A BBC presenter has revealed to MPs that she tried to kill herself due to the stress she faced over her employment arrangement.

The anonymous presenter, along with a number of other television and radio personalities, gave evidence during a parliamentary inquiry into personal service companies. They said they were pressured by the BBC into setting up the PSCs, which later left them with massive bills for unpaid taxes.

In April 2017, new rules came into effect impacting any company or business, including Personal Service Companies, that provides the services of workers into Public Sector organisations as the Government believed that the majority of engagements entered into by PSC’s, that should have been subject to the intermediaries legislation, had not been treated as such and, as a result, there has been a significant shortfall in tax and national insurance paid to HMRC.

The unnamed BBC presenter said: “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.”

DJ Liz Kershaw, radio presenter Kirsty Lang and financial journalist Paul Lewis gave evidence to the inquiry, by the House of Commons Culture Committee. Many of them of them were unable to get benefits such as sick pay due to their status as freelancers.

Radio presenter Lang revealed she had been working through her own cancer treatment and continued working immediately after her stepdaughter’s death because she was unable to take bereavement leave under her new employment status. Lang, a former BBC World newsreader, asked in 2013 if she could go part-time and work only on Radio 4’s Front Row for family reasons, but was asked to go freelance by the BBC for tax reasons.

Another female radio presenter said she worked with “no sick pay, no holiday, no permanent contract” opposite a better-paid male staff member who enjoyed all these benefits.

MPs were told that the BBC saved approximately £10 million a year on National Insurance payments alone by paying presenters through personal companies.

The BBC announced that the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution would conduct an independent process under which presenters would be able to ask for a review of their cases. The process will consider whether it is “appropriate or reasonable” for the BBC to make a contribution towards historic demands for employer’s national insurance.

“[We have] always tried to balance our responsibilities to presenters with our responsibility to spend the licence fee appropriately. The BBC is aware that there is a very high hurdle where public money is concerned and the whole purpose of the work is to inform and advise, so we cannot prejudge the outcome,” the BBC stated.

“The process will only consider whether the BBC should contribute towards demands for employer’s national insurance contributions, not demands for other taxes which individuals are liable for,” the BBC stated.

Julia Kermode, chief executive of The Freelancer & Contractor Services Association (FCSA), commented,

“No-one should be forced to work in a particular way if it is not appropriate to their circumstances, nor if they do not fully understand the arrangement.  In this case, the BBC presenters were allegedly told to set up their own limited company, making the presenters directors of their company, which brings with it certain legal responsibilities as per any company director role.”

Dave Chaplin, CEO and founder of ContractorCalculator, also commented, “The BBC has today been accused of purposefully misclassifying its workers to avoid paying employers NI contributions. It appears to make sense that the BBC now picks up the part of those tax bills which they avoided and fairly shares the tax burden for what they are being accused of facilitating on a mass scale.”