Parents Forum

Parents Forum Logo showing people rallying together

Are you the parent of a disabled child?

If so the Parents Forum may be of interest to you.

The Parents Forum gives parents an opportunity to find out more about local services, and offers them a chance to feed their views to those to plan and provide services in Darlington. Parents are invited to regular meetings at which a panel of professionals will be on hand to answer questions and take comments back to their services.

The Forum is always looking for new members and is particularly keen to reach parents of younger children to involve them in plans for a new keyworker system in Darlington. For more information or to join the Forum contact Chris Thwaites telephone 01325 489999, call in to the office of Darlington Association on Disability at 20-22 Horsemarket (next to the Dolphin Centre) or email chris@darlingtondisability.org

Next Parents Forum Meeting

The next meeting will be held on Wednesday 14th February 2007 from 10.00am - 12.00pm in the Seminar Room at the Dolphin Centre.

Kevin Kelly, Senior Practitioner from the Disabled Children's Team will be attending the meeting in order to discuss the role of the ‘Disabled Children's Team’ and consult the Forum with respect to the teams criteria of the service they provide. This new criteria may have an impact on your assessment and access to services or perhaps hours for Direct Payments. Therefore if you are presently receiving a service from the Disabled Children's Team or may require one in the future, this is your opportunity to voice your opinions and ask questions regarding this new criteria.

If you would like to come along to this event then can you please contact Chris to book your place on 01325 489999 or email: chris@darlingtondisability.org . Also, if you know of any other parents with a disabled child who you think may like to come along to this event then please feel free to pass on this information to them and ask them to contact Chris.

Parents Forum Newssheets

Issue 7 of the Parents Forum Newssheets is now on-line, previous editions can be read in our Newsletters section.

Parents Forum 14th February 2006

This is the presentation that was given by Matthew Sigsworth from Welfare Rights at the Parents Forum meeting on Tuesday 14 February.

Introduction

• Matthew S, Welfare Rights Manager. What is Welfare Rights? - we're about ensuring that as many people as possible in Darlington claim the welfare benefits & tax credits which they are entitled to in law. A relatively new service (operating since June 2005). A small service but we operate in partnership with colleagues at Age Concern Darlington who themselves have an Advice & Info service.

• Welfare rights is a huge topic. The benefits system is large, complex & administered by a number of different agencies. An intimidating subject to talk about given that previous Sec of State referred to the disability benefits part of the system as "bonkers".

• Social security system is complex. There are Means Tested Benefits & non-Means Tested Benefits; contributory & non-contributory benefits; taxable and non-taxable; universal & non-universal benefits. Complexity of the system leads to underclaiming. For some benefits only 50% of the people who are entitled actually make a claim. 2002/03 £6.25B of Means Tested Benefits went unclaimed.

Disability Living Allowance for Children

• 5 good things about Disability Living Allowance:

• Paid in recognition that disabled people have higher living costs than non-disabled people - specifically extra mobility & personal care costs.

• Tax free

• Non-contributory

• Not means-tested

• An award of Disability Living Allowance/Attendance Allowance never reduces entitlement to other welfare benefits or tax credits. At worst its effect is neutral but often Disability Living Allowance/Attendance Allowance increases entitlement to other benefits - sometimes quite dramatically. These other benefits include Income Support, Housing Benefit/Council Tax Benefit, Pension Credit, Child Tax Credit/Working Tax Credit, & Carers Allowance.

The Simpsons

Homer & Marge are married with 3 children. Homer works full-time at Morrisons and earns £14K per year. Their present income also includes Child Benefit of £39.80 and Tax Credits of £119.98. Altogether, their net income is £375.98 per week.

A successful new claim for Disability Living Allowance is made for their son Bart - he is awarded lower rate mobility and higher rate care. Marge claims Carer's Allowance for caring for Bart.

As a result of the new claim, their net income increases to £559.79 (a 49% increase).

The increase is Disability Living Allowance of £76.65 , Carer's Allowance of £45.70 and extra Child Tax Credit of £61.46 .

• There are 2 components of Disability Living Allowance - mobility & care. There are 2 rates of the mobility component and 3 rates of the care component - paid depending on your level of need, e.g. Higher Rate Care is paid if you have substantial care needs by both day and night. If you have substantial care needs either by day or at night, Middle Rate Care is paid. You can receive a combination of a mobility and a care component award, e.g. Lower Rate Mobility & Middle Rate Care.

• The care component of Disability Living Allowance can be paid to very young children, usually from age 3 months at the earliest. Entitlement to the higher rate of the mobility component can begin at age 3. The lower rate of the mobility component can only be paid from age 5.

• Children are defined for Disability Living Allowance as being under 16. Children cannot qualify for lower rate care on the basis of the cooking test. Otherwise they qualify only if they satisfy the normal criteria and an extra test:

"..he has requirements..substantially in excess of persons or his age; or, he has substantial requirements..which younger persons in normal physical and mental health may also have but which persons of his age and in normal physical and mental health would not have."

[Section 72(6)(b) SSC&BA]

"In the case of a child, it is to be noted that the attention or supervision required must be substantially in excess of that normally required by a child of the same age and sex. Attention or supervision may be required ‘substantially in excess of that normally required ’ either by virtue of the time over which it is required or by virtue of the quality or degree of attention or supervision which is required. Children vary considerably in their requirements for attention and supervision, particularly when they are young. At any age, there is a range or requirements for attention or supervision.

"It seems to me that the legislation contemplates a yardstick of an average child, neither particularly bright or well behaved nor particularly dull or badly behaved, and then the attention or supervision required by the child whose case is being considered must be judged to decide whether it is ‘substantially’ more than would normally be required by the average child."

[ CA/92/92 ]

Important points:

• Quality - degree/intensity

• Quantity - i.e. time

• More difficult to establish "substantially in excess" for very young children

• Extra attention received at school counts [ R(DLA)1/04 ]

Carer's Allowance

• Carer's Allowance is a benefit for a carer, not the disabled person. It is linked to Disability Living Allowance. The disabled person must receive at least the middle rate of the care component of Disability Living Allowance. The carer must be providing "regular & substantial" care (35 hours pw) and must not be earning more than £82.00 per week from employment.

• Carer's Allowance is paid @ £45.70 per week. It counts as income for Means Tested Benefits, e.g. Income Support, but it still may be worth making a claim because it can entitle you to the Carer Premium (£25.80pw).

Conclusion

• Take advice - Town Crier article.

Matthew Sigsworth

Welfare Rights Manager.