Council tax, VAT relief, Pension Credit and grants

These are claimed from three places. The council handles council tax, adaptations and the crisis fund. The Department for Work and Pensions handles Pension Credit, Attendance Allowance and Carer's Allowance. VAT relief is handled by the shop or the builder. Care funding sits separately, and the funding routes for care at home covers the assessment, NHS Continuing Healthcare and direct payments.

The legal test is a severe impairment of intelligence and social functioning which appears to be permanent. That wording is old and it reads badly, but it is what councils apply, and it is met by a good many people living with dementia, and by some people after a stroke or an acquired brain injury, where the lasting changes are cognitive rather than physical. Two things have to be in place: a registered medical practitioner, usually the GP, signs a certificate, and the person is entitled to a qualifying benefit such as Attendance Allowance or the daily living component of Personal Independence Payment. Entitled is the word that matters, so claim the benefit first if it has not been claimed.

Apply to the council that sends the bill, which is the district or borough council in a two-tier area, and which publishes a form with a page for the GP to sign. The gov.uk guide to who has to pay council tax lists every disregarded group. Any refund goes back to whoever paid the bill, worth checking where a family member has been covering household costs. If you are handling your parent's money under a power of attorney, paying for care as an attorney sets out what you can sign for.

The band reduction is worth reading twice, because the wording catches more households than families expect. A downstairs room turned into a bedroom, a second bathroom put in so somebody can be washed properly, or a ground floor room used for storing equipment can all count. The rules sit on gov.uk under discounts for disabled people, and home adaptations that reduce the need for care sets out what helps most.

Raise it before you order. Relief is applied when the invoice is raised, and getting VAT back afterwards means asking the supplier to reissue, which some will do and some will not. When you are getting quotes, say at the first conversation that the work is for a disabled person. Both reliefs are set out on gov.uk, under VAT relief for disabled people and VAT relief on building work. The right equipment to aid the elderly covers what to buy first.

Two additions inside Pension Credit are easy to miss. A severe disability addition of £86.05 a week is paid where the person gets a benefit such as Attendance Allowance, lives alone or only with people ignored for this purpose, and nobody is paid Carer's Allowance for looking after them. A carer addition of £48.15 a week goes to somebody with an underlying entitlement to Carer's Allowance. The two interact, because a claim for Carer's Allowance can stop the severe disability addition, so ask an adviser to work out both first. Can my mum pay me to care for her? sets out the same choice from the family carer's side. Where a household has just become one person after a bereavement, several of these change at once, and the care and the money when a couple becomes one covers the order to claim them in.

Heating help sits alongside this and is largely automatic. The Warm Home Discount takes £150 off an electricity bill for winter 2026 to 2027. Cold Weather Payments of £25 are made for each seven-day spell where the local temperature is recorded or forecast at or below zero. The Winter Fuel Payment is £100 to £300 for people born on or before 27 June 1960, taken back through HMRC where income is over £35,000. The dates are published each autumn, so check for the coming winter.

1. 1

   Ask the council for a home assessment

   Free

   Ring adult social care and ask for an occupational therapist to assess the home. They visit, walk round with your parent and watch how they manage the stairs, the bath and the kitchen. It helps to have somebody there who knows how bad the worst days are.
2. 2

   The small adaptations come first, and they are free

   Under £1,000

   Grab rails, a half step, a raised toilet seat, a key safe, better lighting. The council should pay for each adaptation costing less than that figure, and these often arrive within weeks. They need no grant application and are not means-tested.
3. 3

   For the bigger work, apply for a Disabled Facilities Grant

   Up to £30,000 in England

   The grant pays for work that lets a disabled person get into the home, move around it, use a bathroom and sleep safely: a stairlift, a level access shower, widened doors, a ramp, an extension for a downstairs bedroom, and changes to heating or lighting controls. Wales is up to £36,000 and Northern Ireland £25,000. Some councils pay more from their own funds.
4. 4

   The means test, and the one exception to it

   Income and savings

   For an adult the grant is means-tested on household income and on savings above £6,000, and the council may expect a contribution. A disabled child under 18 gets a grant without their parents’ income being counted. It does not matter whether your parent owns or rents, though a landlord must agree to the work.
5. 5

   Expect it to take time, and plan around the wait

   Months, not weeks

   An assessment, an application, a means test, quotes and then the building work is a long sequence, and waiting times vary between councils. Ask how long each stage takes where you live.

While the work is pending, hours of help are usually what keeps somebody safe at home. Families paying privately can search for carers near them and compare their rates before settling on the hours: carers on PrimeCarers charge £18 to £25 an hour with our fee included, against £28 to £35 at an agency. What care costs where you live puts local figures against the hours, and gov.uk describes the Disabled Facilities Grant itself.

Charitable grants take longer than they look, because most funds ask for an application supported by a professional such as a social worker or an advice worker, and some meet only quarterly. That is a reason to start early, and another reason a benefits adviser is useful: they apply often and will write the supporting letter. The Turn2us grants search is where to start looking.

1. 1

   Gather the figures before you ring

   Half an hour

   Their income, including the State Pension and any private pension, roughly what is in savings, the council tax band and who else lives in the house, any benefits in payment, and a list of conditions and medicines. Nothing has to be exact.
2. 2

   Book a check with somebody who does them every day

   Free

   Age UK’s advice line and local branches run benefit checks, some at home, and Citizens Advice does the same. Many councils have a welfare rights team, worth asking adult social care about.
3. 3

   Claim the gateway benefits first

   Week one

   Attendance Allowance and Pension Credit come first, because several of the other reliefs use them as their test. A council tax disregard needs a qualifying benefit in place, and heating and NHS help follow a Pension Credit award.
4. 4

   Then the council tax and the adaptations

   Week two onwards

   Send the severe mental impairment certificate and ask about backdating in the same letter, and apply for the band reduction and the carer disregard separately. Ask adult social care for an occupational therapy assessment, which starts both the free small adaptations and any grant application.
5. 5

   Write down what you sent and when

   Throughout

   Keep a single page with the date of each claim, who you spoke to and what they said. Decisions arrive weeks apart from different offices, some of them wrong, and a short record is what makes a challenge straightforward. Tell the council and the Pension Service about any award; they do not tell each other.

The free ones to try are Age UK, Citizens Advice and the independent calculators listed on gov.uk.