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Closed petition PE1976: Backdate council tax discounts for dementia to the date of GP certification
Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to require council tax discounts to be backdated to the date a person was certified as being severely mentally impaired, where they then go on to qualify for a relevant benefit.
Previous action taken
I have written to Liz Smith MSP. In January 2020 I appealed to a Tribunal, in December 2020, I took it to the High Court (Brown v Hambleton District Council [2021] EWHC 1 (Admin).pdf) which established that the present laws allow councils to wait until both, GP certification and the Qualifying Benefit are received.
I did a Freedom of Information request which established that 22 out of 32 Scottish Councils do not backdate to the date of GP certification effecting 20,253 households.
I have undertaken 3 GOV.UK online petitions.
Background information
There are over 600,000 people with dementia in the UK who receive care at home.
People with dementia are only disregarded (not counted) for council tax if they have a medical certificate and are in receipt of certain benefits. This means that many people with dementia have to wait months or years to qualify for council tax discounts after they have been diagnosed.
If council tax discounts were backdated to the date a person was certified as being severely mentally impaired, people with dementia could potentially save thousands of pounds.
This petition was considered by the Scottish Parliament
9 signatures