A North Yorkshire pensioner who cares for his wife with dementia is calling for clarity on council tax discounts in the upcoming Budget.
Derek Brown, 74, from Northallerton, wants Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves to make a list of promises over planned changes to council tax before October 30.
Currently, if only one person occupies the home, or lives with a person with dementia, they qualify for a 25 per cent discount. However, there have been concerns that the discount, which currently benefits many elderly people, could be scrapped in the budget.
Derek’s wife Margaret, who is 84, was diagnosed with dementia in 2018. She can no longer walk and struggles to talk.
Derek Brown wants Rachel Reeves to make a list of promises over planned changes to council tax before October 30
GB News
Speaking to GB News, Derek said: “When she forgets your name and when she looks at you as if, who are you? That’s really hard.
“The first time it happens, it’s like a knife going in you. It really is. The person you’ve been married to for 15 years doesn’t know who you are and it really, really hurts.
“But in time, you learn to live with it. You learn to blame the disease.”
As one of the 900,000 people with dementia in the UK, Margaret is exempt from paying council tax, and so Derek qualifies for a 25 per cent discount.
Campaigning for those with dementia and their carers, Derek pressed for a change in the law to backdate council tax discounts for those with the disease. Now he is fighting for the deduction to remain.
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Derek Brown and his wife Margaret with dementia
GB News
“We’re losing the £300 heating allowance and the average price, the average value of the council tax discount is just over £500 a year,” he said.
“So the Government are talking about taking away £500 from people who’ve got dementia.
“How are they going to survive? I think the Government are hammering people with dementia again.
“People with dementia have to have the heating on. They have to be at over 21 degrees to keep the houses warm. They’re not mobile the same as everybody else.
“Margaret’s in a bed in the lounge, so she needs the heating on all the time. Why should I have to cut down on the meals? Why should I have to watch when I’m washing Margaret’s clothes?
“Why should I have to do that in order to satisfy a political objective?”
Derek Brown
GB News
Chancellor Rachel Reeves will set out the budget on October 30 and she has previously said it will involve difficult decisions on tax, spending and benefits.
Following an article in the Telegraph that reported Treasury officials had said Rachel Reeves would not scrap the measure, a Downing Street spokesman said: “I would not steer you away from those reports.”