TV Licensing in Supported Living

[Bookbaby6851]

My daughter lives in supported living with 5 other people. It's a typical bungalow with 6 bedrooms and a communal lounge and kitchen. They have a care provider, with 24 hour care, and a landlord.

She pays £7.50 for an ARC TV licence for her room but the communal areas are not eligible for the ARC licence according to TV Licensing. The residents have had to contribute £30 each toward the licence for the communal area but that means they are paying more than most households to watch the TV. ie a full licence plus 6 ARC licences.

Both the care provider and the housing officer say its the residents who have to pay it but everyone I speak to says their care provider pays the licence where they work.

As the residents have 24 hour care the staff also have the benefit of the TV when they're at work or supporting someone.

Does anyone have any experience of this and who should pay for the licence in the communal areas please? TIA

[Marmar56]

Hi my son lives in assisted living the care provider pays for the tv licence in the communal living room.

If they have a television in their bedroom they have to pay for the license themselves hope this helps

[veryfrustrated in reply to Marmar56]

My son lives in a house of 5 with his own bedroom with his own TV and a communal lounge with TV. He pays reduced for his bedroom TV and a 20% share of the communal full licence. I guess it depends on each individual provider what they choose to include in the rent charges.

[Bookbaby6851 in reply to veryfrustrated]

Thank you. It does seem like that. I'm struggling to get my head round the fact that some people have to pay for it and some not. And equally, some care providers are covering the cost and some it's the landlord.

[Bookbaby6851 in reply to Marmar56]

Thank you. Does he have a tenancy? Just wondering as care homes seem more likely to pay for the licence, whereas tenancy it seems to differ.

[Marmar56 in reply to Bookbaby6851]

Yes he has a tenancy with the council

[Bookbaby6851 in reply to Marmar56]

Thank you

[Greatauntie]

Same as your case. Area manager of supported living provider insisted they all must apply individually. And even confirmed by email. We needed provider to confirm they had sleep in support. I said I had rung TV licensing for advice but still refused to support residents with application form!

[Bookbaby6851 in reply to Greatauntie]

Do they all share the cost of the licence for the communal area the.

[MUDOG]

hi, when my brother lived in a communal building they had to pay extra for the communal tv even though he didn’t watch it.

[Bookbaby6851 in reply to MUDOG]

So pretty much the same as my daughter.

[MUDOG in reply to Bookbaby6851]

Yeah. Its not fair but not sure what you can do about it

[Bookbaby6851 in reply to MUDOG]

I'm working on it. Not ready to give up yet. I'll post.post.it here if I manage to get a result 😊

[49Twister]

My son lives in supported living, 3 bedroom semi with one other person and 24hr support. Both have their own tenancy and because of this the 2 residents each pay for a full TV licence separately which includes their lounge tv. It's disgraceful really it's one house with 2 tenancies and all these extra costs.

[Bookbaby6851 in reply to 49Twister]

Goodness, that even worse than my daughter's situation. That's definitely not right. They are entitled to an arc licence for each tenancy, so both of them would pay £7.50 each. Obviously, the communal area is still up for debate but even if they paid half each for the communal area that still a lot cheaper than 2 full licences. The information about the arc licence is on the TV Licensing site. I don't know if you can put external links in this group.

[Scrutineer in reply to Bookbaby6851]

ARC Licence is only available to ppl in Supported Living which is provided by a Local Authority or a Housing Association/Not for Profit Landlord. As much of Supported Living is provided by private companies tenants are obliged to pay for full licence. I challenged the guidance with the Licensing Agency, without success. I believe it is a legacy from previous years when majority of LD services were directly provided by councils. Mencap should be lobbying government to end this discrimination .

[Bookbaby6851 in reply to Scrutineer]

Absolutely. I didnt realise there are private companies running supported living schemes.

[49Twister in reply to Scrutineer]

My son has lived in a property owned by a housing association for 11 years sharing with 1 other adult. Both have paid full tv licence in all that time. The company who support them are appalling and couldn't care less, disgraceful. I've already complained to Social Services about other matters but they don't care either.

[49Twister]

Hi I've never heard of an arc licence but will definitely check that out thankyou. I'm not impressed with this supported living lark, you might have guessed 😄 You can put external links on the site for future reference, we'll I'm presuming as I've seen them, thanks again

[Bookbaby6851 in reply to 49Twister]

tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-...

Here's the link. Hope it helps 😊

[49Twister]

thanks for that