A Guide to Benefits if you Care for a Disabled Child

Disability Living Allowance (DLA) is a benefit to help with the extra costs of looking after a disabled child under 16 years old. In Scotland DLA is being replaced with Child Disability Payment (CDP) – if you have an existing DLA claim and you live in Scotland you will be automatically switched to Child Disability Payment.

If your child is aged 16 or over they will need to claim Personal Independence Payment (PIP) instead of DLA. In Scotland PIP is being replaced with Adult Disability Payment – this is being rolled out gradually across different areas. If you have an existing PIP claim and you live in Scotland you will be automatically switched to Adult Disability Payment.

You can get DLA if your child has difficulties walking or getting around or if they need supervision or have care needs which are substantially more than most children of their age. You do not need to wait for a formal diagnosis to apply for DLA.

DLA consists of a mobility component and a care component which are paid at different rates. Your child may qualify for only one component or both together. You cannot get the mobility component for a child under three.  There is no age requirement for the care component, but you cannot usually claim it for a baby under three months old. This is because your child must have had care needs or mobility problems for at least three months before they can be entitled to DLA, unless they are terminally ill.

DLA claimed for your child does not depend on your household income or savings. You can claim it regardless of whether you are working or how much you have in savings. You can also move in and out of work without it affecting your child’s eligibility.

DLA is a complex benefit and it can be difficult to claim it for a child. It is advisable to get specialist advice when applying because the claim forms are long. Contact have some tips for completing the form on their website. It can be helpful to keep a diary in the week or month before you complete the form to help you remember all the ways your child’s condition affects them. You may find this sample DLA diary from Citizens Advice helpful for this.

Contact can help you with any questions you have about benefits for a disabled child. Your local Citizens Advice may be able to help fill in forms, or there may be a local disabled persons’ or carers’ organisation which can help. You can search for a local advice organisation on Advice Local.  Scope may be able to help you find organisations local to you who can help with claim forms.

More about DLA for children is here.

Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is a benefit to help with the extra costs of disability for people aged 16 to pension age. In Scotland PIP is being replaced with Adult Disability Payment which is being rolled out gradually in different areas. If you have an existing PIP claim and you live in Scotland you will be automatically switched to Adult Disability Payment.

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, if your child is already getting DLA it won’t automatically stop when they reach 16. The DWP will write and invite them to claim PIP, usually shortly before their 16th birthday. Their DLA will continue until a decision has been made on their PIP claim, provided they claim within the time limit.

In Scotland, your child can remain on DLA until they reach 18, however, they can choose to claim PIP after they turn 16 if they want to. You should get further advice if considering this as they will not be able to go back onto DLA once they claim PIP, even if they are worse off.

Your older child can get PIP if they have difficulties walking or getting around or if they need supervision or care with everyday tasks essential to daily living. This can be due to either a physical or mental health condition.

PIP consists of a mobility component and a daily living (care) component which are paid at different rates. Your older child may qualify for only one component or both together. To be eligible for PIP they must have had mobility problems or difficulty with every day tasks for 3 months and expect it to continue for at least a further 9 months (unless they are terminally ill).

PIP claimed for your older child does not depend on your household income or savings or their own personal income or savings. They can claim it regardless of whether you or they are working or how much you or they have in savings. You or they can also move in and out of work and/or education without it affecting their eligibility.

Your older child can make and manage their own PIP claim if they are capable, or you can claim on their behalf as their appointee if they cannot manage the claim themselves. The process of becoming their appointee does not happen automatically as you will need to show why your older child cannot act for themselves. You can find more information on becoming an appointee on gov.uk.

PIP is a complex benefit and it is advisable to get specialist advice because the claim forms are long. Citizens Advice have a guide to filling in the claim form on their website. It can be helpful to keep a diary in the week or month before you complete the form to help you remember all the ways your child’s condition affects them. You may find this sample PIP diary from Citizens Advice helpful for this.

Contact can help you will any questions you have about benefits for a disabled child. Your local Citizens Advice may be able to help fill in forms, or there may be a local disabled persons’ or carers’ organisation which can help. You can search for a local advice organisation on Advice Local. Scope may also be able to help you find organisations local to you who can help with claim forms.

More about PIP is available here.

You can claim Child Benefit for a disabled child but you don’t get any extra because they have a disability. However, you may be entitled to additional amounts of other benefits if your child gets DLA or PIP. 

If your child is over 16, they will have to meet additional conditions for you to carry on getting Child Benefit, to do with being in full-time education. The rules are the same as for children who are not disabled; if your child leaves full-time education, you may no longer be entitled to Child Benefit for them.

You can’t get Child Benefit for a young person who claims Universal Credit (see below). If you are not sure whether a young person should claim Universal Credit or if it would be better to continue to claim for them, you can find further advice on the Contact website.

See gov.uk for more information about Child Benefit if your child is aged 16-19.

If you live in Scotland you may also be entitled to a Scottish Child Payment.

If you spend at least 35 hour a week caring for your disabled child and they get the middle or higher rate care component of DLA (or Child Disability Payment in Scotland), or the daily living component of PIP (or Adult Disability Payment in Scotland), you may be able to get Carer’s Allowance.

Carer’s Allowance does not depend on household income, however, if you are working you can only claim it if you earn no more than the lower earnings limit. If you live with a partner their income is not taken into account.

If you are thinking of giving up work to care for your child you might also be entitled to Universal Credit (see below), however, this will depend on your family and financial circumstances.

If you are on a low income and you are not already claiming Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Housing Benefit or Tax Credits, you could consider claiming Universal Credit (UC). This is a benefit which will replace those benefits and so if you claim it, they will usually stop. You could end up worse off, so always seek advice. However, if you are not claiming these benefits, UC may be worth claiming.

