Income Tax Act 2007 section 38

Blind person's allowance

Section 38 sets out the conditions under which an individual may claim a blind person's allowance, including the registration requirements and the amount of the allowance.

• A blind person's allowance of £3,070 per tax year is available to individuals who meet specified eligibility conditions for all or part of the tax year and satisfy the residence requirements
• In England and Wales, the individual must be registered as severely sight-impaired on the relevant local authority register kept under the Care Act 2014 or the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014
• In Scotland and Northern Ireland, the individual must be ordinarily resident there and, because of their blindness, unable to carry out any work for which eyesight is essential
• Where formal registration takes place in one tax year but the supporting medical evidence of blindness was obtained in the preceding tax year, the individual is treated as having met the registration condition for the whole of that preceding year