MENTAL HANDICAP VOL. 18 MARCH 1990

Letters classified as severely mentally impaired and not responsible for Daving Poll Tax will mean tha t DeoDle can be excluded

The Poll Tax and the status of people with mental handicaps

Ms. Wellburn’s letter (Ment. Hand., 1989, 17:3, 129) raised various queries about the exemption from Poll Tax of people with severe mental impairments. In Scotland we have already had to face these issues, and our experience might be of interest.

Doctors are issued with guidelines, but these do little more than set out the legal definition with some illustrative conditions which may, or may not, qualify for exemption. There is no real guidance on the fundamental question, which is how severe the disability must be for the person to qualify. It is hardly surprising, in these circumstances, if there is inconsistency.

There have been fewer appeals than might have been expected because Registration Officers are unlikely to question a doctor who is prepared to certify that someone has a severe mental impairment. If the doctor refuses to give a certificate the question of an appeal does not arise, since no one can legally be exempted without such a certificate. Some people have gained exemption when a certificate has been refused by one doctor by finding another doctor to sign one. The lack of appeals means that i t is unlikely that the definition will be clarified.

SSMH shares Ms. Wellburn’s concerns about labelling people as “severely mentally impaired’. The Government has said the exemption will only relate to the Poll Tax, but the definition is very similar to those used in other legislation, such as the Mental Health Act. Mental capacity can affect many rights, such as the right to marry, to have a sexual relationship, to make a will, or to vote. There must be a concern that people with an official certificate proclaiming that they are severely mentally impaired will have more difficulty in exercising these rights.

The legislation does not seem to envisage the possibility of a person applying for an exemption to be removed. It also completely fails to address the question of what legal right a third party, such as a parent or the manager of the home in which people with mental handicaps live,

has to apply for exemption on behalf of someone with a mental handicap.

Extension of the exemption facility to people with dementia in receipt of Attendance Allowance, does little to allay many of these concerns. However, although the new regulations are no clearer as to the required degree of handicap, the Scottish Office has said in correspondence: “In future the fact that a person meets one of the qualifying conditions will be the indicator that their impairment is of sufficient. severity to justify exemption. The doctor’s role will be effectively to certify that the reason that the person has met one of the conditions is on the grounds of their mental impairment (rather than any physical impairment)”.

SSMH argues that exemption from Poll Tax should exist because of the limited financial resources of most people with disabilities; not because of a n assumption that some people with mental disabilities cannot participate in the community. This could be organised quite simply, by making exemption solely dependent on receipt of one of a list of qualifying benefits, thus removing the need for a n unworkable test of severe mental impairment. COLIN McKAY, Legal Adviser, Scottish Society for the Mentally Handicapped, 13, Elmbank Street, Glasgow G2 4QA.

In reply to Viv Wellburn’s letter (Ment. Hand., 1989; 17:3, 1291, we would like to add our concern about some implications of the Poll Tax legislation.

While we appreciate that the exemption clause is intended to help some people with handicaps by not requiring them to pay any of the tax, we make the following comments.

By requiring a written state- ment of severe mental impairment, people will have labels attached to them which they may well feel are derogatory. There are no objective criteria on which general practitioners can base their claim as to whether or not someone is “severely mentally impaired”. We are unsure whether being

from Iriihts such as voting, allocation of housing, use of local facilities, and others.

PAT GRAHAM and CHRIS MacANDRE W, Clinical Psychologists, MIKE COOPER, Consultant Psychia- trist, HELEN WEGH, SUE LOCKTON, PAUL MAZUR, and PAUL GRIMER, Community Nurses, PETER LANGLEY, Specialist Social Worker and J O McCONOCHIE, Social Worker, members of Cheltenham Community Mental Handicap Team, Sandford Park House, 39-41 London Road, Cheltenham GL52 6XJ.

Link family scheme

As the Coordinator of a link family scheme similar to the one in Canterbury and Thanet, I was interested in the evaluation by Ruchira Bose (Ment. Hand., 1989; 17:4, 167-170), particularly the author’s discussion of the difficulties in recruiting low income families, and the suggestion that this problem might be resolved by increasing the level of payment. My own experience has demonstrated that allowances have little or no influence on people’s decision to become involved in such schemes. Given the intermittent nature of respite care, it could never be seen as substituting €or paid employment and I have met people on state benefits who are afraid to take on “paid voluntary work” because of the earnings rule. Increasing allowances could well lead to a greater fear of benefit withdrawal.

Another, perhaps greater, deter- rent I have encountered is the “them and us’’ syndrome which is still prevalent in our society. This is partly to do with the perceived status of the professionals running schemes and the myths surrounding areas like respite and fostering.

People have said to me: “I thought you had to be posh, have a large house, have a good education. I didn’t think you’d take on the ‘likes of us”’. With such people &stance-recruiting, for example, newspaper advertise- ments, is unlikely to work. They need the encouragement and confidence gained from personal contact; preferably with existing link families who may have much more influence than any amount of

38 Q 1990 BlMH Publications