Blind Person's Allowance

If you're certified blind and are on a local authority register of blind persons, or if you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland and are unable to perform any work for which eyesight is essential, you can claim Blind Person's Allowance. If you can't use up some or all of your allowance you may be able to transfer it.

How Blind Person's Allowance works

Blind Person's Allowance is added to your tax-free Personal Allowance - so is an extra amount of income you can get each year without paying tax. If you are on a low income or even if you don't pay any tax you may be able to transfer your Blind Person's Allowance to your spouse or civil partner - see the section on transferring below.

Level of Blind Person's Allowance

Blind Person's Allowance for the tax year 2011-12 is £1,980 - there are no age or income restrictions. So if, for example, you're 58, registered blind with your local authority and have:

an annual salary of £11,000
a Personal Allowance of £7,475
Blind Person's Allowance of £1,980

You only need to pay tax on £1,545 (£11,000 less the sum of £7,475 and £1,980).

If both you and your spouse or civil partner qualify for Blind Person's Allowance you can each get an allowance.

How you get Blind Person's Allowance

If you think you may be able to claim Blind Person's Allowance contact HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) on their priority telephone number 0845 366 7887. Lines are open from 8.00 am to 8.00 pm, Monday to Friday ,and 8.00 am to 4.00 pm, Saturday.

Transferring your Blind Person's Allowance to your spouse or civil partner

If your tax bill isn't high enough to use up all of your Blind Person's Allowance you can ask HMRC to transfer any unused allowance to your spouse or civil partner. You can do this by:

completing form 575 'Notice of transfer of surplus Income Tax allowances'
telephoning HMRC on 0845 366 7887 - lines are open from 8.00 am to 8.00 pm, Monday to Friday and 8.00 am to 4.00 pm, Saturday

If you are making a claim to get tax back on a form R40 you can also request form 575 by ticking the appropriate box.

If you don't pay tax and your spouse or civil partner does you can still transfer your unused allowance to them.

If you are also able to claim Married Couple's Allowance you will be able to transfer this allowance to your spouse or civil partner at the same time.