MSE News: Families of severely mentally impaired people reclaim £1,000s from councils

SandraScarlett

After my late husband had suffered with Alzheimer's Disease for many years, I read about this little-known discount on here. I applied, and because I had a letter from the consultant, confirming my husband's diagnosis, dated several years previously, the 25% refund was back dated accordingly.


It only took a couple of weeks for the claim to be approved and we received over £2,000 very promptly. That paid for many extra hours of care for him, as I had to pay £9 per hour for him to attend a Day Centre.


I've advised several people about this discount. Nobody knew about it, and everyone has been successful in their application.

Babushka50

I have a query about council tax payment and debts,my daughter has had problems for years with this.Last year my daughters partner died by suicide on 28th March.My daughter was severely affected by this and was receiving crisis mental health help and was away from home for several months and her 6 year old son was with me.Once she returned home she was still unwell and just about managing somehow to get through the days.In December of last year she had a bailiffs letter throyugh the door stating that she had to pay £2100 for non payment if council tax,this had to be paid immediately immediately to prevent seizure of goods,naturally this did nothing to help her mental health.I paid the debt and went in to try and speak to someone about it.I explained what had happened and that my daughter was not well enough to deal with it.My daughter could nit understand why it hadnt been paid as it was always done by direct debit,she didnt know if shed had previous letters about non payment due to her mental state,she eventually went in to try and sort it out but broke down while she was there.She was however told that because her partner had previously left the home,which she had informed them of,they stop taking the direct debits but hadnt informed her of this.I have finally got permission for myself to deal with this matter and wondered if anyone had any advice as to wether we can claim this £2100 back due to the circumstances,bearing in mind that her boyfriend died 4 days before council tax should have begun being paid for that year,understandably this was the last thing on either of our minds.

CIS

Babushka50 wrote: »

I have a query about council tax payment and debts,my daughter has had problems for years with this.Last year my daughters partner died by suicide on 28th March.My daughter was severely affected by this and was receiving crisis mental health help and was away from home for several months and her 6 year old son was with me.Once she returned home she was still unwell and just about managing somehow to get through the days.In December of last year she had a bailiffs letter throyugh the door stating that she had to pay £2100 for non payment if council tax,this had to be paid immediately immediately to prevent seizure of goods,naturally this did nothing to help her mental health.I paid the debt and went in to try and speak to someone about it.I explained what had happened and that my daughter was not well enough to deal with it.My daughter could nit understand why it hadnt been paid as it was always done by direct debit,she didnt know if shed had previous letters about non payment due to her mental state,she eventually went in to try and sort it out but broke down while she was there.She was however told that because her partner had previously left the home,which she had informed them of,they stop taking the direct debits but hadnt informed her of this.I have finally got permission for myself to deal with this matter and wondered if anyone had any advice as to wether we can claim this £2100 back due to the circumstances,bearing in mind that her boyfriend died 4 days before council tax should have begun being paid for that year,understandably this was the last thing on either of our minds.

In respect of payment of the amount in itself then a vulnerability wouldn't affect the fact that the payment was due however if there's a discount or exemption which should have been in place then vulnerability can certainly assist with the backdating.

When the council stopped taking a direct debit then, depending on the exact circumstances of the council tax accounts, a new demand notice would usually be issued. Even if it wasn't then, before an enforcement agent could be used, there would be at least one reminder, a court summons and a 7 days notice of action from the agent before they attended the property.

Craig

daviddee

Hi, just wanted to update you on my claim

Following what was a long drawn out process to get one of the universities my daughter attended to provide us with a certificate of attendance I finally managed to get all the evidence together to prove that apart from myself, the other members of my family were either a carer, a student, or under 18 for most of the period 1995-2016.

I submitted the claim and sometime later I got a letter with a refund for £1400 for the period 2010-2016. I suspected that they were only looking at it for six years due to the legislation, but due to my father being seriously hurt by a speeding car a couple of days after receiving the cheque I didn’t immediately get around to asking them to confirm this.

A couple of weeks ago, I finally got around to writing a letter asking why they hadn’t reviewed my case back to 1995 as I’d requested and they’ve sent me a letter stating that the legislation meant they only needed to go back six years.

So, my question is this, is that correct and I just have to accept it, or has anyone managed to challenge the six year rule for sMI backdating?

Thanks

Dave.