HC Deb 20 March 2001 vol 365 cc169-70W
Mr. Alexander

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will make a statement on progress on applications for free television licences for people aged 75 years and over and the timetable for issuing licences and refunds. [154274]

Janet Anderson

The BBC, as Licensing Authority, has statutory responsibility for the administration of the television licensing system, including free licences for the over-75s. TV Licensing carries out the day to day administration as agent for the Corporation.

The target turnaround time for verification of entitlement to the free licence is one week, provided the application form is completed correctly and the details match those provided to the BBC by the Department of Social Security. Where the details do not match, further information needs to be requested from the applicant and the time taken to verify the application will vary according to the individual case. The timetable for verifying refund applications is the same as for free licences, but short term licences for people approaching the age of 75 have been available since April 2000, so refunds should now be the exception rather than the rule.

The BBC has indicated that approximately 2.95 million free licences and 1.1 million refund cheques have been issued since the introduction of the concession last November. The majority of applications now being received are from people currently aged 74; approximately half a million such applications have been validated and free licences will be issued when the applicants turn 75. Approximately 86,000 applications are currently awaiting validation but the majority of these are from people under the age of 75. 11,000 applications submitted prior to November last year have still to be verified and action is being taken to clear these by the end of this month.

Applications by housing managers on behalf of over-75s who have previously benefited from the £5 Accommodation for Residential Care (ARC) concessionary licence are being processed as the current ARC licence falls due for renewal.