Care and support

VAT exemption for disabled or long-term ill people

If you are chronically sick or disabled and are purchasing goods or services that have been specifically designed to help with your condition or disability, you will not have to pay VAT on them provided they are for your own personal or domestic use.

Who is eligible?
To qualify for VAT relief a person must be ‘chronically sick or disabled’, i.e. they must:

• have a physical or mental impairment that has a long-term and severe effect on their ability to carry out everyday activities, or
• have a condition that doctors treat as a chronic sickness (e.g. diabetes), or
• be terminally ill

You do not need to be officially registered as disabled to be eligible.