Campaigning pensioner Val Jones from Pembroke has teamed up with her local MP to ensure that disabled people aren't paying too much VAT.

The determined great grandmother from Angle was angry when she discovered that people who are disabled are regularly paying too much for goods because they don't know their rights – and nor do the shops that are serving them.

As the law stands, if you are disabled or chronically sick then you don't have to pay the 20% VAT on goods such as mobility scooters that are designed specifically for use by the disabled.

"I went into Boots and they wouldn't let me have zero rated VAT on the parts for my TENS machine," she says. "I took it up with their head office and they agreed that a mistake had been made and said that they would undertake staff training to make their cashiers aware of the benefit.

"However when I went into the Pembroke Dock branch for pads for the machine a short while later they said they'd never heard of it either."

Mrs Jones decided to investigate and has written to Welsh Commissioner for Older People, charities for the elderly, major chemists' chains and retail giants.

She also approached her local MP Simon Hart and together they are now launching a campaign to make the perk more widely known and to get disabled goods zero VAT rated on the shelf.

"I don't understand why they don't take it off at source," added Mrs Jones. "It's only disabled people who want to buy things like zimmer frames and mobility scooters, why else would you want to buy them?"

Mrs Jones has been told wrongly by one shop that disabled people had to bring in letters from their doctors, another said only wheelchairs and mobility scooters were exempt.

"Both of them were wrong, all you have to do is sign a declaration of entitlement," she added.

Mr Hart said: "I was surprised to hear that this exemption seems to be so little known about, not just in the shops selling the goods but also among those who should be benefitting from it.

"If you are buying a £700 bath lift for mobility scooter for instance then you are talking about a saving of £140."

Mr Hart has been corresponding with the Treasury about the exemption and is encouraging other MPs to sign up to his awareness campaign.

"Disabled people are missing out all the time," he said. "It's crazy that they don't know what they are entitled to."