Expenses of blind persons or persons confined to bed or invalid chair
12.49. Medical expenses comprising payments for the services of an attendant for a blind person or a person confined to bed or an invalid chair, and payments for the maintenance of a trained dog for a blind person, call for special attention. These expenses differ from those so far considered in being continuous expenses over the remainder of a life: the condition must be a permanent one. The notion of giving a concession only for exceptional expenses has no application.
12.50. In the Committee's view the concession should be converted to a rebate. However, the expenses are likely to be very considerable and, more especially where the person with the disability is the taxpayer claiming the concession, may be so large in relation to the income of the person making the claim that even a generous rebate of tax will not provide the order of assistance appropriate. Consideration should be given to replacing the tax rebate in due course by further direct government assistance in the form of the provision of the necessary services or by means of grants.
12.51. Blind persons and persons confined to bed or invalid chair are the most evident cases of need, but there are other cases of continuous expenses arising from serious permanent disability: for example, the person concerned may be mentally retarded or have a congenital physical disability requiring continuous care. If it were sought to extend the tax rebate concession to these other cases, there would be problems in defining the degree of disability attracting the concession and in defining the expenses by way of travel, therapy and supervision to which it would apply. In any event, the Committee does not regard a tax rebate as the most appropriate form of assistance and would propose that in these cases, too, consideration be given to providing further direct assistance.