TV Licensing payment options - no options at all!

The Abigail Refugee Housing Project provides two kinds of houses - hostels, where the residents pay the project to pay the TV licence, and lettings where the residents are responsible for paying the TV licence themselves. However, with some of the lettings houses this has proved to be impossible and staff have resorted to doing the Leeds Half Marathon each year (no bad thing in itself) to overcome the Governments poor choice of licence payment options.

Let me explain ... there are 3 ways you can pay your license fee:
1. Pay for 12 months up front.
2. Pay be quarterly direct debit.
3. Pay using a payment card.
Options 1 and 2 simply don't work for people on benefits in temporary, shared housing.
With option 3 you have to pay 18 months fee in the first 12 months, making it also impractical for people in temporary, shared housing.

Last year I wrote to my MP, Rachel Reeves, to ask for her help with this. She pointed out that any changes in TV Licence payment options would require changes in legislation. Now, I didn't always concentrate in all my politics lectures at Uni, but I do remember someone saying that the job of an MP involved changing legislation. A response from Rachel to a futher letter from me suggested that, though sympathetic, she was unwilling to take up a new initiative on this point.

Currently (January 2011), our refugee lettings look like this ... 9 x 1 bed flats; 3 x 2 bed flats; 2 x 4 bed houses and 1 x 3 bed houses. We can't do everything, but we do feel some responsibility for the TV payments in the 4 and 3 bed houses, because the shared nature makes it extra difficult for the residents to come up with a meaningful method of paying for the TV licence. There are good reasons, linked to effective integration, as to why residents should have a TV.

So ... I was out again last Friday, running from my home near the cricket ground, up to Moortown Corner, around the ring road and back via Queenswood Drive. That's around 7 miles. The temparture had dropped below freezing by the time I'd finished, but I had Motown Chartbusters Vol 3 on the MP3 player, so it was not all bad!

Please email John, via the Abigail Housing web site, if you want to run the half marathon with me or would like to sponor me. The charity would happily pay your entry fee if you did want to run for us. By the way, I'm planning to start the race at the back of the pack this year, so I don't have to spend 2 hours of my life being overtaken by faster runners.

John Hebden, 29/01/2011