MSE News: Revealed: Councils overcharging 10,000s who are severely mentally impaired

Patr100

I found out about this by accident a couple of years or so ago, while reading about other exemptions on a (totally unconnected to dementia) website and and applied for my late mother who had worsening dementia.
We got about 4 years backdated council tax which was about £5-6000.

In all the many advice and guides I read online at the time (not even on the Altzheimer's Society website - it is there now but not obvious ) or other "benefits" sites do I recall seeing it clearly enough.

Partly because it is not a central Govt "benefit" that is paid out but a local Govt exemption. But even when we had visits from care professionals, social workers, local Govt care assessors, or the local Alzheimer's Society, they would say : "What about power of attorney" (we had that) , "what about other stuff etc ", but not one mentioned the Council Tax exemption. I don't think they knew about it.

Then as Mum was deteriorating we had the stupidity of Essex council writing to her to see if she still considered herself exempt from Council tax or had her condition changed and to return a form within 2 weeks or face the possibility the exemption would be withdrawn.

She could not read, write her name or recognise her family. The insensitivity of that letter (sent twice to her) made me quite angry.

ellenshelper

Mum has Parkinsons and dementia but her council say she is not allowed a discount because she has a little over £16,000 in savings. Does anyone know if that's correct please

SandraScarlett

ellenshelper wrote: »

Mum has Parkinsons and dementia but her council say she is not allowed a discount because she has a little over £16,000 in savings. Does anyone know if that's correct please

The discount has nothing to do with savings at all!!! If you have Severe Mental Impairment, you qualify, regardless of savings. In the same way that all members of the Rolling Stones get the Winter Fuel Allowance!

ellenshelper

Thank you for your quick reply, that's a call to the council on Monday to put them straight.

Ames

ellenshelper wrote: »

Thank you for your quick reply, that's a call to the council on Monday to put them straight.

Did you apply for council tax support rather than the severe mental impairment exemption? They're different things with different application processes.

elmer

It sounds like you have applied for means tested benefit for her, based on her income,
rather that the severe mental impairment which is based on her health and her being in receipt of a qualifying benefit.

Does she receive a qualifying benefit, if not you will need to apply for that for her first?

elmer

CIS

socks_uk wrote: »

My husband lives with Schizophrenia and struggles to stay 'with us'. He receives PIP payments but of course Schizophrenia isn't one of the conditions listed.

There is no 'defined' condition, the legislation lists no medical condition.. Yes, dementia etc, is the most common reason but places that state it 'for dementia' etc are misleading. Google "severely mentally impaired legislation" and take a read of some of links regarding the legislation.

CIS

Housing_Benefit_Officer wrote: »

...and how would a Council Tax Department know someone had dementia or suffered a stroke or an NHS Certificate for care had been issued?

And 100% discount for Severe Mental Impairment isn't automatically awarded. They might only get 25% or 0% even if they are SMI.

I agree.

It can also be a 50% discount, depending on the circumstances .

A local authority has to make enquiries regarding discounts but for reasons of practicality this is, in the absence of other info in the council's hands, satisfied by the information on discounts which is issued with the demand notice and advertised on the council website. Providing this is done then there's not a lot else that can reasonably be done to advertise the discounts.

CIS

ellenshelper wrote: »

Mum has Parkinsons and dementia but her council say she is not allowed a discount because she has a little over £16,000 in savings. Does anyone know if that's correct please

Savings don't affect a council tax discount for SMI - the £16k comes in to the equation for 'council tax reduction (CTR)' (what used to be council tax benefit). The confusion usually occurs as people ask for a council tax reduction - you mean a discount or exemption - the council think you mean CTR.

ukwmo

My Dad has Parkinson’s and vascular dementia. He was awarded Attendance Allowance 2 years ago and the DWP visiting officer who’d sorted that called me to tell me about this extra help with Council Tax.

It made a huge difference to my Dad, his works pensions means he normally has to pay top dollar for everything. But after getting a form from the council and a trip to the doctor to get it completed, it means he’s exempt from Council Tax.

So. Thanks very much to that DWP visiting officer ! With his Attendance Allowance awarded and the Council Tax removed it meant he was over £500 per month better off. And that’s enabled us to employ a cleaning lady a few hours each week for him, to pay for his alert buzzer system and to pay for some adaptations to his home (handrails throughout, new steps at his front door and various disability aids).

Having said that, the council staff were next to useless, I phoned them 3 times and only the third person knew what I was talking about. It’s so secret a loophole that their own staff don’t know about it.