TV licencing and the property market and other expenses (The case of Good Money)

This might be pertinent as there is a Royal Birth and baptism scheduled soon and it will probably be on the BBC and Sky.

A TV licence is required for watching TV but not playing DVDs.  The technology for this is similar if not the same. However though the Radio licence was abolished years ago, DAB signals are similarly monitored whether radio or Television.

Confused?

To obtain a TV licence as a person in your own right as one of your own expenses when growing up costs the same as an adult (£145.50, or £5.60 cash weekly), though when you reach a certain age above the state pension 75 you qualify for a free TV licence. In the past there was a Disability qualification as well for a free TV licence though now that may be restricted to those who are registered disabled for physical or mental impairments or disabilities. It is not often discussed as in the past it was viewed as being exploitative and demeaning and perhaps encouraging untoward conduct towards those who needed the states protection.

There is an enquiry call centre with an 0300 number and a website to get a licence. Paper forms and debit card payments from Paypoint machines and in the past the post office.

When a student at a Full time uni having a TV licence for modern TV Computers and possibly the ‘app’ related download technologies may now be a necessity,  even if you don’t watch TV. Though in some towns the council tax claims aren’t made for students as under tenancy law and taxation law they were exempt previously and some local councils sought to control student populations from becoming squatters with a claim on the property they were renting and credit related fraud.

Now Housing and Council Tax benefit claims are (in England) to be made soon as part of the universal credit system.

In my opinion the best way to ensure that benefits and rent are paid on time is to ensure that you have a direct debit account and that the rent is paid monthly automatic by standing order / direct debit with a monthly payment for utilities and rent. However rents are nationally calculated for each area using estate agents and taxation data, so in Hillingdon rent is calculated to include a top up premium for council housing properties and also to cover Housing Association properties

Many Housing association properties are built more recently to a higher specification in some cases depending on building regulations changing. There should also be a fortnightly ‘food and sundries’ component. It works for me in a kind of way at present post bankruptcy.

Housing association rent is slightly higher in places because unlike a council with a larger housing stock able to contract out maintenance and repairs, they cover larger areas. These are multi borough in Greater London which further out sub contract their maintenance of their properties through the local authority, thus generating higher rents and overheads than council properties, but lower than mortgages. Thus rented housing association and local authority properties have been fewer under recent governments as they have been subsidised by part rent part buy and mortgaged component housing.

Thus to get on the national housing register and as some people have put it in the past be on the system, having both local and national registration on the housing system might be a good idea. Hence Housing benefit claims also have a grey area that is both assessed through the job centre and the local authority. Hence paperwork was difficultly managed prior to an online system and social housing provision in Greater London by sub region.

Hence with High Speed Two having a spur and as section 106 a potential Central Line extension into Uxbridge or Heathrow in tunnel via Stockley Park, any development of RAF Northolt and relocation to Heathrow for the diplomatic airbase when ‘Boris Island / Margaret Thatcher International’ is built in the Thames Estuary, planning for where you want to live to get a job is essential.

For example take medicine, Brunel Uni doesn’t at present have a medicine department but offers ancilliary professional training for social workers and chemists. There is vacant office space opposite Bucks Uni by the Crown and Treaty Pub that could be converted similarly to Greenwich School of Managements Greenford Campus. It could create a training ability, with Young people living locally getting references at Fountains Mill and from the probation service.

This would counterbalance the creation of the DLR / London Overground suburbs of Bromley and Battersea that link to Canary Wharf and provide employment in the financial sectors. Given That Uxbridge is at the end of the commuting line to the City at present the journey time is less competitive to say Watford with Croxley Rail Link and the West Coast Main line.

However the bus network can take the strain to get to Stockley Park as well.

So if I were a Year Officer today in this economic recovery and with the benefit of hindsight, how would I advise getting a job and on the housing register.

Don’t model, get a part time job at school sixth form age to cover the cost of a TV licence and have a universal credit assessment as soon as it comes in if not sooner, so speak to your GP and go to your local job centre for the application form.

I’ll put a full guide up once I’ve researched Universal credit more fully.

TV Licencing 0300 790 135

Also check with the Money Advice Service for financial advice.