up charges on older people?"
And Damian Collins, chairman of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee, added: "The rising talent bill is concerning in light of plans to remove free TV licences from all but the poorest of those over 75. We’ll be raising this with BBC executives when they appear before the committee later this month."
Tory leadership hopeful Jeremy Hunt has vowed to protect free TV licences if he gets into No10.
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The BBC press office said at the time it revealed it would cut back on free TV licences for the elderly: "Free TV licences for over-75s on Pension Credit are expected to cost the BBC around £250million a year. Continuing free TV licences for all over-75s would cost another £500m per year on top of that, and that figure would rise.
"Even if we stopped employing every presenter currently earning over £150,000 that would save less than £20m – and it would mean losing some of your favourite stars."
And Director General Tony Hall, who was paid up to £455,000 last year, defended the BBC yesterday in a blog for HuffingtonPost.
He said: "Our successes will no doubt be drowned out in some quarters by debates about pay or whether the BBC is efficient.
"I'm more than happy to debate whether the BBC is doing a good job and whether we are an effective organisation."
The company has taken on more staff too - with the total numbers up more than 1,000 on last year.
There were also five reports of sexual harassment at the firm - the same as last year.
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And he defended the firm's decision to spend millions on top talent.
"The simple truth is we have spent more than ever on content, but the amount we have spent proportionally on talent has come down," he wrote.
"But more importantly, whenever we ask the public whether they want big stars on the BBC they say yes. They say yes because they are talented and entertaining.
"They also say yes as it means they are getting big value from the BBC.
"We aren’t perfect. But I do think the BBC is part of what makes this country special."
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Vanessa Feltz also made the top ten list
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