TV licence DD upfront

lisyloo

I'm dealing with 2 estates
Step mum died in June, Dad (in same house) died in December.
I've applied to TV licensing for a refund (75+ plan direct debit).
They've sent me £13.25 which I think is for Decembers payment as there was a slight delay closing bank account (it was across christmas).

What is confusing me is that it says you pay for the first licence in 6 months.
So do they take 6 months in advance up front?

MikeJXE

They didn't for me

They take the whole licence fee over a period of 6 months in equal instalments 

The next licence is taken over the next 12 months so in effect you are always 6 months in front 

lisyloo

Thanks. They've refunded 1 month, I've enquired as to whether it should be 6.
I wonder how many people don't get proper refunds doing an estate as you have to be quite fastidious.

p00hsticks

lisyloo said:

Thanks. They've refunded 1 month, I've enquired as to whether it should be 6.
I wonder how many people don't get proper refunds doing an estate as you have to be quite fastidious.

@lisyloo I've just looked at the estate accounts for my late brother who paid his TV licence by monthly direct debit,  and can see that the refund was sent back to us by cheque (actually it looks like it was two separate cheques received together, one for £53.54 and one for £26.50, although I don't know why they did it like that - I'd have to dig out the paperwork). This is last year.

You don't say how you got the initial refund but if it was back into the bank account, you may find you get the rest by cheque through the post.  

lisyloo

Thanks.
The initial refund has not actually been received yet (could take 21 working days) but should go back to the back account I gave them on the refund claim form.
I have enquired with reference to their own FAQs which says DD's are paid upfront.

Refunds are a bug bear of mine. They can take your money in a heartbeat. In this day and age there is no genuine excuse for weeks/months for a refund.
You would hope people would behave honourably on death and most organisations do, but there's the odd one.

lisyloo

They have confirmed the 1 month is all that is due (I haven't had it yet).
Does this sound right? It's the 75+ plan

Rodders53

TV Licensing set up a 75+ plan for those transitioning from free over 75 to paid licence.

I think - but can't find it explicitly on TV Licensing pages - that it was, effectively, pay as you go monthly ??  So not the same as the normal monthly DD payments.

https://www.choice-housing.org/media/5158/over-75s-tv-license-toolkit.pdf has some scant details of the 75+ scheme.

TV Licensing could be clearer in their communication on this, probably?

lisyloo

Ah thankyou very much.
That makes a lot of sense.

I've pointed them to their website and FAQs and they've said no, so I'll leave it at that, so thank very much for that explanation. I'm satisfied.

They were at least good at giving the final month back as my Dad was admitted to hospital on 1/12.