Hi. Can anyone tell me, Is council tax reduction for disabled persons means tested?
What disability, mental, physical, or both? Has the house been specially adapted?
Wife (Jan) & I are both 75. She has Parkinson’s & several vertebral compression fractures. I am full time carer. Just started with home care, 2 days per week. Jan hasn’t quite got the hang of having carers in. I asked them to wash some towels last week but they hadn’t been done when I got back from a walk. Seems Jan told carer not to do them but asked me to do them the following day.
Oops reply to wrong forum topic. Disability is Parkinson’s & fractured vertebrae. We have a stairlift & adapted downstairs bathroom with shower seat. Various mobility aids.
Hi
This may be of use:
Otherwise, you should find @Charlesh47 or @bowlingbun are often able to give clear answers to this sort of question. Now I have tagged them they will probably drop by soon and give the benefit of their knowledge. I am not certain if Parkinson’s falls into the category of SMI but I seem to recall reading somewhere that it does. I just don’t want to raise false hopes for you.
Best wishes to you both.
Noddir, my mum had carers 3 times a day, a gardener and an odd job girl who did ironing etc. Even when I was disabled in a car accident, with a business to run and a brain damaged son, she would still leave jobs for me as I did them better! Counselling taught me how to avoid this!
Is your wife getting Attendance Allowance? Do YOU think she is mentally impaired by the Parkinsons?
If so, then ask the council for a form to claim Severe Mental Impairment exemption. Then they will send you a form to send to the GP to decide. If this claim is successful, then she would become EXEMPT from Council Tax. I can’t remember all the rules about disability reduction, but Charles will be along soon with more info.
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Hi @Noddir The rules are changing as in England the government have devolved what is now called Council Tax Support to local authorities, who can set their own rules. So where I’d usually point you at a single site that would help, I now have to tell you to look at your local authority website and do a search for Council Tax Support.
This is a budgetary decision by the government, giving councils the job of balancing their books and devising rules to keep within budget. Sorry I can’t help more than that - it’s a lottery, I’m afraid.
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Neither Council Tax SMI discounts or disregards are means tested. Also Council tax Bill Band reductions for disability modifications is not means tested. To qualify you will probably need to be receiving Attendance Allowance which again is not means tested and none require a formal diagnosis. I have been to the High Court over the SMI issue.
Thanks for the reply. I have recently applied for attendance allowance. Just got a text to say that they would be in touch in 12 weeks! The wheels grind slowly.
Well Noddir when I applied for AA for graham 18 months ago we were told it would take 12 weeks. In fact they were in touch after just 8 weeks and approved same day. He had first payment (including back dated to date of claim) within a week. I then put in for CA and that was through within 3 weeks instead of the 12 they say. It may have changed since then but I hope you don’t have too much of a delay.