Someone on here mentioned about Council Tax single person reduction. Who qualifies for this? I'd not heard about this before and wondered if my husband qualified.
Help re Council Tax
- Thread starter jenniferjean
- Start date
What he should qualify for if he has dementia and is in receipt of Attendance Allowance is the socalled council tax exemption on the grounds of severe mental disability. This is a form your council should send you and you have to take to the GP to confirm the diagnosis (with date). The council will then stop counting your husband as a member of the household, which means, if you are the only other person living there, it will now be classed as a single person household, triggering a discount of 25%.
Anyone defined as having a severe mental impairment does not count for CT purposes so if there's just the 2 of you living there you can apply for the single persons reduction of 25% of your CT on line on the first link below.
Under section 6 paragraph 4 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 your husband became ineligible for CT purposes from the day he became severely mentally impaired so payment should have ceased on this date i.e. it should be backdated see the second link.
Following what Beate says you do not have to be in receipt of Attendance Allowance (my wife wasn't) nor do you have to take a form to the doctors (I never did) I got it because I could prove that she had been diagnosed as having an SMI in a letter from the consultant to the GP saying so, that was all the proof I needed.
My wife was (and still is) too young to get AA and I seem to remember that they asked for permission to contact the GP if they wanted, whether they did or not I don't know but I certainly didn't.
If you do have to get a GP's signature they GP is not allowed to charge for this in England, however, it may be different in Wales the British Medical Association don't seem to say where the rule applies.
Dementia of itself is not a qualification for the discount, it has to be a SMI so if his condition is mild or moderate it may well be worth applying and see what they say.
I would do it on-line and avoid using the phone, people are told things that aren't necessarily correct strangely though they don't seem do this as often it writing, can't imagine why
K
http://www.torfaen.gov.uk/en/Forms/CouncilTax/CouncilTaxDiscount.aspx
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1992/14/section/6
Under section 6 paragraph 4 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 your husband became ineligible for CT purposes from the day he became severely mentally impaired so payment should have ceased on this date i.e. it should be backdated see the second link.
Following what Beate says you do not have to be in receipt of Attendance Allowance (my wife wasn't) nor do you have to take a form to the doctors (I never did) I got it because I could prove that she had been diagnosed as having an SMI in a letter from the consultant to the GP saying so, that was all the proof I needed.
My wife was (and still is) too young to get AA and I seem to remember that they asked for permission to contact the GP if they wanted, whether they did or not I don't know but I certainly didn't.
If you do have to get a GP's signature they GP is not allowed to charge for this in England, however, it may be different in Wales the British Medical Association don't seem to say where the rule applies.
Dementia of itself is not a qualification for the discount, it has to be a SMI so if his condition is mild or moderate it may well be worth applying and see what they say.
I would do it on-line and avoid using the phone, people are told things that aren't necessarily correct strangely though they don't seem do this as often it writing, can't imagine why
K
http://www.torfaen.gov.uk/en/Forms/CouncilTax/CouncilTaxDiscount.aspx
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1992/14/section/6
I've just done this. I enquired online and Powys CC sent me a very simple form to fill in. I had to put in date of receipt of Attendance Allowance, and then sent it to my GP to fill in to say husband has a severe mental impairment. Signed and sent off and confirmed I will get 25% reduction backdated to when he got AA from. HTH
"Following what Beate says you do not have to be in receipt of Attendance Allowance"
My understanding is that in addition to medical confirmation of SMI there has to be eligibility of a qualifying benefit.
In the past I've seen this requirement in some local government documentation which I can't locate at the moment.
However I found it on several LA sites e.g.
"...To be considered as severely mentally impaired, the person concerned must have a certificate of confirmation from registered medical practitioner. Doctors issue these certificates free of charge.
In addition, to qualify for the discount, the person must be entitled to (or have an underlying entitlement to) at least one of these benefits:
...."
https://www.warrington.gov.uk/info/...es_of_council_tax_discounts_and_exemptions/10
My understanding is that in addition to medical confirmation of SMI there has to be eligibility of a qualifying benefit.
In the past I've seen this requirement in some local government documentation which I can't locate at the moment.
However I found it on several LA sites e.g.
"...To be considered as severely mentally impaired, the person concerned must have a certificate of confirmation from registered medical practitioner. Doctors issue these certificates free of charge.
In addition, to qualify for the discount, the person must be entitled to (or have an underlying entitlement to) at least one of these benefits:
...."
https://www.warrington.gov.uk/info/...es_of_council_tax_discounts_and_exemptions/10
Just for anyone else reading this thread, you may also be disregarded if you are a carer providing more than 35hrs a week care if you live with the person you care for and they are not your spouse, partner or child under 18. My Dad was disregarded for being severely mentally impaired and I was disregarded as being his full time carer as I had moved in to care for him. If I remember right they wanted proof of his attendance allowance for my disregard and a signature from the GP for his. This gave us 2 x 25% reductions though I'm not sure whether all borough councils do the same x
Thanks everyone for your help. There is only the two of us living here. As yet we do not get any benefit. As the man from Age Cymru filled in and sent off the form re AA I suppose he would know what the conditions are locally. I'll call him tomorrow.
