My aunt and her daughters PIP/ benefits

[Whatyearisit20]

my cousin has been on dla most of her life, not diagnosed with much but symptomatic of a lot. She does have an autism diagnosis however this is not the main cause of why she was on dla.
she is now moving over to pip and will be able to claim her own UC.
she went to through main stream education and did not require an ehcp of any kind and is a very capable person.
she spend quite a lot of time at our house with my kids because I think she just enjoys the hustle and bustle of it so I know her very well !
i receive Dla for my eldest and aunt rang me to see if I knew any information about how she could be the one to still receive cousins pip ( was dla ) and her universal credit due to her being incapable.
I was slightly taken back by this rightly or wrongly they got my cousin a cash in hand job that she works at Saturday and Sunday perfectly able and take 20 percent of her wages for rent.
she is fairly independent and travels her self, shops her self etc
so I highlighted that I didn’t think this was reasonable and if cousin is entitled to it then she should now receive her money.
I spoke to cousin about what she wanted and she said she wanted it to come to her.
she is very capable I just don’t understand it.
aunt is now annoyed at me and said that daughter was fine with it until I spoke to her and is furious but I just feel like cousin needed to know all
options and is capable of making her own decisions.

The DLA money recieved so far should not have been spent by your aunt at all, it’s purely for the child who has SN/ disabilities. PIP I believe needs to be in your cousin’s name and bank account. Your aunt has literally been spending money entitled to her daughter and if gov found this out she’d probably need to pay it back. I have a severely disabled daughter on DLA and feel i’m entitled to spend her carers allowance as I please (as that’s for me in my name) but never her DLA money.

If the claimant has an appointee to manage their benefits, PIP can be paid into either the appointee’s account or the claimant’s.

WRT the DLA, it is fine for it to become part of household income, there’s no requirement to prove what it was spent on. The parent is covering all the child’s costs, and the money becomes part of that.

Don’t have much experience on PIP so thank you :)
yes completely agree. OP has made it sound like her aunt has just been spending it on herself when it should be used for like you say, the childs costs.

PIP is intended to support disabled people whether they are in work or not. So her "job" isn't relevant for it.

As others have said her mum can apply to be her appointee.

The process is quite gruelling - I have just been through it. I submitted over 100 pages of medical evidence and had a detailed interview for about 1.5 hours where they picked up on any discrepancies in the medical info and asked for a lot of examples of things.

Many people apply and are turned down.

Just to reply about the comment regarding I don’t think she is entitled to pip as in my cousin - I do not believe that. As I said my own daughter has it based on her health needs nothing to do with her ability to manage her own life and money.
I do know she is capable because as stated she spend most / alor of them at my house. This is not someone who I spend an hour a week with.

They will do an appointee interview.

My autistic ds wants me to be appointee as he finds it too much dealing with things himself and he also holds down a job.

So they made me appointee at his request.

Your niece can tell them she wants to manage it herself. If they deem her to have mental capacity then they will pay it direct to her.

You are not entitled to Pip unless you have care needs.

It's nothing to do with how bad your health is. It's to do with whether you need specific care or not.

If she can:

Make food without help
Eat without help
Take meds without help
Washe and bathe without help
Toilet without help
Dress and undress without help
Communicate verbally without help
Read without help
Engage with other people face to face without help
Manage her money without help
Walk without help
Make journeys without help

Then she is not entitled to PIP at all

I would imagine it is a shock to parents who get UC with childcare to lose that chunk of money. So I think she is probably worried about paying the bills. £70 isn't much really towards food & rent.

It all sounds a bit dodgy though - your cousin seems able to work Saturday & Sunday & they aren't declaring that income. Meanwhile both Aunt & cousin are claiming UC.

Is there a reason your Aunt can't work? Because long term she won't have access to her daughter's benefits & will have to manage without. Also your cousin could lose benefits if they discover she is in fact more capable than they have been told.

and yet I know those can do those things and earn pip.
I know people who work and independently live and get pip.

I’m going to use my DD as an example here, she needs “ care “ as in for health reasons and treatment but she is full capable and has capacity to make her own decisions in life.

