TV Licensing is urging Direct Debit customers in the Cowdenbeath-Lochgelly area to check their details online as recent data has revealed that customers’ licences could be registered at the wrong address.

When the cost of the Licence Fee was fixed at £145.50 in 2011, TV Licensing wrote to over 69,000 Direct Debit customers in the KY postcode area, letting them know their licence would be automatically renewed and they would not receive any contact from TV Licensing as long as they kept up their payments.

Due to April’s licence fee increase to £147, around 12 million households are being sent new payment plans for the first time in five years, when their licences are due for renewal. So far, over 8 million addresses have been mailed. TV Licensing is encouraging anyone who has moved house to check they have updated their details as otherwise, their licence could be registered at the wrong address.

The scale of house moves in the UK is considerable with the latest figures indicating around over 11,000 people moved to the Fife region in the last year and more than 8,000 moved from the area to other parts of the UK.

In July alone, 188,000 people updated their details on TV Licensing’s website, up 43% on the same month last year. However, the number of change of addresses TV Licensing has received is lower than expected and doesn’t compare with rates of customers changing addresses when we contact them each year.

Fergus Reid, spokesperson for TV Licensing in Scotland, said: “We’ve been mailing our Direct Debit customers throughout the year to give them their new payment plans, and we’d like them to get in touch to let us know if they have moved house or there have been any other changes to their details.

“Updating us is easy and can be done quickly and safely online at www.tvlicensing.co.uk/scotland or by calling 0300 790 6112.”

If you watch or record live TV, either through your TV or live online through a website, then you need to be covered by a TV Licence. You also need a licence to watch BBC programmes on iPlayer, on any device.

To continue reducing the number of paper licences issued, TV Licensing is urging customers to join the 7.5million people who receive their licence by email. Customers can choose to receive TV Licensing information by email, check their details at any time online, and remain fully covered without the need for a paper licence. To move your licence online, visit tvlicensing.co.uk/info and select ‘Update your licence’.