HUNDREDS of thousands of households could save £159 a year with a little-known TV license rule.
Anyone who wants to watch live TV, including the BBC, ITV and Sky, must pay for a TV license or they will be breaking the law.
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Households looking for a pension credit can get a free TV licence
The annual license fee was frozen at £159 but is due to rise to £169.50 from April 1 – an increase of £14.50.
But there are some scenarios where you can get a free license, including if you’re on certain benefits.
If you’re on Pension Credit and you’re over 75, you could be exempt, meaning you could save yourself some serious cash.
You can apply for a discount on the TV license website or by calling 0300 790 6117.
But 850,000 eligible households do not claim the benefit, which can make you eligible for a free TV licence.
Although not all of these households will be over 75 now, they will be able to take advantage of the benefit when they reach the milestone.
Pension Credit supplements State Pension payments of up to £201 a week – and is paid to those who have reached State Pension age (66) and are on a low income.
On top of that you may receive additional amounts depending on your circumstances.
To qualify, you will need to have a weekly income of less than £182.60 for singles or £278.70 for couples.
Standard Minimum Pension Credit payments will also rise by 8.5% in April.
This means that State Pension payments will be increased by up to £218.15 a week for single households.
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We’ve explained everything you need to know about applying for a pension loan below.
What is a pension credit and who is eligible?
You can get different amounts of Pension Credit depending on your circumstances.
It has two parts, and pensioners may be entitled to one or both parts:
- Guaranteed loan – supplements your weekly income up to a guaranteed minimum level. That’s £201.05 a week if you’re single and £306.85 a week for married couples.
- Savings loan – provides additional money if you have been saving money until retirement. You can get an extra £15.94 a week for a single person or £17.84 a week for a married couple.
You can also get a supplementary pension if you are disabled, have care responsibilities or have to pay certain housing costs such as mortgage interest payments.
For example, you can get either £72.31 a week or £61.88 a week for each child or young person you are responsible for.
How to legally watch TV without paying a license
You can legally use the following services without a TV license as long as you don’t use them to watch or stream live TV:
- On Demand TV – such as catch-up TV and on-demand viewing, available through services including ITV Player, All 4, My5, BT Vision/BT TV, Virgin Media, Sky Go, Now TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku and Amazon Fire TV. You cannot watch or download programs on BBC iPlayer without a TV licence.
- Movies on demand – from services such as Sky, Virgin Media, BT Vision, Netflix and Amazon Instant Video.
- Recorded movies and programs – either via DVD or Blu-ray or downloaded from the Internet.
- YouTube – Non-live video clips from services such as YouTube.
If you have a severe disability, you can get an extra £76.40 a week or if you are caring for another adult, you can get an extra £52.75 a week.
To be eligible, you must live in England, Scotland or Wales and reach state pension age.
But you also need to have a low enough income that it needs to be supplemented by pension credit.
Your income is calculated based on your State Pension Allowance, other pensions, your income from employment and self-employment and some Social Security benefits, including Carer’s Allowance.
But not all fees count as income, including:
- Disability payment for adults
- Allowance for attending classes
- Christmas bonus
- Child allowance
- Disability living allowance
- Paying for personal independence
- payments from the social fund such as compensation for winter fuel
- Housing benefit
- Reduction of municipal tax
How to register?
You can apply for Pension Credit up to four months before you reach State Pension age.
Most importantly, you can apply at any time after you reach State Pension age, but your claim can only be back three months.
This means you can get up to three months of benefits in your first payment if you were eligible during that period.
But anything beyond that and you won’t get more than three months of back payments.
You’ll need some personal information to hand when you apply, including your National Insurance number and details of your income, savings and investments.
As for the actual application, you can do it online on the government website.
You can also register by phone at 0800 991 234 or by mail. The address to which the request form should be sent is:
Pensions Service 8Post Handling Site BWolverhamptonWV99 1AN
How will I be paid?
Your fees are usually paid into an account, for example a bank account.
They are usually paid every four weeks.
When submitting your application, you will be asked for bank, housing cooperative or credit union account information.
But if you’re having trouble opening or managing your account, you may be able to apply in a different way.
Do you have a money problem that needs to be solved? Get in touch by emailing [email protected].
Additionally, you can join our Sun Money Chat & Advice Group on Facebook to share your tips and stories.
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Source: HIS Education