VAT Relief on Mobility Equipment: 20 UK Retailers Checked

Zero rating is the largest single saving available on mobility equipment, and it is the one most often left on the table. On a £17,000 home lift it is £3,400. On a £3,000 stairlift it is £600. Yet the rules are described so inconsistently across the trade that a shopper reading three retailer websites would come away with three different ideas about who qualifies and what they have to prove.

So we read what UK mobility retailers actually tell customers. Twenty companies, their own published VAT pages, checked on 24 August 2026. Below is what each one does, then the five patterns that come up again and again.

What the law actually says

The rule lives in VAT Notice 701/7. Three conditions have to be met, and none of them involve paperwork from a doctor or the government.

You must be chronically sick or disabled. HMRC’s test is “a physical or mental impairment which has a long-term and substantial adverse effect on their ability to carry out everyday activities”, or a condition the medical profession treats as a chronic sickness. A temporary injury does not count. Nor does age on its own.

The goods must be eligible and for your personal or domestic use. Wheelchairs, stairlifts, hoists, adjustable beds designed for disabled people, incontinence products and much else are on HMRC’s list. A general-purpose product bought by a disabled person is not automatically zero rated.

You give the retailer a written declaration. Name, address, the condition, and a statement that the goods are for your own use. The retailer keeps it. It never goes to HMRC.

Two HMRC sentences are worth memorising because they settle most arguments at the till. VAT reliefs for disabled people “are not means-tested. They are not dependent on the benefits a disabled person may or may not get and a person does not have to be registered disabled.” And: “HMRC does not supply an ‘exemption certificate’ to the customer for this purpose.”

What each retailer does

Checked on their own published pages on 24 August 2026. “Price shown” means the price you see before you tell them anything about yourself.

Three companies we set out to check are not in the table because we could not read their pages rather than because they do anything wrong: NRS Healthcare, whose site refused every page except the homepage, Handicare and Savaria Lifts UK, whose interior pages all returned errors, and Age UK Mobility, where three pages including the stairlift financing advice carried no VAT information at all. If any of them wants to tell us how their scheme works, we will add them.

Five ways these pages depart from HMRC’s guidance

A note on what follows. Nothing here suggests any retailer is breaking the law or acting dishonestly. Charging VAT where a customer has not made a declaration is correct, and a retailer is entitled to decide that a particular product is not eligible. Our subject is narrower: how the rules are described to customers on these companies’ own websites, and where that description differs from HMRC’s published guidance. Every quotation below was taken from the page named on 24 August 2026 and may since have changed.

1. “Registered disabled”

Argos, Amazon, Acorn and Companion Stairlifts all frame the relief around being registered disabled. HMRC’s own guidance says the opposite: “a person does not have to be registered disabled”. There is no register that governs this relief. The wording matters because it tells eligible people, particularly those with arthritis, heart conditions, diabetes or a recent diagnosis, that a door is closed when it is open.

2. Paying the VAT first and claiming it back

Health and Care, Argos and Amazon all charge the full price and refund the VAT afterwards. Argos wants a receipt and your bank details by email or post, and quotes 10 working days. Amazon makes you request the declaration form from customer service and send it to a business refunds address. Nothing in the rules requires this. Millercare, Mobility Smart, Complete Care Shop and Manage At Home all manage to apply the relief before you pay, on the same law.

3. Inventing eligibility tests

Ability Superstore states that “Products are only eligible for VAT exemption if the manufacturer has confirmation from HMRC that they are satisfied that the original design was for the sole use of people who are chronically sick or disabled.” HMRC does not issue product-by-product confirmations of that kind. Eligibility follows from the categories in the law.

Fenetic Wellbeing asks you to “select your illness or disability from the list of qualifying medical conditions”. There is no HMRC list of qualifying conditions. The declaration asks you to describe your condition in your own words, which is precisely what a closed dropdown prevents.

4. Blanket exclusions that overshoot

Argos lists adjustable beds among products “not normally eligible for a VAT refund”. HMRC’s notice zero rates “an electrically or mechanically adjustable bed designed for people with disabilities”, subject to the bed clearly standing out as specialised. An ordinary adjustable bed is indeed not eligible. A specialist one is, and a customer reading Argos’s list would not know that.

Ableworld states that relief “does not apply to the posting and packing charges”. VAT Notice 701/7 does not address delivery charges on zero-rated goods, so we cannot say from HMRC’s own guidance whether that is right. If you are buying something substantial, it is worth asking the retailer to explain the basis for charging VAT on delivery of a zero-rated item.

5. Calling it exemption

Almost everyone does this, including retailers who are otherwise word-perfect. Exemption and zero rating are different things in VAT law. It matters less to shoppers than the four above, but it is why so many people believe HMRC issues a certificate: exemption sounds like something you have to be granted.