UC takes into account your household finances, so if you live with a partner, your joint income and savings are taken into account when calculating your entitlement. You cannot claim UC if you have savings or assets over £16,000 (excluding the home you live in). Universal Credit can include a housing costs element to help with rent or some eligible service charges. If your child gets DLA (Child Disability Payment in Scotland) or PIP (Adult Disability Payment in Scotland) you may be allowed an extra bedroom in the calculation if they cannot share a bedroom due to their disability. If you are working you can also get help with childcare costs through the childcare costs element.

UC can include extra amounts if your child is disabled. If your child is on DLA (Child Disability Payment in Scotland) or PIP (Adult Disability Payment in Scotland) UC can include a disabled child addition. If they get the highest rate of the care component of DLA (Child Disability Payment in Scotland) or the enhanced rate of the daily living component of PIP (Adult Disability Payment in Scotland) you will get a severely disabled child addition.

If you provide at least 35 hours of care a week for your child, and they get the middle or higher rate of the care component of DLA (Child Disability Payment in Scotland) or the daily living component of PIP (Adult Disability Payment in Scotland) UC can include a carer element. You do not have to claim Carer’s Allowance (see above) to get the carer element of UC. If you claim Carer’s Allowance you will still get the carer element of UC, but any Carer’s Allowance you are paid is deducted from your UC payment. You aren’t worse off by claiming both together, but you aren’t any better off either.

UC is a benefit that has work-related requirements, however, if you are entitled to the carer element you do not have to work or look for work as a condition of entitlement to UC. If your child is disabled but not getting the middle or higher rate of the care component of DLA (Child Disability Payment in Scotland) or the daily living component of PIP (Adult Disability Payment in Scotland), depending on the age of your child you may be expected to work or look for work on UC, however, you may be able to limit what you are expected to do to fit around your caring responsibilities.

See our page on Universal Credit for more information.

The government has produced detailed guidance on UC which provides lots of information about whether UC is right for you, how it works and what you might be expected to do whilst claiming it.

The best way to check if you are eligible for UC is to use an online benefits calculator.

Universal Credit for a child aged 16 or over

Over 16s who are not working and would have difficulty working because of illness or disability can claim Universal Credit themselves (see Benefits for disabled adults). However, you can’t claim Child Benefit, or a child element or disabled child element in Child Tax Credit or Universal Credit, in respect of a young person at the same time as they claim UC, so you may need advice about which to claim. You can find more information about your child claiming benefits in their own right on the Contact website.

To help you make a decision you can research the amounts involved. You can look at the different benefit amounts which would be paid depending on who claims by using an online benefits calculator. Even if your young person claims UC, you can still be their appointee for the benefit, if that is necessary (that means you would be responsible for making the claim and reporting all changes of circumstances). The process of becoming their appointee does not happen automatically as you will need to show why your older child cannot act for themselves. You can find more information on becoming an appointee on gov.uk.

When your child first claims UC, they will need to submit a medical certificate (evidence that they are not fit for work) and will be referred to a work capability assessment. If they are found to have limited capability for work or limited capability for work and work-related activity they can continue to get UC whilst under 18. If they are found capable of work, it’s worth seeking advice in case this decision can be challenged. There is more information about the work capability assessment and challenging the decision on the Disability Rights website.

If your disabled child has been assessed by your local authority as needing social services support, you can choose to have direct payments and buy the services yourself. Direct payments are for the stipulated services and are not affected by what you earn. Direct payments are not counted as income for benefits, so do not affect your benefit entitlement. There is more information about direct payments on the Carers UK website.

You could get a grant from your local authority if you need to alter your home to suit your disabled child’s needs. Any disabled facilities grant awarded is not affected by your income and will not affect any benefits you receive. See gov.uk for more information.

Housing Benefit has been abolished and replaced with Universal Credit for most new claims. You can only make a new claim for Housing Benefit in very limited circumstances. If you need help with rent you might be able to claim Universal Credit instead which can include a housing costs element (see above).

If you are already claiming Housing Benefit make sure you tell your local authority if your child is on DLA (Child Disability Payment in Scotland) or PIP (Adult Disability Payment in Scotland) as the number of bedrooms allowed for in the calculation could be higher if your child is unable to share a room because of a disability and they are on one of these benefits.

If you are already on Housing Benefit and you move to new rented accommodation within the same local authority, you should be able to stay on Housing Benefit as long as there is no gap in your claim.

You may be entitled to extra help with your council tax through Council Tax Reduction (sometimes called council tax support or rebate) which can reduce the amount of council tax you have to pay. This scheme is administered by your local authority and whether you are entitled and the amount of help you can get is determined by them.

You can also get extra discounts off your council tax if a child in your household is disabled. If your child needs an extra bathroom, kitchen or other room because of their disability or they need extra space for using a wheelchair you may qualify for the disabled band reduction scheme.

If your child is aged 16 or over and is claiming benefits in their own right (see Universal Credit above), they will not be counted as an adult when working out council tax liability if they are classed as ‘severely mentally impaired‘. They’ll need a medical certificate from their GP or other medical professional to show that they are severely mentally impaired.

The Family Fund gives discretionary grants to families with severely disabled children under 18. They have their own definition of ‘severely disabled’. The grants are for things not supplied by statutory authorities. Usually the grants are made to families on benefits, but the fund may also be able to help other families on low incomes.

You can qualify for help with health costs, for example prescriptions and sight tests, if you receive some benefits such as Income Support, Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, Income-related Employment and Support Allowance, or the Guarantee credit of Pension Credit . Some people on Universal Credit may be entitled, and you may also be able to apply for help if you are on a low income. Prescriptions are free in England for under 16s, and under 19s in full-time education (as well as for some other groups, such as pregnant women), and they are also free in Wales and Scotland to everyone.