Care and Disabled Reductions

If you or a member of your household are providing care, receiving care or disabled you may be entitled to a council tax reduction.

A reduction would apply if one of the following criteria is met.

• You or a member of your household fall into one of the following categories and only one other person is resident

1. Severely mentally impaired
2. Certain carers
3. Hospital patients
4. People in residential care homes, nursing homes and hostels providing a high amount of care
5. Detained under the mental health act

• Everyone in the property is severely mentally impaired
  
• Your home is empty because

1. You are living in a care or residential home
2. You are living elsewhere and receiving personal care
3. You are living elsewhere for the purposes of providing personal care
4. You are detained under the mental health act

• You or someone who lives with you has a disability and needs extra space to meet their special needs.

For more information on these reductions please download our Care and disabled reduction leaflet (pdf 460kb)

If you wish to claim one of these reductions please download an application form (pdf 73kb). When you have printed and completed the form please hand it in at our office or send it to us by post at

Council Tax Section
London Borough Of Southwark
P.O. Box 782
Bromley
BR1 3YE

It is important that you provide all of the necessary information to support your application. For further help and assistance please contact a member of the council tax team.

Criteria

To qualify for disabled relief, the disabled person

• May be an adult or a child
• Does not have to be the person responsible for paying the council tax
• Must be living at the property

A person with a learning difficulty or a mental health problem may qualify as well as a person with a physical disability.

To qualify for a reduction your home must have at least one of the following

• A room that has been modified for the disabled person. For example, a room used to store dialysis equipment
• A second bathroom or kitchen that the disabled person needs to use
• Alterations for a wheelchair to be used inside at all times. For example, doorframes being made wider, walls removed for the wheelchair

We will need to visit your property to confirm that it fulfils the necessary criteria.

Claiming Disabled Relief

If you wish to claim Disabled Relief download a Disabled relief claim form (pdf 160kb) which you will need to print, fill in and send to us by post.

The claim needs to be made by the person who is liable for the council tax. However, if you are unable to complete this yourself you can

• Ask someone to complete it on your behalf (eg a friend, social worker)
• Visit one of our offices
• Telephone a member of staff

Our decision

Upon receipt of your completed form we will consider the information that you have provided and if necessary we will contact you to arrange a visit to inspect your property.

Having done this we will write to you to confirm whether you qualify for disabled relief.

You can appeal against our decision. This must be done in writing and you should ensure that you clearly state your reasons for the appeal.

While you are awaiting the outcome of your request or appeal you must continue to pay council tax in line with your current bill. If your appeal is granted you will then be issued with a further bill and new payment instructions. This will take account of any payments you have already made.

In order to view the documents on this page you need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer, which you can download for free.

Contact us

By telephone

020 7525 1880 - housing and council tax benefit
020 7525 1850 - council tax

By post

Council Tax Section
London Borough Of Southwark
P.O. Box 782
Bromley
BR1 3YE

Please indicate which department your query is for.

In person

Bermondsey One Stop Shop
Spa Road
Bermondsey
SE16 3QN

Peckham One Stop Shop
Ground Floor
Peckham Library
122 Peckham Hill Street
SE15 5JR

Walworth One Stop Shop
151 Walworth Road
London
SE17 1RY

Dulwich Area Housing Office
41-43 East Dulwich Road
Dulwich
SE22 9BY

All one stop shops are open from Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. In addition, Peckham one stop shop is open on Saturday, 9am to 1pm.

By email

Housing/council tax benefit: Soucounciltaxuk@Liberata.com
Council tax: Soucounciltaxuk@Liberata.com