BUNGLING government officials promised free help to switch to digital television to some Liverpool families – when the reality is that they must pay £40.

Some homes in Chester were also sent letters promising home visits to help residents install a free set-top box and lessons on how to use it. But the offers should only have been made to over-75s, those in a care home for six months or more, those receiving benefits and those blind, or partially-sighted.

Now the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) will send another letter to every home, withdrawing the offer of free help and apologising for the error. However, anyone who has already applied for the free assistance will receive it – even though they are, technically, not entitled to it.

The blunder was admitted in a written statement to MPs yesterday by Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw, who blamed "incorrect or incomplete information" provided by another government department.

Mr Bradshaw said: "The DWP [Department for Work and Pensions] apologises

for these mistakes and has informed the Information Commissioner's Office.

"The DWP has now made the necessary changes to the way in which they identify people eligible for free help and are confident that this error will not happen again."

The statement said that most of the 65,000 people incorrectly sent the letter lived in Llandudno, in North Wales, with "small numbers" in Liverpool, Chester and Lancaster.