Your child can claim disability living allowance (DLA) if he or she is under 16, disabled and needs extra help to look after themselves or has difficulty walking or getting around. DLA is not means tested.
There are two components to DLA: the care component, which has three rates of payment and the mobility component, which has two rates of payment. Your child can be paid one or both components, depending on their needs.
Any savings your child has do not affect their DLA.
In Scotland, child disability payment has replaced DLA.
Contents
Does your child qualify for DLA?
DLA Disability test: the care component
DLA disability test: the mobility component
DLA qualifying periods condition
DLA residence and presence tests
Disability living allowance in hospital
What if I disagree with a DLA decision?
Does your child qualify for DLA?
To get DLA, your child must:
- be under 16;
- pass the care component disability test and/or the mobility component disability test;
- meet the qualifying periods condition;
- pass the residence and presence tests; and
- not be subject to immigration control.
DLA has been replaced by personal independence payment (PIP) for people of working age (ie between the ages of 16 and pension age). You cannot make a new claim for DLA if you are of working age. You need to claim PIP instead. If you are of working age and are already on DLA, you will be asked to claim PIP rather than DLA at some point in the future.
For more information, see personal independence payment - a guide to making a claim.
DLA Disability test: the care component
For the lowest rate of the care component, your child must need attention in connection with their bodily functions for a significant part of the day (which can be during one or more periods).
For the middle rate of the care component, your child must meet one of the following conditions. They need:
during the day:
- frequent attention throughout the day in connection with their bodily functions; or
- continual supervision throughout the day to avoid substantial danger to themselves or others;
or at night:
- prolonged or repeated attention in connection with their bodily functions; or
- another person to be awake for a prolonged period or at frequent intervals to watch over them in order to avoid substantial danger to themselves or others.
For the highest rate of the care component, your child must meet either of the following. They:
- have one of the day needs and one of the night needs conditions shown above; or
- are nearing the end of their life.
In addition to the above tests, your child’s care, supervision or watching-over needs must also be substantially greater than those of a child of the same age who is in normal physical and mental health.
DLA disability test: the mobility component
For the lower rate of the mobility component, your child must:
- need guidance or supervision with walking on unfamiliar routes because of their mental or physical disablement. They must need substantially more guidance or supervision than a child of the same age who is in normal physical or mental health.
Your child cannot receive the lower rate of the mobility component until they reach the age of five.
For the higher rate of the mobility component, your child must meet one of the following conditions. They must:
- be unable to walk;
- be virtually unable to walk;
- have no legs or feet (from birth or through amputation);
- qualify for the highest rate of the DLA care component, be severely mentally impaired and show extremely disruptive and dangerous behaviour;
- have a severe visual impairment;
- be both blind and deaf and need the assistance of another person to walk out of doors; or
- the exertion required to walk would constitute a danger to their life or would be likely to lead to a serious deterioration in their health.
Your child cannot receive the higher rate of the mobility component until they reach the age of three.
Any artificial aids used, such as a prosthetic limb or walking frame, are taken into account when considering your child's mobility needs, except for cases where they are claiming on the grounds that they have no legs or feet.
DLA qualifying periods condition
Your child will need to have met the disability tests for three months before they can be paid and must also be likely to continue to meet these tests for at least six months after the start of their award. This rule does not apply if your child is nearing the end of their life.
DLA residence and presence tests
To qualify for DLA, your child will have to satisfy the residence and presence tests. For this, they must:
- normally have been present in Great Britain* for two out of the last three years. If your child is under 6 months old, they only need to be present for 13 weeks up until they are one year old. If your child is aged between 6 months and 3 years, they only need to have been present for 26 weeks in the last three years. If your child is aged between 3 and 16 years, they only need to have been present for 26 weeks in the last 52 weeks; and
- be habitually resident in the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands, the Republic of Ireland or the Isle of Man.
'Present' means physically present in Great Britain*. There are specific rules that may allow your child to be treated as present during a temporary absence. If your child is nearing the end of their life or has been granted refugee leave or humanitarian protection, they only have to be currently present in Great Britain* - they do not need to have been present in Great Britain* for two out of the last three years before claiming.
There is no legal definition of 'habitual residence'. Relevant factors are where your child normally lives, where they expect to live in future, their reasons for coming to this country, the length of time spent abroad before they came here, and any ties they still have with the country they have come from.
*or Northern Ireland, if they live there
The rules for residence and presence are complicated. For more information, see our Disability Rights Handbook.
How much is DLA?
From 8 April 2024, the weekly rates for the care component are:
lowest rate - £28.70
middle rate - £72.65
highest rate - £108.55
The weekly rates for the mobility component are:
lower rate - £28.70
higher rate - £75.75
Your child can only receive one rate from each component.
How to claim DLA
You can call and ask for a claim-form.
Telephone: 0800 121 4600
Textphone: 0800 121 4523
Relay UK (if you cannot hear or speak on the phone): 18001 then 0800 121 4600
If you return the completed form within six weeks, your child’s award can be backdated to the day you asked for the form.
You can download a DLA claim pack.
If you are deaf and use British Sign Language, you may be able to claim using a video relay service.
For Northern Ireland, call 0800 587 0912 (Text phone 0800 012 1574). You can also download a claim form.
Keeping a diary
If you are claiming DLA for your child, keeping a diary of their day-to-day needs can improve the chances of success. It can also be important when trying to expain needs that fluctuate either during a single day or over a longer period.
One-day diary - The simplest form of diary would be an account of your child's needs over a typical day. Start from the time your child gets up in the morning, through a 24-hour period, ending with the time they get up the following morning. Try to list all the times when they need help from someone else and how it is different to the help needed by other children of the same age. When you write something down, try to answer the following questions:
- what help do they need?
- why do they need the help?
- at what time do they need help? and
- how long do they need the help for?
If your child's needs vary from day to day, keep the diary over a few days to get a clearer picture of their needs.
Long-term diary - Long-term diaries can be useful when explaining more sporadic problems caused by your child's condition, such as falls or fits. If your child needs continual supervision or watching over, such a diary can show exactly what happened or what could have happened if someone had not been there to stop it.
Making use of the diary
Once you have finished the diary, write your child's name and child reference number on it and make several copies of it. Attach a copy to the claim-form; keep a copy for yourself. Finally, you should send copies of the diary to anyone that you have listed on the claim-form, such as the paediatrician, GP or support worker.
Disability living allowance in hospital
Both the day you are admitted and the day you are discharged count as days out of hospital.
Adults (aged 18 and over)
Stops after a total of four weeks (either in one stay, or several stays, where the gaps between stays are no more than four weeks each time).
Children
This is paid for an indefinite period as long as the other qualifying conditions are met. This applies to anyone aged under 18 on the date they were admitted for the current hospital stay.
What if I disagree with a DLA decision?
If you are not happy with the decision made about your disability living allowance you must first ask the Department for Work and Pensions to look at your decision again. This is called a ‘mandatory reconsideration’.
If you disagree with a reconsidered decision, you can then take your case to an independent appeal tribunal.
For more information see appeals and mandatory reconsiderations
You should get local help to challenge your decision. Enter your postcode on the advicelocal website and find an advice centre in your area.
Find out more
This resource makes reference in several places to our resources glossary. Definitions of terms in this resource and others on our website are found there.
Advice
Use advicelocal to get advice in your area.
See also our Getting Advice guide
Find out more
If you are an adviser see our Disability Rights Handbook