Non-means-tested benefits

Disability living allowance and personal independence payment

If the payment of disability living allowance (DLA) care component or personal independence payment (PIP) daily living component has stopped because your child is in residential accommodation (not foster care), it can be paid for days your child spends at home with you. The day s/he comes home and the day s/he goes back into local authority accommodation count as days at home. For example, if your child comes home on Friday evening and returns to local authority accommodation on Sunday evening, this counts as three days at home. The DLA care component/PIP daily living component is payable for these three days.

Tell the Disability Benefit Centre about any days your child spends at home.

DLA for children will start to be replaced in Scotland from 2021 by child disability payment. It is expected that the same rules about coming home for some of the time will apply to the care component of child disability payment.1Reg 12 DACYP(S) Regs (draft)

If you are no longer your child’s appointee for DLA, payments are not made to you. If your child starts to spend more time at home with you, it may be appropriate for you to become the appointee again. Apply by contacting the Disability Benefit Centre (see Appendix 1).

 

1     Reg 12 DACYP(S) Regs (draft) »

Carer’s allowance

You receive carer’s allowance (CA) if you are caring for a disabled person for at least 35 hours a week. The disabled person must be in receipt of DLA care component at the middle or highest rate or PIP daily living component (or attendance allowance). If your child is disabled and is entitled to the DLA care component at the middle or highest rate or PIP daily living component, you may be able to get CA if your child starts coming home for short spells (and DLA care component/PIP daily living component is payable). Provided you can show that you are caring for your child at least 35 hours a week (Sunday to Saturday) while s/he is at home, you should be able to get CA. The time does not have to be spread across the whole week. Time spent preparing for her/his visit and clearing up afterwards can count towards the 35 hours.1CG/006/1990 Even if you are not currently the appointee for the child’s DLA, you can still claim CA, provided you satisfy the rules.

Example

Ahmed is aged seven and has been looked after and accommodated in a residential unit for the past nine months. He has a disability and is entitled to the DLA care component at the highest rate. He has recently started going home to his parents’ house every weekend. He goes on Friday at 6pm and leaves on Monday at 8.30am. DLA care component is payable for Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. His mother spends almost all of the time he is at home caring for him. She also spends at least two hours before he arrives preparing, and another three hours clearing up once he has left on Monday. Ahmed’s mother claims CA. She must show that in the course of a week (Sunday to Saturday), she spends at least 35 hours caring for Ahmed. She should be entitled to CA.

If you become entitled to CA, any means-tested benefits (IS, income-based JSA, income-related ESA, PC, HB and CTR) you receive should include the carer premium or carer addition. If you get UC, it should include the carer element once you have ‘regular and substantial’ caring responsibilties for your child again (see here).2Regs 29 and 30 UC Regs If you have lost entitlement to a means-tested benefit such as IS, income-based JSA, income-related ESA or HB because of losing the carer premium, it is likely that you will have to claim UC instead.

 

If someone else is claiming carer’s allowance

Only one person can get CA in respect of a particular disabled person.3s70(7) SSCBA 1992 If there is more than one person who could be entitled (eg, you and your child’s foster carer), you can agree who will claim. If agreement is not possible, the DWP decides.4s70(7) SSCBA 1992; reg 7 SS(ICA) Regs There is no right of appeal against this decision.

 

1     CG/006/1990 »

2     Regs 29 and 30 UC Regs »

3     s70(7) SSCBA 1992 »

4     s70(7) SSCBA 1992; reg 7 SS(ICA) Regs »