HC Deb 05 March 1963 vol 673 cc195-6
28. Mr. Wainwright

asked the Postmaster-General if, in view of the financial hardship experienced by old-age pensioners in finding, in one payment, the sum of £4 for their television licence, he will consider making arrangements for those pensioners who so desire to have 10s. per week deducted from their pensions over a continuous period of eight weeks.

The Postmaster-General (Mr. Reginald Bevins)

I have discussed this suggestion with my right hon. Friend the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance, who is opposed to the setting up of special machinery for making deductions from pensions. National Savings facilities, however, are readily available at Post Offices and elsewhere for those who wish to save towards the payment for television licences.

Mr. Wainwright

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that that Answer will be received with great disappointment by many pensioners? Is he not aware that some rental firms allow pensioners to pay for their television sets weekly, but that pensioners cannot afford to pay the licence fee in one lump sum? If he cannot convince his right hon. Friend that these facilities should be given, will he contact some of the radio rental firms to see if they will agree to make the collection and to pass on the sum involved to his Department?

Mr. Bevins

I do not think that that latter suggestion is practicable. The difficulty is that where there is a system of payment by instalments, either as a deduction from pension or by instalments direct to the Post Office, it would have to be applied not only to retirement pensioners, but to the disabled, the blind, widows and so on, and it would result in an enormous increase in the cost of collection which would affect the level of the licence fee.

Mr. W. R. Williams

Would it not be a better alternative to my hon. Friend's suggestion for the right hon. Gentleman and the Chancellor of the Exchequer once again sympathetically to examine the possibility of reducing the licence fees for old-age pensioners?

Mr. Bevins

That has been considered many times. If the fee for retirement pensioners and old people generally were reduced, that would undoubtedly lead to a substantial increase in the fee for the rest of the viewing public.

Mr. W. R. Williams

What leads the right hon. Gentleman to that conclusion? To many of us it does not appear necessarily to follow.

Mr. Bevins

Clearly, if the licence fee for many millions of elderly people were to be reduced, the cost falling on the rest of the population would inevitably have to be increased.