Salford Council Tax Reduction Disability Disregard — PIP, DLA, and Attendance Allowance Rules

Disability benefits are fully disregarded in Salford's Council Tax Reduction calculation — PIP, DLA, and Attendance Allowance don't count as income at all. But the benefit goes further than that: holding certain disability awards also wipes out non-dependant deductions, which can save an additional £7.00 per week for every qualifying adult in the home.

Which Benefits Are Disregarded as Income

When Salford calculates your net monthly income for the income band assessment, the following are stripped out completely:

• Personal Independence Payment (PIP) — both Daily Living and Mobility components
• Disability Living Allowance (DLA) — all components and rates
• Attendance Allowance — both rates
• Constant Attendance Allowance
• War Pensions and War Disablement Allowances

None of these figures enter the income calculation. If your only income is PIP and a small amount of Universal Credit, the income figure used for banding will be just the counted portion of UC (after the council strips out the housing element, childcare element, and other excluded components).

The Non-Dependant Deduction Exemption

This is where disability benefits have their biggest practical impact on the final CTR award.

Normally, Salford deducts £7.00 per week from your CTR award for every non-dependant adult living in the property — an adult child over 21, a parent, a friend. For households with two or three non-dependants, those deductions can reduce an 88% Band 1 award by £14.00–£21.00 per week.

But the deduction is completely waived if the claimant or their partner receives any of these:

• DLA Care Component at middle or higher rate
• PIP Daily Living Component (either rate)
• Attendance Allowance (either rate)

The exemption protects the claimant's household regardless of who the non-dependant is or what they earn. A working adult child paying no rent still triggers no deduction if the parent receives qualifying disability benefits.

Non-Dependants With Their Own Disability Benefits

The exemption also works the other way. A non-dependant who receives any of these benefits is exempt from generating a deduction against the claimant's award:

• DLA Care Component (middle or higher rate)
• PIP Daily Living Component
• Attendance Allowance
• Carer's Allowance
• Pension Credit

So if an adult child living in the home receives PIP Daily Living, no £7.00 deduction is taken — even if the claimant doesn't receive disability benefits themselves.

Severe Mental Impairment and Registered Blind Status

Two additional categories provide protections that interact with CTR:

Severe Mental Impairment (SMI): a person certified as severely mentally impaired is "disregarded" for council tax purposes — they don't count as an adult resident. This means if both occupants of a property are a couple and one has SMI certification, the other qualifies for the 25% Single Person Discount, which reduces the base council tax liability before CTR is calculated.

Registered blind: claimants who are registered blind with the local authority (or who provide medical evidence of their condition) are exempt from having non-dependant deductions applied to their CTR award, in the same way as PIP/DLA/AA recipients.

Making Sure the Disregards Are Applied

The most common problem isn't eligibility — it's evidence. Salford needs documented proof that the disability benefit is in payment. When you apply for CTR, include:

• Your latest PIP, DLA, or Attendance Allowance award letter showing the components and rates
• If claiming the non-dependant exemption based on your own disability benefit, include the same letter
• If a non-dependant claims their own exemption, their award letter too

If you're unsure whether your disability benefits have been correctly disregarded in a CTR decision, check the income calculation on your decision notice. If PIP or DLA appears as counted income, or if a non-dependant deduction has been applied despite a qualifying disability benefit, that's grounds for an internal review.

For a full breakdown of how disability disregards interact with the income bands and worked examples, see our Salford Council Tax Reduction guide.

See more England guides →