TV Licensing

Residential care homes and sheltered accommodation

As a manager of a residential care home, supported housing or sheltered accommodation, you need to make sure that residents, staff and guests are covered by a TV Licence if they need one.

An accommodation for residential care (ARC) concessionary TV Licence costs £7.50 per room, flat or bungalow. You can download forms to make a new application or add a resident to an existing scheme.

To see if your scheme qualifies for an ARC licence, please check below.

Does your accommodation qualify for a concessionary licence?

A care home

Registered under the Care Standards Act 2000.

An almshouse

Where the building itself, land it was built on or charity was established before 1 November 1949.

Or sheltered/supported accommodation

1. Housed in a building that has been erected or converted for the purposes of occupation by residents that are retired and over 60, or disabled
2. Forming part of a group of at least four dwellings within a common and exclusive boundary (up to 25% of units in a scheme can be properties purchased under the ‘Right to Buy’ legislation)
3. Provided or managed by a not for profit organisation; including local authority or a housing associations
4. With a person whose function is to care for the needs of the residents (e.g. a warden) and who either lives on site or works there for at least 30 hours a week, excluding on-call hours.

What needs to be covered

Communal areas, guest rooms and staff accommodation If a TV Licence is required you’ll need to be covered by a full licence. This costs £159 for colour or £53.50 for black and white. Staff or their families living in accommodation are responsible for ensuring that they are correctly licensed. Pay for your TV Licence
Residents' accommodation If your residents qualify for an ARC concessionary TV Licence, this costs £7.50 per room, flat or bungalow.

Do your residents qualify for a concessionary licence?

Your residents qualify if they are:
Retired They must be 60 years old or over. If they’re in paid work, this must be for no more than 15 hours per week. Or disabled They must have substantially impaired sight, hearing or speech, a mental disorder or be substantially physically disabled by illness, any impairment present from birth or otherwise.

Preserved rights

There may be occasions where certain residents still qualify for a concession, but the scheme has lost its concession.

Find out more about preserved rights.

Claiming a refund

You can claim a refund for a resident's full fee TV Licence if:

They’ve already paid for a TV Licence and now qualify for an ARC Concessionary TV Licence.

Please complete a resident addition form and then send to the address below. We will add the resident to the existing scheme and refund their TV Licence.

TV Licensing
Concessionary Licensing Centre
Darlington
DL98 1TL

The PDFs found below may be downloaded and printed out to be completed and returned by post to the address indicated below. The forms may be used to apply for a new ARC scheme or to add residents to an existing ARC scheme.

When you have completed the forms

Once you’ve completed any of the forms above, please send them to:

TV Licensing
Concessionary Licence Centre
Darlington
DL98 1TL

Further information

Please contact us if you would like more help in finding out if your accommodation qualifies for this licence:

• Contact us
• or call 0300 790 6011*