Linking rules
For child benefit, disability living allowance (DLA) and personal independence payment (PIP), if your child has two or more periods in a care home separated by 28 days or less, it counts as the same period.1Reg 10(2) CB Regs; reg 10(5)(a) SS(DLA) Regs; reg 32(4) SS(PIP) Regs For DLA and PIP, your child does not count as being in a care home on the day s/he goes in or on the day s/he comes home.2Reg 9(7) SS(DLA) Regs; reg 32(2) SS(PIP) Regs Example
Beth’s daughter, Julie, is aged six and is disabled. She gets the DLA higher rate mobility component and middle rate care component. Julie goes into a care home on 1 March and comes home again on 15 March.
For DLA purposes, this counts as 13 days in a care home.
Julie then goes back into the care home on 5 April and comes home on 5 July.
For DLA purposes, the two periods are separated by 22 days. The two periods in the care home count as the same period because they are separated by 28 days or less.
Julie’s DLA care component stops on 21 April because on that date she counts as having been in a care home for four weeks.
If your child has regular stays in a care home (eg, for respite), you may be able to arrange them so that the separate periods do not link together and affect her/his DLA or PIP entitlement. For example, if your child has regular respite care every fourth week, eventually the DLA care component/PIP daily living component will stop each time s/he goes for respite, if each period in the home is linked by a period of 28 days or less. To ensure this does not happen, you could try to arrange her/his respite so that more than 28 days separate each period s/he is in the care home.