The relief almost nobody mentions: 5 per cent if you are over 60

Separate from zero rating, there is a reduced rate of 5 per cent for people over 60 who are not disabled. GOV.UK lists what it covers: “grab rails, ramps, stair lifts, bath lifts, built-in shower seats or showers containing built-in shower seats, walk-in baths with sealable doors”.

Two conditions catch people out. The product has to be installed, and “you do not get the reduced rate if you just buy it”. And it has to be for a private home, not a residential care home. Repairs and replacements after installation do not get the reduced rate either.

Of the 20 retailers we checked, only Stannah and Stiltz mention this at all. If you are over 60, not disabled, and having a stairlift or a walk-in bath fitted, the difference between 20 per cent and 5 per cent on a £4,000 job is £600.

How to make the declaration

You do not need a special form. HMRC publishes an eligibility declaration you can use, and most retailers have their own version. It needs your name and address, a description of your condition, and confirmation that the goods are for your personal or domestic use. Someone else can complete it for you, and a parent, guardian, doctor or other responsible person can sign if you cannot.

Two details worth knowing. It is a legally binding declaration, and it is an offence to make a false one. And the retailer keeps it in their records for HMRC inspection, so there is no reason for the details to go anywhere else.

Method and limits

We read each company’s own published VAT page on 24 August 2026 and recorded what it says, quoting where the wording matters. We did not phone anyone, place an order or test a checkout, so this is a record of what retailers tell customers in public, not of what happens on the phone or in a showroom, where practice may be better or worse than the published policy.

Three companies could not be checked because their sites refused our requests. Where a page did not address something, we have written “could not verify” rather than assuming the usual. Retailer websites change: if yours has, tell us and we will recheck it.

Exactly which pages we read

Every statement about a company in this article comes from the page listed below, read on 24 August 2026. The URLs are given as plain text rather than links, because this is a citation list and not a recommendation. If a page has since been rewritten, the wording we quote is the wording that was published on that date.

Where a company appears in the table above with a “could not verify” entry, it means the page we read did not address that point, not that we assumed an answer. Where a company is named as unchecked, it means its website refused our requests.

Corrections, and how we handle them

This comparison records what was published on each company’s own website on 24 August 2026. Websites change, and a policy page can be rewritten the day after we read it. If you work for one of these companies and something here is out of date, wrong, or missing context, email us at hello@reviewmobility.co.uk and we will check it and correct the entry, with a note saying what changed and when.

We did not contact any of the retailers before publishing, because everything here comes from pages they publish for customers to read rather than from anything private. Where we could not confirm something, the table says so rather than guessing, and three companies are named as unchecked rather than assumed.

Disclosure. Review Mobility runs a directory of mobility companies and offers optional paid listings to them. No company paid to appear in this comparison, none was given sight of it in advance, and holding a paid listing does not change what we publish.

This article explains VAT rules as HMRC publishes them. It is not tax advice for your situation. If a large amount of VAT turns on a marginal case, check with HMRC or an accountant before you commit.

Official sources

• VAT Notice 701/7: reliefs from VAT for disabled and older people
• HMRC internal manual VRDP24000: lifts
• GOV.UK: VAT on mobility aids, the 5 per cent rate for over-60s
• HMRC eligibility declaration for a disabled person
• GOV.UK: VAT relief, financial help if you are disabled

Frequently asked questions

Do I need proof of disability to get VAT relief?

No. HMRC requires a written declaration from you, not evidence. You do not need a doctor’s letter, a benefits award letter or any reference number, and you do not have to be registered disabled. Any retailer asking for proof is adding a condition the law does not contain.

Is there a VAT exemption certificate?

No. HMRC’s guidance says plainly that it “does not supply an ‘exemption certificate’ to the customer for this purpose”. What exists is a declaration you give the retailer, which they keep.

Does being over 60 mean I pay no VAT on a stairlift?

Not quite. If you are disabled or chronically sick, the rate is zero. If you are over 60 and not disabled, certain mobility aids drop to 5 per cent, but only where they are supplied and installed in your own home. Buying the same item without installation does not qualify.

Can I claim VAT back after I have already bought something?

It depends on the retailer. Argos, Amazon and Health and Care all operate refund schemes after purchase. Retailers that apply the relief at the checkout generally cannot go back and change a completed order, so it is much easier to claim before you pay.

Does VAT relief cover installation, servicing and repairs?

Installation of a qualifying item in a disabled person’s private residence is covered, and for lifts HMRC’s manual confirms the relief extends to the lift and its operating equipment as well as the work. Repairs and maintenance of goods that were zero rated are generally covered too. The 5 per cent rate for over-60s is narrower and does not cover repairs or replacements.

Who can sign the declaration if the person cannot?

A parent, guardian, doctor or another responsible person can sign on behalf of someone who cannot, for example a child or a person unable to write.