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Digital Switchover Help Scheme: East of England

Volume 467: debated on Monday 12 November 2007

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many and what percentage of households he estimates will qualify for assistance in switching over to digital television in (a) Suffolk and (b) the east of England. (162599)

The information is not available in the format requested. We estimate that around 615,000 households in the east of England area will be eligible for assistance from the digital switchover help scheme. Of these, 85,000 eligible households are in Suffolk.

Notes:

1. Eligibility for help from the digital switchover help scheme will be by benefit unit rather than the whole household definition used by the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) the Scottish Executive, the Welsh Assembly Government and the Northern Ireland Office to forecast future household growth. The scheme definition of eligible households mirrors Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) definition of a benefit unit: a couple (which from December 2005 includes gay couples) and any dependent children. It excludes adults deemed to be non-dependents who, if eligible, will be able to claim assistance from the help scheme in their own right.

2. The estimates use data from the Department for Work and Pensions Client Group Analysis for November 2005 adjusted by changes in future household and benefits growth for the period from 2005 until the date switchover takes place in the relevant area.

3. The figures do not include households where the person qualifying for help under the scheme is registered blind or registered partially sighted who qualify on grounds of registration rather than on grounds of age or entitlement to disability benefits.