I’m not being flippant- I genuinely don’t get it- childcare costs

I think council tax reduction will be dependent on your LA ,my son has been getting DLA since he was 3 and he's 14 now and we have never been eligible for a reduction in council tax
But yes you should be eligible for carer ,s allowance and maybe some UC.

Hi Op I would go onto the website entitled to which is a benefits calculator and you should be entitled to the disability element of uc and the carers element of uc which is different to carers allowance. Should you claim carers allowance alongside uc they would take the carers allowance from your uc pound for pound.

if you put all your info into entitled to website they should give you a true reflection on what you would be entitled to including all your different elements on the claim.

Check your local hospitals disabled parking policy. Ours is free with a blue badge. Then check your council's blue badge criteria and see if your toddler qualifies.

We didn't realise that we were entitled to free hospital parking for years, it's in the tiniest writing ever. Has saved us £££'s

Council tax deduction is dependent on where you live. Where I live I get a single person deduction but there’s nothing for anyone with disabilities.

Sorry I can't help with what's next, but so glad to hear you've some more support with the DLA and just wanted to bump your update up.

Once your DLA goes through then your UC basic claim before deductions will go up as you will get a carer element and also a disabled child element on there as well as your couple element and your basic child element. Your DH’s salary however may still wipe all that out. You will not however be ‘required’ to work which by a certain age you will be if you didn’t have a disabled child. You could also claim carers allowance separately once the DLA comes through. This is an income that is taken £4£ off the UC claim but if you aren’t earning above the carers allowance threshold and aren’t entitled to the UC anyway then you’re better off claiming the carers allowance. That plus the DLA will give you a decent boost you probably need. Also depending on your child’s disability entitlement to the mobility element of the DLA you could look into a motability car. But this would only be if your child had the highest rate mobility component of their DLA

Yes apply today! It takes a month or so whilst they review your application and you can always update as and when new information arises. It's all done alone and can even message employees with questions or more information. Even if your not entitled to anything you still have an account so as and when your circumstances change you can update it. For example, it may say August and September you'll be paid £0 but if in October you hear back and update your universal credit account it might say £150 entitlement. Hope that made sense. Good luck but don't delay in applying as you never know you might be entitled.

Your local council should provide high needs block funding to allow your DC to attend some form of preschool provision and use the funded hours entitlement. I know several children with disabilities/additional needs and all have attended childcare with 1 to 1 via this funding. This may enable you to increase your hours working and improve your family finances

Once you have DLA up and running you may be able to apply again for UC to claim for a disabled child and a carers element which is different to carers allowance

Have you used Turn2Us website to see if and what you’re entitled to? Being self employed can make it slightly more complicated. However with the figures you’re giving (mortgage and no childcare) it’s unlikely you’d be entitled until you get your answer about DLA. Even then, if your child gets lower or middle rate, if you apply for carers allowance (only applicable if your child gets awarded middle or higher rate), the disability/carers element may disappear due to carers allowance amount being removed. It will not be awarded until you have an answer from DLA - when did you send the form? I’d also join the DLA group on Facebook of you haven’t already.

You personally might not be because your toddler isn't in childcare, but if he was the 30 funded hours and tax free childcare on the rest would add up.

Do you want him to be in childcare? If so getting the ball rolling on an EHCP might mean you can find a specialist preschool.

I’d apply today. If you’re not entitled then you can reapply when DLA awarded anyway. I get some UC, work full time and it makes a massive difference.

Yes, my son (8) is the same. He won’t take any medication orally. Doesn’t matter what we disguise it in. He ended up in hospital for 5 days in summer 2022 because a cold turned into a viral chest infection and he wouldn’t have steroids orally, so we had to give them overnight when he did sleep, via nebuliser, held a few inches from his face as he would wake if we tried to put it on him 🥴 So now I’m always on tenterhooks every time he has a cold. He also has ARFID, so this makes it doubly hard to hide things in his food. We can get vitamin powder in yogurt, when he will eat it. We were down to 1 food a few weeks ago, and slowly built back up to about 7 foods now. I know the struggle. We’ve all got Covid at the moment and he’s the only one not vaccinated so I’m ultra careful. Never ends does it. Anyway, sorry for de-railing the purpose of the thread! Feel free to DM me any time. Knowledge is power, and all that.

You can't get the housing element of universal credit due to having a mortgage which would effectively mean that the benefits you received would be going directly into your savings as its your own home. Whereas extortionate rent to a landlord is no problem for them to pay.

You said you earn 6k a year self employed but I think for you to get funding for 30 hours a week your income needs to be a minimum of 9k a year. That would cover multiple children. Another option, is the 20% childcare contribution the gov puts in for you for working parents.

Also, have you applied for universal credit? If you do the whole process you might find you're still entitled to a little. For example, previously when I was claiming I was getting a ridiculous amount like £1 or £2 a month. However, because of this I received the cost of living payments last year and other things like free dentist and prescriptions etc. You can also upload childcare costs and they can pay up to 85% too.

Sorry if this has all been said already, I haven't read the whole thread.

I’ve not read the whole thread but just wanted to reply from the aspect of DLA and UC. Our son is autistic with a learning delay and received H rate for care and mobility. I claim carers allowance as like you I can not work a job away from home due to his care needs (and he has 2 older siblings also at home). If your child is awarded middle rate care or high rate you can claim an element of UC in regard to his disability. Also look in to short breaks funding, this is funding for care on a 1:1 basis outside of the home or at home if you need time away. Our son gets 3 hours a week term time and 6 a week during school holidays. This can allow the child independence from you but also allows for other siblings to have time with one or both parents/carers as it does take its toll on the family dynamics. Finding someone can be very difficult but often if they attend an SEN school, like my son, the classroom support assistants take this work on. Not all, but some which gives reassurance as you know they know the enormity of trusting them and knowing your child will be well looked after. Childcare for children with high needs is practically zero for obvious reasons. If the DLA is awarded, it opens up other avenues for your child and family to access other support services. It shouldn’t be like that in my opinion, as not all apply for it if they don’t need extra funds to support their child’s needs and interests. But it does give an indication of their level of needs etc. I hope you get somewhere. They do backdate DLA and carers to the date of application up until a certain amount of weeks also. Ignore if you already knew all of this. 😅

You're not able to access benefits for costs of childcare or rent because you aren't paying those (because unable to access for dc and because of mortgage).

Kind of in the exact same situation as you, 40k husband and I'm on about 6k too self employed and home with 1 year old twins. Husband has mortgage (house bought before we met) so don't qualify for UC. We also need to run 2 cars but one is a £300 2001 cheap one. Even with the free hours noone will take the twins for just the "free hours" which I understand as everywhere round here has a 2 full day minimum policy, I would be paying £520 per month for that one extra day which is more than I earn so no point putting them in to be honest so I work around them at the mo. I think we may possibly get help with childcare costs but it's too much of a headache as we don't qualify for anything else so I just left it!

No, you're not. But there's a campaign on here by a small bunch of high earners to try to make out they are hard done by. It's no co-incidence that this has stepped up since the election was called.

The current government has not raised the tax thresholds for years, and that particular hits middle earners. This has been a stealth tax and really hasn't helped people.

I really hope you get more support OP. x