Greenwich Council Tax SMI Exemption, Care Leaver Discount and Disability Band Reduction

Greenwich residents dealing with severe disability, leaving care, or living in an adapted property have access to council tax reductions that sit entirely outside the main Council Tax Reduction scheme. These are separate discounts and exemptions with their own eligibility rules and application routes — and they can be worth far more than CTR alone.

Here are the three you should know about.

Severe Mental Impairment (SMI) Exemption

If a person living in your household has been certified by a medical practitioner as severely mentally impaired — meaning they have a severe impairment of intelligence and social functioning that appears to be permanent — they can be "disregarded" for Council Tax purposes.

The practical effect depends on who else lives in the property:

• If the SMI person lives alone: full exemption from Council Tax (you pay nothing)
• If two people live there and one has SMI: the SMI person is disregarded, leaving one countable resident — qualifying the household for the 25% Single Person Discount
• If the SMI person lives with another disregarded person (e.g., a full-time student or another person with SMI): full exemption

To qualify, the person with SMI must also be receiving — or have an underlying entitlement to — a qualifying benefit. Examples include PIP daily living component or Attendance Allowance.

How to Apply for SMI Disregard in Greenwich

You apply directly through the Royal Borough of Greenwich's council tax discounts and exemptions page. You'll need:

• A completed SMI application form (available on royalgreenwich.gov.uk)
• A certificate from a registered medical practitioner confirming severe mental impairment
• Proof of the qualifying benefit

The effective date depends on when the medical and benefit qualifying conditions were both met. The discount can be backdated, so if someone has been eligible for months without claiming, ask the council to assess whether the account can be credited retrospectively.

Greenwich does not charge for this application. Any firm offering to handle it for a fee is unnecessary.

Care Leaver Discount (Under 25)

The Royal Borough of Greenwich provides a discretionary 100% council tax discount for care leavers under the age of 25. This operates under Section 13A(1)(c) of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 — meaning it's the council's own policy choice, not a national rule.

If you qualify, your council tax bill is reduced to zero. The discount:

• Applies to eligible Greenwich residents who were previously looked after by a local authority; check with the council for its eligibility rules
• Covers residents up to their 25th birthday
• Runs as a separate discount from CTR — you don't need to go through the means test
• Works alongside other exemptions if applicable

To apply, contact Greenwich Council's council tax team and explain that you are a care leaver. You'll need evidence of your care history — typically a letter from the local authority that looked after you, or from your personal adviser if you have one.

Greenwich also provides separate 100% council tax discounts for foster carers and Shared Lives households, independently of means-tested CTR.

Disability Band Reduction Scheme

If your home has been adapted — or was chosen specifically — to meet the needs of a disabled person who lives there, you can apply for a reduction in your council tax band. The property is charged as though it were in the band immediately below its actual valuation band. A Band D property would be charged at the Band C rate, for example.

The qualifying conditions are that the property must have at least one of:

• A room (other than a bathroom or kitchen) used predominantly by the disabled person
• An additional bathroom or kitchen for the disabled person's use
• Sufficient floor space to allow the use of a wheelchair indoors

The disabled person must live in the property as their main home. The adaptation doesn't need to have been made by you — if you moved into a property that already had the features, you still qualify.

How to Apply for Band Reduction

Apply through Greenwich Council's council tax discounts page. You'll need to describe the adaptations and may need to provide medical evidence confirming the disability and the need for the adapted features. An inspection may be arranged, though this isn't always required.

Ask Greenwich to assess when the qualifying conditions began. If your property is already in Band A (the lowest), the reduction gives you a one-sixth discount instead, since there is no lower band to move to.

How These Interact with Council Tax Reduction

All three of these — SMI exemption, care leaver discount, and disability band reduction — are applied before any CTR calculation. That matters because:

• The SMI exemption can eliminate the bill entirely, making CTR unnecessary
• The care leaver discount does the same for qualifying under-25s
• The disability band reduction lowers the base liability, which means CTR (if you also claim it) is calculated on the reduced amount — potentially reducing your minimum 20% payment

If you're eligible for both a disability band reduction and CTR, apply for both. The band reduction comes off first, then CTR is calculated on the lower figure.

Our Greenwich Council Tax Reduction guide explains how these discounts interact with the main CTR scheme, including worked examples showing the combined effect on your bill. It also covers the non-dependant deduction exemptions that apply when someone in the household receives PIP or DLA — another benefit interaction that disability households need to understand.

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