Local Government Act 1972

118 Payment of salary, etc., due to mentally disordered person.E+W

(1)Subject to the provisions of this section, the power of a local authority to pay remuneration to their officers shall include power, where the authority are satisfied after considering medical evidence that the person to whom, apart from this section, any sum to which this section applies is payable (hereafter in this section referred to as “the patient”) is incapable, by reason of mental disorder within the meaning of [F1the Mental Health Act 1983], of managing and administering his property and affairs, to pay that sum or such part thereof as the authority think fit to the institution or person having the care of the patient to be applied for his benefit and to pay the remainder, if any, or such part thereof as the authority think fit—

(a)to or for the benefit of persons who appear to the authority to be members of the patient’s family or other persons for whom the patient might be expected to provide if he were not mentally disordered; or

(b)in reimbursement, with or without interest, of money applied by any person either in payment of the patient’s debts (whether legally enforceable or not) or for the maintenance or other benefit of the patient or such persons as are mentioned in the foregoing paragraph.

(2)This section applies to any sum payable by a local authority to an officer or pensioner of the authority, or to the widow or widower of a child of a deceased officer or pensioner thereof, by way of remuneration, pension, superannuation or other allowance, gratuity or annuity, or by way of repayment (with or without interest) of contributions made to any superannuation or other fund; and in this subsection the expression “pensioner” includes a person entitled to any pecuniary benefit under any enactment or scheme for the establishment of a superannuation fund or a superannuation and provident fund administered by the local authority.

(3)A local authority shall not in exercise of the powers conferred by subsection (1) above apply in any year in respect of any one person more than £500, or such other sum as may be prescribed.

(4)Before exercising their powers under this section in relation to any patient a local authority shall give to the authority having jurisdiction under [F2Part VII of the said Act of 1983] notice in writing of their intention so to do, specifying the name and address of the patient and the amount and nature of the sums in respect of which the local authority intend to exercise those powers, and the local authority shall, at the same time, give notice in writing to the patient in a form approved by the authority having jurisdiction as aforesaid; and, except with the approval of the authority having jurisdiction as aforesaid, the local authority shall not make the first payment under this section in relation to that patient before the expiration of the period of fourteen days beginning with the date of the service of the notice.

(5)If at any time the authority having jurisdiction as aforesaid give to the local authority notice in writing that the first-mentioned authority objects to the exercise by the local authority of their said powers in relation to any patient, those powers shall, as from the date of the receipt by the local authority of the notice, cease to be exercisable by the local authority in relation to that patient unless and until the first-mentioned authority withdraws the notice.

(6)A local authority shall be discharged from all liability in respect of any payment or application of money effected by the authority in exercise of their powers under this section.