Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to help low-income pensioners claim their free TV licence.

On 23 June my department laid a statutory instrument to amend the Television Licences Act 2000, that will ease the administrative burden put on eligible over-75s when applying for a free licence.

Under the new plans the BBC will be able to automatically verify whether a person applying for a free TV Licence is on Pension Credit with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). It will mean in most cases the 7,000 people who apply to TV Licensing for a free licence per month will simply need to apply online or over the phone without any need to supply additional paperwork.

The changes to the application process are expected to come into effect next year.