MSE News: 'I got a £7,000 council tax refund after mum was diagnosed as severely mentally impaired'

Former_MSE_Megan_F

Family members of those with a 'severe mental impairment' have told how they've successfully reclaimed £1,000s in council tax overpayments, after a MoneySavingExpert investigation revealed 10,000s may be paying too much tax...

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''I got a £7,000 council tax refund after mum was diagnosed as severely mentally impaired''

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fatbelly

The GP has to state the date that he considers the person became SMI. If he puts a date several years in the past, the council almost always backdate the exemption to that date. It's difficult for them to argue otherwise.

How your GP fills in the form is crucial

CIS

A lot rests on the local authority and how far back a person wants to claim. Many councils will try and restrict backdating of any discount to no more than 6 years, those are the cases where a tribunal is more likely going to be needed and it gets in to technical arguments (which can be fun to construct...).

00ec25

the key fact remains, the person has to have a doctor's certificate

we have had posts on here before from people trying to claim because they consider themselves "disabled" but their doctor does not ....

Glynis_W

fatbelly wrote: »

The GP has to state the date that he considers the person became SMI. If he puts a date several years in the past, the council almost always backdate the exemption to that date. It's difficult for them to argue otherwise.

How your GP fills in the form is crucial

I am applying to Wirral borough council. Lucky enough to get a very helpful person on telephone who confirmed that I need to get letters from DWP to confirm when my husbands benefits started. Unfortunately DLA details are archived as his stroke happened in 2000! He moved to PIP last year. They are sending me confirmation of that, and his ESA and when that started. But I am hoping the doctor will go back to the original stroke date to confirm SMI.
But the council said the confirmation of when the benefits started would then have to tie in with what the doctor says in order for the rebate to go back that far.
How is this only now coming up and why was this not considered and advised to patients and their families earlier. There must be so many people owed thousands!

CIS

Glynis_W wrote: »

I am applying to Wirral borough council. Lucky enough to get a very helpful person on telephone who confirmed that I need to get letters from DWP to confirm when my husbands benefits started. Unfortunately DLA details are archived as his stroke happened in 2000! He moved to PIP last year. They are sending me confirmation of that, and his ESA and when that started. But I am hoping the doctor will go back to the original stroke date to confirm SMI.
But the council said the confirmation of when the benefits started would then have to tie in with what the doctor says in order for the rebate to go back that far.
How is this only now coming up and why was this not considered and advised to patients and their families earlier. There must be so many people owed thousands!

The council are correct - any reduction can only be awarded from the earliest date that a person meets all of the criteria. Just being certified as SMI by a Dr is no good if the benefit criteria is not also met as this is a legislative requirement. There is no actual legislative requirement to get a letter from DWP however it is, in effect, the only way that the benefit criteria can be proven (although DWP will only ever confirm actual benefit receipt rather than just entitlement).

The disregard and exemption are shown on the website of each council and included in the booklets which are sent out annually with every demand notice (and have been for many years), the issue has been that most people don't bother to read them. This means that people are unaware of them but as the council don't know the circumstances until they are told then they cannot award any appropriate reduction...

Glynis_W

I have so far managed to claim back just over £8,000 on behalf of my husband who should not have been paying due to a severe stroke so that is the good news.
But although the doctors medical certificate went back 15 years and he was in receipt of Incapacity since 2001 for some reason they have chosen only to go back to 2007 instead of May/June 2003 I do not understand.
I have resent the letter from Incapacity asking why they did not take that as his qualifying benefit!! Will see what happens next.
They do not make it easy though, and waiting 20 mins a time for any of the benefits offices to answer the phones to even try and start to help is frustrating. then to be told everything relating to disability living allowance is now in archive, and you have already had one letter so we don't think we can request another!!!
I feel sorry for anyone who is out there trying to chase this rebate and discount I really do.

Cook_County

I claimed a large refund in 2012 for my aunt and in 2017 for my father. The law is not news. The sad part however is the councils routinely forget to tell people about this. Parliament needs to step in to create a system so that council's are automatically informed once a dementia or other SMI is diagnosed.