Sounds as though your aunt is afraid of the drop in income as she has just been adding the DLA to the household budget. It is a shock when benefits come to an end but she needs to be prepared for this.
I wouldn't get involved myself though.

The main thing you can do is help her set up a bank account in her own name if she doesn’t already have one.

If she does get PIP then she can at least get it paid into her bank account.

Cash in hand job? What is the job? You are aware if anything happens to her while she is doing this job she is not insured. Hopefully, it is a job which has minimum risks to her.

The Op Has her staying over 3/4 nights a,week so I assume Has a good idea of her capabilities, I assume your relatives don't have your child staying over 3/4 nights a weeks?

But the main criteria for PIp is that you are not capable of caring for yourself independently and need help with washing ,dressing ,cooking and cleaning and navigating independent travel ,.

I don’t think it’s the dla as such but the high rate disability child element.

Do you know how many mums are on pip whilst fully able to raise their children ?
being on pip does not mean you are not cabable of having your own money.
my DD is a full time wheelchair user, on treatment over night for something specific which is equal to hospital case / nursing care and partially death ( this was all due to catching severe meningitis ad a child.
she is able to cook, work , and manage her money fine but is also entitled to help.

Yes she has stayed with us every week mainly due to I think she just prefers it here as more people her age and she doesn’t always see eye to eye at hers. She goes home from Friday to Monday as she worked Saturday and Sunday.

Op if I understand you correctly, you are simply asking about your cousins capacity to manage her own money, not whether she is entitled to it.

I can't tell from the info you have given whether she is capable but I think she will have to consent to her mum doing it on her behalf.

I actually think 16 is quite young to manage your own benefits if you are still at home but if she does , her family will have to support her being sensible with it.

The aunt would have to apply to be am appointees and then the cousin would be assessed to see if she has the capacity to manage her own money .

Yes I'm well aware of that i have a 14 year old who is severely autistic and gets the highest rates of DLA and i can't see that changing when he transfers to PIP
I have looked into PIP for my oldest son as he acute necrotizing pancreititis two years ago and has no Been left as an insulin dependent diabetic but according to the criteria he wouldn't be eligible for PIP as he's fully independent in caring for himself and navigating independent travel.
I assume your daughter must need some help as if was fully independent she wouldn't meet the criteria?

This is not true, DLA is intended to benefit the child how the parent uses the DLA is entirely up to them for many families it goes into the family pot and this is a perfectly legitimate use as quite often parents have to give up work or reduce hours to care for their disabled children which benefits the child
Also bills csn be higher food shops etc
I have been receiving DLA for my son for over ten years and not once have Been asked to justify what I spend it on please don't scare monger .

I had a huge drop in income when DS turned 20ys as l lost the TC payment for him and child allowance - about £600/mth but l knew this was coming so l increased my working hours to cover some of the deficit.

DS is currently 21yrs. He does have an EHCP and works part time from home doing admin for the company my sister works at. However that isn't guaranteed.

I do include his PIP money in my bills, plus he pays £150/mth from his wages. l can't afford to stay in our home and house him otherwise. If l downsized it would be possible to afford it but due to my son's ASD he would be very distressed.

He is also an adult now and when l looked at getting him his own place his PIP and wages wouldn't cover living expenses. I do have a plan that he will go into independent living eventually and l am in contact with the adult social care team to put that in place when he feels ready to move out.

It's at that point that l will downsize. My concern though is if he doesn't cope living independently and l have downsized.

I however pay for everything for him - including a new laptop when his broke, days out, clothes...everything.

I do feel guilty but ultimately l need to house my son. He is financially vulnerable as he's given access to his bank account to criminals twice and they have wiped him out. At that point we had a joint account solely for his PIP which they also gained access too. To protect my own bank accounts we don't have a joint account anymore.

I am not scaremongering, in my DLA contract it states they have every right to carry out random checks. If you are spending DLA money on yourself and not the disabled child entitled to it, then you are wrong.

Where does it say cousin is 16??

What a wasted life. With some help your cousin could live a more fulfilling life which involves working instead of living off benefits and scamming the system working cash in hand.