Dementia sufferers miss out on tax refunds

A PENSIONER who suffers from dementia has won back £7,000 after she was wrongly billed for council tax.

The 96-year-old suffered a stroke in 2008, causing dementia-like symptoms such as forgetfulness. People who have been diagnosed with a severe mental impairment, such as dementia, and live with one other adult are entitled to a 25 pc council tax discount.

Those who are diagnosed as severely mentally impaired and live alone should be given a 100 pc discount, which is worth around £400 a year on average.

But tens of thousands of people are missing out because they don’t know about it.

In the above case, the pensioner’s son learned about the discount at an Alzheimer’s Society seminar at his local GP surgery.

He then used the information provided on moneysaving expert.com to claim £7,000 of backdated council tax.

Not all councils will allow people to make backdated claims for the years of exemptions they have missed out on.