Michael P. Kitt
Question:8 Mr. M. Kitt asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will consider offering social welfare recipients the opportunity of having their television licence fee stopped at source on a weekly basis. [13572/95]
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - TV Licence Fees.
There are already a number of easy payment options available, free of charge, through An Post to enable TV owners, including social welfare recipients, to budget for their television licence fee. For example, TV licence saving stamps, can be purchased at any post office in units of £1 or £5 and used to pay the licence fee.
The possibility of providing facilities under the household budgeting scheme for social welfare recipients to have the licence fee deducted at source on a weekly basis is one that my Department is working on in conjunction with An Post.
I understand figures provided by An Post to the Committee of Public Accounts showed that approximately £7 million was lost in annual income from television licence fees. Does the Minister of State consider that deduction at source in the case of social welfare recipients would improve its collection? I understand the evasion rate to be approximately 12 per cent.
I was a member of the Committee of Public Accounts at the time that issue was discussed exhaustively. The committee considered that a number of options might be examined to ascertain the most efficient method of collection having regard to the fact that some licence fee payers would be unemployed and to ascertain what method of payment would be most amenable to them. That is being considered at present. The points raised by the Deputy will be borne in mind and, hopefully, we will achieve an ideal objective in the near future.