Council
tax reduction scheme
What
is It?
This scheme is not well known and many disabled people, including those
with RSI fail to take advantage of it. If you qualify your Council Tax
band is reduced by one. So if your home is assessed as a Band D
dwelling, you pay Council Tax as if it was in Band C. This can be worth
up to £300 depending on where you live in the country. If your home is
already in Band A, you used to be unable to get a reduction, but now if
you qualify your Council Tax will be reduced by one sixth.
The disability reduction scheme is not means-tested and if you receive
the reduction there are no tax implications and any other benefits you
receive are not reduced.
What
are the Rules to Qualify?
To qualify you or any other resident in your dwelling must be
'substantially and permanently disabled'. This can be an adult or child
of any age and they do not have to be related to you, just resident in
the dwelling. The definition of 'substantially and permanently
disabled' is not as tough as it might look and some RSI sufferers have
been successful in claiming this.
To get a Disability Reduction you also need to satisfy one of three
conditions:
- You have a
second bathroom or kitchen needed by the disabled person or:
- You have a room
(other than a bathroom, kitchen or toilet) needed by and predominantly
used by the disabled person or:
- You have enough
space for the disabled person to use a wheelchair indoors.
You can be quite
creative in considering how these rules fit your situation. Firstly you
don't have to have had an extra room built - it can be an existing room
in the house that's always been there. So if you have two bathrooms or
one bathroom and one en-suite in the house, and one is used
predominantly by the RSI sufferer you could qualify under the first
condition.
Successful claims include:
- A spa bath in
one of two bathrooms to relieve the pain of RSI
- Adapted taps in
one of 2 bathrooms for the RSI sufferer to use
- Adapted toilet
flush mechanism
The second
condition is easier to qualify for. Successful claims have included:
- A separate
bedroom for the RSI sufferer. (This involved a married couple who moved
into separate bedrooms as the RSI sufferer kept on disturbing the other
by waking up in the night because of the pain and having to get up and
walk around)
- A room used for
exercises (stretching, lying down on the floor etc)
- A room used for
a PC and voice recognition software
Some claims involve
a room used for all these things, for the RSI sufferer.
RSI sufferers generally cannot meet the third condition.
How do you Claim?
Write to your local Council's Council Tax section. The person liable to
pay the Council Tax has to claim (not the disabled person if
different). The Council normally sends out a standard claim form. You
may have to claim for each year although many Councils carry claims
forward from one year to the next as long as you remain resident in the
same house.
If they send you Council Tax Benefit forms, they are the wrong forms
and you'll need to contact them again. This often happens because staff
rarely receive claims for the Disability Reduction Scheme.
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