A disabled Borehamwood pensioner fears she will be forced to pay a £1,000 fine after learning she is no longer entitled to a concessionary television licence.

Dolly Harris, who lives in Gibbons Close, has paid the concessionary amount of £5 for the past ten years.

But since moving to her bungalow last year she has been told by TV Licensing that she is not entitled to the discount and must pay the full £97.50 or face the hefty fine.

The worried OAP claims she has been told it is because she must be living in warden-controlled accommodation to be eligible for a concession -- but that is exactly the sort of accommodation she is living in now.

Mrs Harris, who has been a Ridgehill Housing Association tenant for ten years, is now trying to work out where she will get the money from to pay for her new licence before the deadline at the end of the month.

Her countless attempts to convince the government agency she is a concession have come to no avail.

"Where a disabled pensioner like me is going to get that sort of money from I don't know," she said. "I just can't afford it. But I have to some way or I'll face the huge fine. I've tried and tried to make them realise that I am entitled to a concession as I live in warden-controlled accommodation but it just doesn't make any difference.

"I've tried to get the help of Ridgehill too, but they say there is nothing more they can do. For ten years I've had a concessionary licence and I don't see why now suddenly they want me to fork out nearly £100 for one. I'm really annoyed about it. It just doesn't make sense."

A spokesman for TV Licensing said that even though Mrs Harris's home was warden controlled, it did not comply with all the regulations which would make her eligible for a concession under a law passed in 1988.

She said: "Television licences are related to a person's property, not the person. Unfortunately, even though Mrs Harris lives in warden-controlled accommodation, not all of the properties in that particular housing scheme are.

"The roads in Borehamwood which she has lived in previously have met the criteria for a concession but now as she is in a scheme of mixed housing and therefore does not qualify so she must pay for a full licence like all the other householders in that road.

"We do not, however, expect Mrs Harris to pay for the licence in one lump sum and we will look at her case and work out a way for her to pay it gradually in instalments."

A spokesman for Ridgehill said that while the association sympathised with Mrs Harris it was powerless to help her qualify for a concessionary licence while she was living in Gibbons Close as the road did not meet the correct criteria.

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