Hi Beate, I absolutely agree. I was just trying to highlight that the single person reduction, as queried by the original poster, may, in certain circumstances, be counted twice resulting in a 50% reduction as was the case for our situation. It's not only about the number of adults in a property, it's also about the relationships between them where disability (of any sort) and care are concerned. I just though it worth highlighting for others who may not be spouses/partners/parents of the "cared for" to check out in their own council areas x
But in that case no one under 65 would be able to get the discount. My wife is still under 65 and I got the discount for about 4 years, or did until she went into care.
The qualifying benefits are:
Incapacity Benefit or Employment Support Allowance
Severe Disablement Allowance or Invalidity Pension
Unemployability Supplement or Unemployability Allowance
Attendance Allowance or Constant Attendance Allowance
Higher or Middle Rate of the care component of a Disability Living Allowance
Disability Working Allowance
An increase in the rate of Disablement Pension
Income Support where the applicable amount includes a Disability Premium.
I did the whole process on line and had to tick a box saying the LA could contact the GP if they wished, whether this happened or not I don't know.
I did take a picture of the letter from the consultant to the GP saying she had an SMI and e-mailed it to them and got the claim accepted within about 48 hours so I doubt they had the time to get a signature from the GP.
Yes, and you're absolutely right, it needs mentioning. My comment wasn't directed at you.
Thank you! Still very easily flattened ATM xx
"I should have probably said "In receipt of AA or equivalent""
It's a bit more complicated:-
A person also qualifies if they are the partner of a person in receipt of income based jobseekers allowance which includes a disability premium or higher pensioner premium because they either:
get the long term rate of incapacity benefit
were in receipt of long term incapacity benefit up to pension age and are still alive
are entitled to attendance allowance/disability living allowance but have been in hospital more than 28 days
To qualify for a discount you must provide proof of the person’s benefits.
https://www.warrington.gov.uk/info/...es_of_council_tax_discounts_and_exemptions/10
It's a bit more complicated:-
A person also qualifies if they are the partner of a person in receipt of income based jobseekers allowance which includes a disability premium or higher pensioner premium because they either:
get the long term rate of incapacity benefit
were in receipt of long term incapacity benefit up to pension age and are still alive
are entitled to attendance allowance/disability living allowance but have been in hospital more than 28 days
To qualify for a discount you must provide proof of the person’s benefits.
https://www.warrington.gov.uk/info/...es_of_council_tax_discounts_and_exemptions/10
It is complicated because you don't actually need to be in receipt of the benefit at all you just have to have "In addition, to qualify for the discount, the person must be entitled to (or have an underlying entitlement to) at least one of these benefits:".
I've read it more than once that "you have to be getting "AA" to get the discount, you don't you have to have an underlying entitlement to one of a number of benefits.
I'd read (on here I think) that you had to be getting AA so I didn't apply as my wife wasn't even 60, it wasn't until one day a couple of years later that I looked it up that DLA or mobility allowance are too. I assume moving forward that PIP will be a qualifying benefit too as it replaces DLA.
K
I've read it more than once that "you have to be getting "AA" to get the discount, you don't you have to have an underlying entitlement to one of a number of benefits.
I'd read (on here I think) that you had to be getting AA so I didn't apply as my wife wasn't even 60, it wasn't until one day a couple of years later that I looked it up that DLA or mobility allowance are too. I assume moving forward that PIP will be a qualifying benefit too as it replaces DLA.
K
We have just been notified that my husband is going to be receiving AA now after a long wait. They have told me the payments will be backdated to when the forms were filled in so next thing will be to see about the council tax. Yet another visit to the doctors it would seem to get it signed.
I'm glad your husband is to be getting the backdated payments for AA @Sammie234. It's worth getting the Council Tax sorted out now too.
It seems it will be a visit to the doctors in Shropshire, application form (link below) is anything to go by, however, that said the starting date for the CT disregards is the date the doctor put as the person having an SMI, not the awarding of the AA.
The doctor has to answer the question "Please confirm the date that the patient became severely mentally impaired" That is the start date for the CT disregard, nothing to do with when the AA starts in spite of what people keep saying. If the doctor's record means they say the SMI started
X number of years ago then you can claim back to that date. But it has to be an SMI not when the memory issues started or when the AA started.
Any LA that collects CT from someone with an SMI is breaking the Local Government Finance Act 1992 which says they cannot levy CT on someone with an SMI so they've collected money they're not entitled to and have to refund it.
If the doctor will backdate the form then that's the date the LA have to follow not the AA date.
K
https://new.shropshire.gov.uk/media/6271/severely-mentally-impaired-disregard.pdf
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