Pensionbookwas notproofofage

November 1986

An old age pensioner who has collected his weekly pension money from Wexford Post Office for the past nine years could hardly credit what he was hearing when he tried to renew his TV licence on the same premises last Thursday morning.

For it emerged there that having a pension book and regularly collecting his pension in person wasn’t judged proof enough that he is actually a pensioner!

The man is entitled to a free black & white TV licence, with the option of paying the difference for a colour licence. He asked if he could do this, but the P.O. official told him he would need ‘proper’ proof of pension status first. The only proof that could be accepted was his old TV licence, or an ESB bill not more than four months old, showing he is receiving a free electricity allowance as a pensioner.

Bureaucracy gone mad, is how the man described it.