§ Mr. Ron DaviesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he will make a statement on the provision of concessionary television licences for pensioners living in residential or sheltered accommodation;
(2) what is his estimate of the number of individuals currently covered by the television concessionary licence available to retirement pensioners' sheltered and residential accommodation.
§ Mr. MellorThe concessionary licence is available to retirement pensioners and disabled people living in residential or nursing homes, or in equivalent sheltered accommodation provided by a local authority or a housing association. New regulations governing the issue of the licence came into force on 19 May 1988.
Since then about 33,000 schemes have been reviewed by NTVLRO. Four thousand outstanding applications will be resolved when further information requested by NTVLRO is supplied by the applicant authorities.
The annual £5 fee is now payable per household, rather than per individual. At 30 November 1989, it is estimated that about 864,240 people in 677,835 households were covered by the licence.