HC Deb 03 May 1990 vol 171 cc1202-3
13. Mr. Vaz

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a further statement on concessionary licences for retirement pensioners.

Mr. Mellor

Under the 1988 regulations, the concessionary television licence is available to retirement pensioners and disabled people who live in registered residential or nursing homes or in equivalent sheltered accommodation provided by a local authority or a housing association. Some 875,000 people currently benefit from the concession. As the hon. Gentleman knows, we have no plans to make any further changes to the scheme.

Mr. Vaz

Does the Minister realise that the 44,000 pensioners who live in the city of Leicester and millions of others throughout the country, have had to suffer a dramatic decline in their living standards because of the Government's policies in the past 10 years? Does he accept that millions of them simply cannot afford to pay the cost of a television licence as well as all the other charges that they have to pay, including the poll tax? Will he speak to his right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who is sitting on the Front Bench next to him, to see whether resources can be made available to implement a scheme for all pensioners? The Opposition believe that British pensioners have made a valuable contribution to society and deserve special treatment.

Mr. Mellor

The only problem with what the hon. Gentleman has said is that most of it is inaccurate. It is not true that pensioners' living standards have been falling in recent years—in fact, they have been growing. It is not true that every pensioner is in need. We know that many pensioners are well off—better off than those who would have to pay an extra amount in television licence fee if all pensioners were to receive the concession. The cost of the concession to other licence payers would be sufficient to take the television licence fee to more than £100. Despite the occasional weasel protestation from the Opposition Front Bench, they have never committed themselves to make that change, although I hope that one of them may stand up and clarify the point later.

Mr. McCrindle

Will the Minister look into what I think may be an anomaly in the regulations, whereby even if all the residents of a retirement home are of pensionable age they are not allowed the concessionary television licence if the articles of the home permit persons to be admitted to the home from age 55 even if none under retirement age are actually present?

Mr. Mellor

I think that everyone who has had to deal with this scheme has a passing regret that the scheme was ever devised, because it is of its very nature that lines must be drawn, thus creating anomalies and there are always some people just the other side of the line. We tried to tidy up the arrangements in 1988, but any tidying up still leaves hard cases. I regret what my hon. Friend has said and if that is the case I shall look at it, but it is of the nature of a scheme which was no doubt invented in a hurry and has caused a lot of trouble in the past 20 or 30 years.