Council Tax reduction or exemption for people with severe mental impairments

Who is eligible

If you have a severe mental impairment, you may be entitled to a Council Tax exemption or reduction. 

You will need to have a certificate from a doctor to show that you or the person you live with are severely mentally impaired. Conditions include (but are not limited to) the following:

• degenerative brain disorder such as Alzheimer’s
• other kinds of dementia
• a learning disability
• a severe stroke
• severe or chronic mental illness
  

Claimants will also need to be receiving at least one of the following benefits:

• Incapacity benefit
• Severe disablement allowance
• Unemployability supplement payable as an increase to disablement benefit
• Unemployability allowance payable with war pension
• Attendance allowance under the higher or lower rate
• Constant attendance allowance at one of the four rates payable with disablement pension or war disablement pension
• Disability element of working tax credits
• Care component of a disability living allowance or the care component of a personal independent payment
• Income support or universal credit where the applicable amounts include a disability premium
• Employment and support allowance 

What you'll get

You'll be exempt from Council Tax if you have a severe mental impairment and live on your own, or any other adults living in the property qualify as being severely mentally impaired.

You'll get a 25 per cent discount if you live with someone who is severely mentally impaired and either there are no other adults in your household or everyone else in your home is disregarded except for you.

How to apply

• Step 1: Download and print the   Discount application - mental impairment form (PDF 152KB)
• Step 2: You will need to get a doctor to fill out Section 2 of the form to confirm that the person applying is severely mentally impaired
• Step 3: Complete the Severe Mental Impairment application and upload the completed Discount application - mental impairment form in the summary section. You can also return this to us by post. However, your application will take longer to process this way.