The Personal Community Charge (Exemptions) Order 1989

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)

Schedule 1 to the Local Government Finance Act 1988 provides for certain exemptions from personal community charges arising under the Act. This Order makes further provision in relation to those exemptions.

Article 2 provides that a person is exempt on a day if at any time on the day he is imprisoned, detained or in custody under the Army Act 1955, the Air Force Act 1955 or the Naval Discipline Act 1957, provided that, in the case of a person in custody under arrest, the arrest subsists for a period exceeding 48 hours and he is not under open arrest.

A person who is severely mentally impaired and who holds a certificate of a registered medical practitioner to that effect is exempt from the personal community charge if one or more of the conditions mentioned in paragraph 4(2) of Schedule 1 to the Act is satisfied. Article 3 widens this exemption by adding to the conditions specified in that paragraph.

Paragraph 9 of Schedule 1 to the Act provides for certain patients in homes to be exempt. Amongst these are individuals having their sole or main residence in a hostel or residential care home. Article 4 defines “hostel” for this purpose, and also substitutes a new definition of residential care home so as to include residential accommodation run by the Abbeyfield Society and affiliated bodies.