The second condition is where the Scottish list matters. Adult Disability Payment, Child Disability Payment, Pension Age Disability Payment and Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance are all on the qualifying list, each at a specified rate.

Three conditions have to be met together. The person is severely mentally impaired on the day, a registered medical practitioner has certified that over a period covering the day, and the person meets the benefit condition set by order.

What the statute means by severe mental impairment

The disregard sits in paragraph 2 of Schedule 1 to the Local Government Finance Act 1992, which applies in Scotland through section 79(5). Paragraph 2(2) defines a person as severely mentally impaired where they have a severe impairment of intelligence and social functioning, however caused, which appears to be permanent.

The phrase “however caused” carries the weight. A doctor confirms a description rather than names a condition.

The three conditions, side by side

The limbs are cumulative rather than alternative, so all three have to be satisfied on the same day.

Two alternatives sit beside the benefit list itself. One covers a person who has reached pensionable age and would have been entitled to a listed benefit but for reaching it, and the other covers a person whose partner is entitled to a jobseeker’s allowance that includes a disability-related premium.

The list is in article 4(2) of the Council Tax (Discounts) (Scotland) Consolidation and Amendment Order 2003. It covers the reserved disability and incapacity benefits and four Scottish devolved payments, and the order speaks of entitlement rather than receipt.

The four Scottish devolved payments

Each of these was written into the qualifying list by a separate instrument as the payment was rolled out. The rate matters as much as the payment.

legislation.gov.uk holds no consolidated version of the 2003 discounts order, so the article 4(2) displayed there is the 2003 wording. Every payment in the table above was inserted by one of the later instruments named beside it.

Short-term assistance while an award is under challenge

Short-term assistance paid while a devolved award is under challenge counts on the same footing as the payment it stands in for.

It counts where the earlier determination awarded a rate that qualifies, so say on the application which payment and which rate the earlier determination gave.

The reserved benefits on the same list

Several of the reserved entries carry a rate or premium condition of their own.

• Attendance Allowance.
• The daily living component of Personal Independence Payment.
• The highest or middle rate care component of Disability Living Allowance.
• Armed Forces Independence Payment.
• Employment and Support Allowance.
• Severe Disablement Allowance.
• Short-term or long-term Incapacity Benefit.
• Income Support where the applicable amount includes a disability premium.
• Working Tax Credit including the disability or severe disability element.
• An unemployability supplement or allowance, or a constant attendance allowance.

Entitlement to any one entry meets the benefit condition.

Official Scottish guidance on council tax sits on mygov.scot, and your own council’s website carries its application form. Our council tax discounts page covers what else a household may be entitled to.

Universal Credit stopped being an automatic qualifying benefit on 1 April 2023. It now counts only where the award includes the limited capability for work-related activity amount, or the person has limited capability for work.

What now has to be in the award

Bare entitlement to Universal Credit satisfied the benefit condition until 31 March 2023. From 1 April 2023 the award has to include the limited capability for work-related activity amount, or the person has to have limited capability for work.

Help with the bill itself is a separate question, covered in Council Tax Reduction on Universal Credit.

If the disregard was already in place before April 2023

A person disregarded on plain Universal Credit on 31 March 2023 keeps the disregard under a transitional protection. It runs until one of two things happens.

• A change to the council tax payable for the dwelling, other than a change to the council tax rate.
• A change to the person’s Universal Credit award, other than a change to the rate of Universal Credit through uprating.

After either of those, the limited capability test has to be met instead. Take that to a money adviser at the point a change is coming rather than after the bill arrives.

Where everyone in the property qualifies, the property is exempt rather than discounted. Where one qualifying adult lives with one other adult, the bill carries a 25% discount.

The outcomes, in order

A disregarded person is not counted when the council works out how many adults live at the address. What that produces depends on who else is there and on why they are disregarded.

A person who qualifies and lives alone is exempt outright rather than discounted, because everyone living there is disregarded under that paragraph. The exempting class is Class 23 of the Council Tax (Exempt Dwellings) (Scotland) Order 1997.

Where other disregards are in the mix

A live-in carer, an apprentice and a full-time student are each disregarded on their own grounds. Where the whole household is disregarded but not all of them on severe mental impairment grounds, Class 23 does not apply and the 50% discount takes its place.

That is the difference between a nil bill and a half bill. Set out on the application who lives there and the basis on which each of them is disregarded.

A property adapted for a disabled resident may also be charged one band lower under the disabled band reduction, and how to apply for it covers the three qualifying features.

The certificate has to come from a registered medical practitioner. The regulations do not say it must be your own GP.

What the statute asks for

Paragraph 2(1)(b) asks for a certificate of a registered medical practitioner, meaning a doctor on the General Medical Council register. It names no specialty, seniority or relationship to the patient.

A memory clinic doctor, an old age psychiatrist and a hospital consultant are all registered medical practitioners. If the form is addressed to a GP, you can ask whether the doctor who made the diagnosis may complete it instead.

The certificate can speak to a past period

Paragraph 2(1)(b) covers a person stated to have been, or to be likely to be, severely mentally impaired over a period that includes the day. That wording is what makes an earlier start date arguable.

So ask for the date from which the description applied, not only the date of signature.

You apply to the council that issues the bill, with the medical certificate and the qualifying benefit position. There is no statutory maximum backdating period for a council tax discount or exemption, and how far back a council goes is discretionary.

What you can offer to send

Say what you hold and offer it.

• The completed medical certificate, with the date from which the description applied.
• The award letter or a recent payment statement for the qualifying benefit, showing the rate.
• The name of every adult living at the address, and the basis on which each is disregarded.
• Power of attorney, guardianship or appointee paperwork where you hold it.
• The account number and the years you want looked at.

Put the request for an earlier period in the same letter rather than raising it later.

What decides the date entitlement starts

Entitlement starts on the later of the date of medical certification and the first day of entitlement to a qualifying benefit. Those two dates can be years apart, which is why the certificate’s start date is worth getting right.

There is no national period beyond which a council cannot look, and practice varies by council. Keep the written request and the written reason for any refusal.

Ask for the decision and the reason in writing, then put the case again with whatever the council has not seen. Ask the council which appeal route and deadline it says applies, because council tax appeals in Scotland now go to the Local Taxation Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland.

The body that hears these changed in 2023

The Valuation Appeal Committee was abolished on 1 April 2023 and its work transferred to the Local Taxation Chamber. Anything directing a Scottish reader to a valuation appeal committee is describing a body that no longer exists.

A liability appeal carries a four-month deadline. Ask the council in writing for the decision date and check the deadline that applies to your own decision before you do anything else.

If recovery has already started on the account

Ask the council in writing what it will do with the account while it checks. Council tax recovery runs through a reminder, then a final notice, then an application for a summary warrant, and a 10% statutory surcharge is added to the outstanding council tax when the warrant is granted.

After that the council can instruct sheriff officers. For council tax under a summary warrant, an earnings arrestment can follow without a charge for payment being served first, and what happens if you do not pay your council tax sets out the sequence in full.

Tell the council that an application is in, and ask about a special payment arrangement for the balance meanwhile. Reinstating instalments after a final notice is at the council’s discretion rather than a right.

Non-payment of council tax cannot lead to imprisonment in Scotland. It is a civil debt rather than a criminal offence, and there is no criminal record attached to it.

On a low income, Council Tax Reduction is worth claiming alongside this, and our council tax debt advice page covers what to put in an offer to a council.

Where the property has been left empty because the person moved into care, council tax on an empty property covers the exemption classes and the premium instead.