Children's Handbook Scotland 2025/26Chapter 4: Disabled children in care homes 3. When your child comes home
Back to previous
Chapter illustrations ()
Loading image navigation...
No image index could be found for this publication.
Close this Panel
3. When your child comes home
When your child comes home from a care home, any benefits that were affected should start to be paid as normal again. This section covers the benefits that are most likely to have been affected.
Child benefit
Child benefit is only likely to have stopped if your child was in the care home for a prolonged period and you did not continue to spend money on their behalf (see here). If this has happened, you have to reclaim child benefit once your child returns home. See Chapter 2 for details of how to do this.
Means-tested benefits
Universal credit
If you have stopped getting the child element in your universal credit (UC), either because your child counts as looked after by the local authority or because the absence from home does not count as temporary, tell the DWP as soon as your child comes home so the child element is included again and your work allowance and childcare element can be adjusted, if relevant. If the carer element has stopped, tell the DWP as soon as you have regular and substantial caring responsibilities for your child again (see here).
Income-related employment and support allowance
If you were getting a carer premium and this has stopped because carer support payment (CSP) has stopped, tell the DWP when your CSP starts again. If you lost entitlement to employment and support allowance (ESA) because you lost the carer premium or for some other reason, you will have to claim UC instead.
Pension credit
If your pension credit (PC) amount has changed because the carer addition stopped (eight weeks after CSP stopped), tell the Pension Service when your CSP starts again. If the child addition in your PC has stopped, either because your child counts as looked after by the local authority or they have been away from home for more than 52 weeks, tell the Pension Service as soon as your child comes home so that the child addition is included again.
Housing benefit
If your housing benefit (HB) amount has changed because the carer premium stopped (eight weeks after CSP stopped), tell the local authority when your CSP starts again. If your HB amount has changed because the disability and/or enhanced disability premium stopped (when the child disability payment (CDP) care component or adult disability payment (ADP) daily living component stopped), tell the local authority when your child’s CDP care component or ADP daily living component starts again.
If your child has stopped being treated as part of your household, tell the local authority as soon as they come home and ask it to include the appropriate amounts in your HB applicable amount and to apply the correct size criteria.
If you have lost entitlement to HB because of reduced amounts in your applicable amount or for some other reason and you are under pension age, you will usually have to claim UC instead.
Non-means-tested benefits
Disability benefits
If payment of CDP care component or ADP daily living component has stopped because your child was in a care home, it should be reinstated when they come home. You do not have to reclaim CDP/ADP, but you must tell Social Security Scotland (SSS) that your child has come home.
Carer support payment
If your CSP has stopped within the last 26 weeks either because your child’s CDP care component or ADP daily living component has stopped being paid, or because you had a break from caring, it can be re-awarded without you having to make a new claim.1Reg 23 CA(CSP)(S) Regs You should let SSS know as soon as possible when you satisfy the conditions of entitlement again.
 
Carer element, carer premium and carer addition
Once you are entitled to CSP again, your carer element, carer premium or carer addition in any means-tested benefit should also be reinstated. Make sure you tell the DWP and/or local authority when you become entitled to CSP again.
 
1     Reg 23 CA(CSP)(S) Regs »