Switchover Help Scheme launches in Selkirk

The Switchover Help Scheme will offer practical help to switch to digital to more than 15,000 households served by the Selkirk transmitter group in the run up to digital switchover this year.

The Help Scheme launches this week for homes served by the Selkirk transmitter group, with a call centre and a website available for people to see whether they’re eligible and what’s on offer.

Everyone has to make sure their television is digital or they will lose their television at switchover. The Selkirk group of transmitters are the next in the UK to make the switch to digital, following switchover in Copeland, Cumbria. They will stop broadcasting BBC2 in analogue on November 6 and all other channels on November 20.

The good news is that householders that are 75 or more, or who are eligible for certain disability benefits are entitled to extra help to get ready, from the Help Scheme.

People are eligible if:

• they are aged 75 or over
• they get (or could get):
– attendance or constant attendance allowance, or
– mobility supplement, or
– disability living allowance
• or they are registered blind or partially sighted.

Most people using the Help Scheme will contribute £40, for which they will get:

Help to choose the right equipment
• Easy-to-use equipment that suits their needs
• Help with installing equipment in their home, if they choose
• An aerial check if appropriate, and, where we can, a new aerial if it’s needed
• an easy-to-understand demonstration of how everything works
• and someone they can call for help while they’re getting used to things.

So the Help Scheme will take the worry out of getting ready for digital.

For people who are eligible and also get pension credit, income support or income-based jobseeker’s allowance, the help will be free.

In the UK there are around 7 million households who will be eligible for the Help Scheme. In the area served by the Selkirk transmitter group it’s estimated more than 15,000 households will be eligible for assistance. Everyone who is eligible for the Scheme and who gets their television from the Selkirk transmitter group will be contacted individually in June.

The Switchover Help Scheme has been set up by the BBC at the request of Government to offer practical help to people at the time of the switchover. The service will be delivered by support services company Eaga.

Help Scheme spokesman Ross Armstrong said: “Digital switchover is coming, and we are here to do everything we can to make sure that no-one eligible will be left behind. We will be writing to everyone eligible for help in Selkirk, explaining exactly what help is available and what needs to be done. The most important thing is not to worry – we will be in touch.”

ends

Notes to Editors

Switchover

Digital Television Switchover is the process of converting the UK’s terrestrial television system to digital. Between now and 2012, analogue channels will be switched off region by region and replaced with free-to-air digital TV and radio services (Freeview). Switchover will extend Freeview coverage to the whole of the UK and free up airwaves for new services such as ultra-fast wireless broadband and mobile television. 

The process of digital switchover will take place between 2008 and 2012, TV region by TV region. The exception is the lead area of Copeland in Cumbria, including the town of Whitehaven, which became the first place to switch in October 2007.

The timetable is as follows:

Digital UK is the independent, not-for-profit organisation established in 2005 to implement digital switchover. It is jointly owned and funded by the public-service broadcasters (BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Five, S4C and Teletext), and the digital multiplex operators.

Switchover Help Scheme

The Switchover Help Scheme is run by the BBC at the request of the Government to offer help to an estimated 7 million households in the UK to make the switch to digital television. Every eligible person will be offered practical help to convert one of their TV sets to digital in the run-up to switchover in their television region. 

People are eligible if they are aged 75 years or more, or if they are registered blind or partially sighted. Also eligible are people who get (or could get) attendance or constant attendance allowance, mobility supplement, or disability living allowance.

Most people will be asked to contribute £40 towards the help.  The service is free for people who are eligible and also get pension credit, income support or income-based jobseekers allowance.

More information is available at www.helpscheme.co.uk or through a free phone call on 0800 408 5900.

Eaga

Eaga plc is the UK’s largest residential energy efficiency provider. The company is a leader in the provision of innovative and sustainable services, products and solutions that address the environmental, social and energy efficiency objectives of Government and the private sector both nationally and internationally.

Working in partnership with central and local Government, Eaga is positioned at the heart of policy-making and front-end delivery of social and environmental improvement programmes. Eaga operates across the UK and in the Republic of Ireland, India and Canada employing over 4,000 people.

Eaga was established in Newcastle in 1990 to lead Government funded efforts to improve the living conditions of vulnerable people living in cold, damp and energy inefficient homes across England. Since its inception, Eaga has made a positive difference to over 5 million disadvantaged households across the UK, by installing energy efficiency measures and central heating.

Eaga holds the contract to deliver the £1.5 billion Warm Front programme in England, the cornerstone of government's target to eliminate fuel poverty by installing energy efficiency measures in vulnerable homes by 2010. Eaga also works with devolved nation governments to deliver similar schemes across the UK.

Eaga is one of only a handful of UK organisations where every employee with over a year’s service is entitled to a share in the success of the business. Eaga’s commitment to co-ownership is an integral part of the values that define the ethos of the business and what it means to be an Eaga employee.
 
Since 2000, Eaga has invested over £3 million in the independent Eaga Partnership Charitable Trust which funds research into solutions to fuel poverty.

Ross Armstrong is the Director of Corporate Affairs at Eaga.

Contacts

Digital UK

Chris Cain - 020 7462 5442

Switchover Help Scheme

Ross Armstrong - 0191 247 3800
Rik Kendall - 0191 247 3800