Blind Person's Allowance Guide 2026/27: Eligibility and How to Claim

What Is Blind Person's Allowance?

Blind Person's Allowance is an additional amount added to your tax-free Personal Allowance if you are registered as severely sight impaired (the term now used instead of "blind" on most local authority registers, though HMRC retains the historic name for the allowance). It works by increasing the total amount of income you can receive each tax year before income tax becomes payable.

For 2026/27, the standard Personal Allowance is £12,570, frozen at this level. Blind Person's Allowance is added on top of this figure, so an eligible claimant has a higher combined tax-free threshold than someone claiming only the standard Personal Allowance.

The specific cash value of Blind Person's Allowance is set and uprated by HMRC each year and published on gov.uk -- always check the current year's figure rather than relying on a previous year's amount, since HMRC reviews it annually alongside other allowances.

Who Qualifies?

To claim Blind Person's Allowance you generally need to be:

• Registered as severely sight impaired (blind) with your local council in England or Wales, or
• On the equivalent register held by a local authority in Scotland, or the equivalent process in Northern Ireland

Registration is usually arranged following an assessment by an ophthalmologist, who issues a Certificate of Vision Impairment (CVI) confirming that your sight loss meets the legal threshold. Your local council then adds you to its register.

Being registered as partially sighted (rather than severely sight impaired) does not qualify you for Blind Person's Allowance -- the allowance is specifically for the more severe classification.

How to Claim

The claims process depends on how you are taxed:

If you complete a Self Assessment tax return: you claim Blind Person's Allowance directly on the return, by entering that you are registered blind and providing your local authority registration details (or the name of the register and the date you were added).

If you are taxed under PAYE (employed or receiving a pension): you can claim by:

• Updating your details through your Personal Tax Account online
• Calling HMRC's income tax helpline
• Writing to HMRC with your registration details

Once processed, HMRC adjusts your tax code to reflect the extra allowance, so you receive the benefit through your regular pay or pension, rather than as a lump sum.

Backdating a Claim

If you were eligible for Blind Person's Allowance in a previous tax year but did not claim it -- perhaps because you were unaware of the relief, or registered partway through a year and did not realise you could claim for the full year of registration -- you can generally backdate a claim.

The normal time limit for claiming a tax refund or additional relief is four years from the end of the relevant tax year. This means it is worth checking your registration date against your claim history if you believe you may have missed out in earlier years.

Transferring Unused Allowance to a Spouse or Civil Partner

If your own income is too low to use all of your Blind Person's Allowance -- for example, because you have little or no taxable income -- you can transfer the unused portion to your spouse or civil partner. Key points:

• The transfer is available whether or not your spouse or civil partner is also registered blind
• You must be married or in a civil partnership -- the transfer is not available to unmarried partners
• Only the unused part of the allowance can be transferred; you cannot transfer allowance you are already using against your own income
• Both spouses or civil partners must contact HMRC to arrange the transfer, typically via Self Assessment (if either completes a return) or by writing to HMRC

If both spouses or civil partners are individually registered as severely sight impaired, each can claim their own Blind Person's Allowance in addition to the standard Personal Allowance, and either can also transfer unused amounts to the other where relevant.

Combining with Marriage Allowance

Blind Person's Allowance and Marriage Allowance are separate reliefs that can be claimed together if the relevant conditions are met for each:

• Marriage Allowance lets a spouse or civil partner who does not use all of their standard Personal Allowance transfer a fixed portion of it to a partner taxed at the basic rate
• Blind Person's Allowance is a separate addition based on sight impairment registration, claimed independently

Because both reliefs work by adjusting tax codes or Self Assessment calculations, HMRC applies each correctly when both are claimed, but it is worth reviewing your tax code carefully (or asking HMRC to confirm) to ensure both allowances are reflected once you have made both claims.

Interaction with Other Support

Blind Person's Allowance is a tax allowance, not a cash benefit, so it does not itself count as income when other means-tested benefits are assessed. It simply reduces the amount of income tax you pay by increasing your tax-free threshold.

Separately, being registered severely sight impaired may support eligibility for other forms of disability-related support, such as certain disability benefits, reduced-cost travel schemes, or television licence concessions -- but each of these has its own eligibility rules and application process distinct from Blind Person's Allowance itself.

Sources

• gov.uk: Blind Person's Allowance
• gov.uk: Income Tax rates and Personal Allowances
• gov.uk: Marriage Allowance
• HMRC: Tax codes explained