Blind person’s allowance
8For the year 1990-91 and subsequent years of assessment the following section shall be substituted for section 265—
“265Blind person’s allowance
(1)If the claimant proves that he is a registered blind person for the whole or any part of the year of assessment, he shall be entitled to a deduction of £540 from his total income.
(2)Where—
(a)a person entitled to relief under subsection (1) above is a married man whose wife is living with him for the whole or any part of the year of assessment, but
(b)the amount which he is entitled to deduct from his total income by virtue of that subsection exceeds what is left of his total income after all other deductions have been made from it,
his wife shall be entitled to a deduction from her total income of an amount equal to the excess.
(3)In determining for the purposes of subsection (2)(b) above the amount that is left of a person’s total income for a year of assessment after other deductions have been made from it, there shall be disregarded any deduction made—
(a)on account of any payments of relevant loan interest which become due in that year and to which section 369 applies, or
(b)under section 257A or section 289.
(4)Subsections (2) and (3) above shall have effect where a wife is entitled to relief under subsection (1) above as they have effect where the husband is entitled to that relief, but with the appropriate modifications (and in particular the omission from subsection (3) of the reference to section 257A).
(5)Subsections (2) to (4) above shall not apply for a year of assessment unless the person entitled to relief under subsection (1) has given to the inspector written notice that they are to apply; and any such notice—
(a)shall be given not later than six years after the end of the year of assessment to which it relates,
(b)shall be in such form as the Board may determine, and
(c)shall be irrevocable.
(6)A notice given under subsection (5) above in relation to a year of assesment by a husband shall have effect also as a notice under section 257B(3).
(7)In this section “registered blind person” means a person registered as a blind person in a register compiled under section 29 of the [1948 c. 29.] National Assistance Act 1948 or, in the case of a person ordinarily resident in Scotland or Northern Ireland, a person who is a blind person within the meaning of section 64(1) of that Act.”