Carer Disregard Council Tax Scotland

If you provide unpaid care for a disabled family member or friend in Scotland and live in the same property, you may be invisible to the council tax bill — disregarded entirely when the council counts the adults in the household. But the rules have sharp edges, particularly around who counts as a carer and who is excluded.

The Unpaid Live-In Carer Disregard

Under Regulation 2(3) of the Council Tax (Discounts) (Scotland) Regulations 1992, an unpaid live-in carer is disregarded for council tax purposes if all four conditions are met:

1. At least 35 hours of care per week. You must provide care or support to the disabled person for an average of 35 hours per week. This does not need to be evidenced by a timesheet — it is a self-declared threshold, though councils may ask for confirmation.

2. You live in the same property. You must reside in the same dwelling as the person receiving care. A carer who visits daily but lives elsewhere does not qualify.

3. The person you care for receives a high-rate qualifying benefit. Specifically:

• Attendance Allowance at the higher rate
• DLA care component at the highest rate
• PIP daily living component at the enhanced rate
• Adult Disability Payment (ADP) daily living component at the enhanced rate
• Pension Age Disability Payment (PADP) at the higher rate
• Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance (SADLA) care component at the highest rate
• An increase in Constant Attendance Allowance

Note the rates: the person must be on the highest care rate, not just any rate. Standard-rate ADP or PIP does not qualify the carer for a disregard.

4. You are not the spouse or partner. The carer must not be the spouse, civil partner, or cohabiting partner of the person receiving care. Nor can a parent claim the carer disregard for looking after their own child under 18.

This partner exclusion is the most common reason carer disregard applications fail. A wife caring for her husband with dementia — no matter how many hours she provides — cannot be disregarded under this provision.

The Employed Care Worker Disregard

A second category covers people employed to provide care:

• Employed by a local authority, the Crown, or a charitable body (or introduced by a charity and employed directly by the person receiving care)
• Working at least 24 hours per week
• Earning no more than £30 per week
• Living in premises provided by the employer or charity

This category is less common in practice, but relevant for live-in care workers employed through charitable organisations at nominal wages.

How the Carer Disregard Stacks with SMI

When a household has both an SMI person and a qualifying live-in carer, both are disregarded — the SMI person under the SMI provision, the carer under the carer provision. With zero counted adults remaining, the household gets a 50% discount under Section 79(2)(b) of the LGFA 1992.

This is not a full Class 23 exemption (which requires all residents to be disregarded on SMI grounds specifically), but a 50% discount on a Scottish council tax bill is still significant — roughly £827 per year for a Band D property.

What About the Partner Exclusion?

The partner exclusion means a spouse caring for their partner with SMI cannot be disregarded as a carer. But the SMI person is still disregarded under their own right. In a two-person household:

• Partner with SMI: disregarded
• Caring spouse: counted as the sole adult
• Result: 25% single person discount

If the household also includes a non-partner carer (an adult child, a sibling, a friend) who meets all four conditions, that person can be disregarded as a carer. If that brings the counted adults back to zero, the household gets the 50% discount.

You Don't Need Carer's Allowance or Carer Support Payment

Holding Carer Support Payment (which has replaced Carer's Allowance in Scotland) or Carer's Allowance is not required for the council tax carer disregard. The two are completely separate — one is a benefit paid to the carer, the other is a local tax disregard based on the care arrangement.

You can qualify for the carer disregard without claiming any carer benefit at all. The only requirements are the four conditions above.

How to Apply

Contact your local council's revenue department and ask for the carer disregard alongside any SMI application. You will typically need to provide:

• Confirmation of the care arrangement (hours, living situation)
• Evidence that the person receiving care gets a qualifying benefit at the required rate
• Confirmation of your relationship to the person (to verify the partner exclusion does not apply)

Our Scotland SMI and Disability Council Tax Guide covers the carer disregard alongside the full SMI claim process, with household composition worksheets showing exactly how the two disregards interact in different family situations.

See more Scotland guides →