Hiya Mike,
My client Krystyna is a lone parent.
Her daughter Carrie has a disability and gets DLA Care Component at the middle rate.
Krystyna used to get Child Tax Credit for Carrie that worked out to be £568.75 per calendar month.
They recently naturally migrated to Universal Credit when they moved to a new council’s area.
In her Universal Credit, Krystyna only gets £411.39 per month for Carrie.
She has lost out on £157.36 per month.
Is this right or has UC made a mistake?
Thanks
Greetha
Hiya Greetha
No it’s not right, but it is legally correct.
Extra Money for Disabled Children
A child who has a disability can claim Disability Living Allowance.
A Qualifying Young Person* who has a disability may get DLA or they may get Personal Independence Payment.
Because the child or young person gets the DLA or PIP, that passports* their mum* into getting an extra allowance* in their Child Tax Credit or Universal Credit.
But the amount of the extra allowance depends on the rate of the DLA or PIP
If the child or young person gets the high rate DLA Care or enhanced rate PIP Daily Living, their mum gets an extra allowance of £402 per month*.
If the child or young person doesn’t get the high rate of DLA Care or PIP Daily Living, but gets any other rate of DLA or PIP, their mum gets a low rate extra allowance. In Child Tax Credit this is £286.25 per month, in Universal Credit it’s £128.89.
And this is the loss that Krystyna has encountered.
A cut of £157.36.
Probably the biggest cut to the benefits system for a generation.
Taking money off disabled children.
Solutions?
There are three things that might help:
Does Carrie have care needs at night, most nights?
If so, then she should be getting high rate of DLA Care component, which would passport Krystyna into the high rate additional amount in the Universal Credit.
How old is Carrie? If she is 16+ she could claim PIP.
A child only gets the high rate of DLA care if they have needs during both the day and night, most days and nights.
For PIP, day-time/night-time is irrelevant. It’s just the standard scoring system
If you can see that Carrie would score the points for enhanced rate of Daily Living Component this would passport Krystyna to the high rate additional amount in the Universal Credit.
New rules may come soon
A recent court case has found that introducing this cut without any protection for people like Krystyna who migrate to Universal Credit is an unlawful discrimination.
Watch this space for the DWP’s response to this decision – sign up here.
* What’s with the asterisks?
A Qualifying Young Person is someone aged 16-19 who is at school or college doing school-level education.
Passporting is where getting something leads on to getting something else.
I’ve referred to their mum, but what I actually mean is the adult who counts as responsible for the child or young person. This might be their mum, their dad or some other carer.
In Universal Credit the extra allowances are called Additional Amounts for Disabled Children. In Child Tax Credit they are called the Disabled Child Element and the Severely Disabled Child Element
The exact figures for the high rate extra allowance are £402.41 in Universal Credit or £402.08 in Child Tax Credit.