Through the Jamaica Council of Persons with Disabilities (JCPD), persons registered with disabilities and who manage to gain employment, benefit from an income tax exemption. This benefit is intended to provide some amount of financial relief to the person with the disability and is effective from the verified date of the onset of the disability. The nature of a disability is such that they are life-changing and lifelong, and likely to prevent the person with a disability from gaining employment to the degree that they will ever actually benefit from this tax exemption. Considering also that some persons with disabilities will require lifelong support from their family and other caregivers, we advocate that it is not only fair and just, but long overdue that such an exemption be extended to the verified caregivers of the person with the disability. Those charged with the responsibility for others with disabilities do so at a greater financial burden and it is only right that the authorities recognize this and extend the tax relief to persons who manage and care for the disabled. The reality is that in most instances, the tax exemption would only amount to a partial defray of the true cost of caregiving.

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