Food intollerances (multiple) and disability allowance

[NettieMum]

Hello Everyone,

We have two daughters, both of whom suffer with multiple food intollerances, and we would love to hear from anyone who has experience in trying to qualify for the disability allowance in order to help with the food bills.

Both of our girls are intollerant to wheat, gluten, milk, soya, oranges, bananas, grapes, raisins. As you might imagine, this makes for creative shopping and meal planning, with most of our food being bought from the "Free From" ranges, from several different shops.

We are attending an tribunal hearing soon with our basic premise being that we believe that we qualify since other illnesses (such as PKU) do recieve benefits towards living expenses.

I'll keep you posted as to how we get on.

N

How interesting a notion! I hadn't thought of that.
I always think of DLA as money for the child to allow them to have access to as normal a life as possible. Not as compensation/recompense to the carers for additional costs incurred in caring for a child.
Obviously too long since I reviewed his forms My son gets DLA for his profound ASD.He also has intolerances and I don't think his food issues constitute any part of his money. He too can't have gluten dairy, sweetners, additives, blackcurrants,chocolate etc etc. And I have to make nearly all his food from scratch.
would not getting rice flour etc on prescription be more helpful/relevent?
How interesting!
What happens if they ingest non tolerated foods and how were they tested. Very curious

it is money for the child to allow them to have access to as normal a life as possible. If extra money allows them to have a 'normal' variety of food i would imagine that this would qualify. I would imagine though that as pagwatch says, a lot would also depend on how / where they have been tested. I would imagine that only mainstream testing / diagnosis would be acceptable. Lots of places offer 'allery testing' that probably wouldn't hold up to serious medical scrutiny.

DLA is paid in 2 components, care and mobility. I suppose food intolerances could come under care but to be honest I'd be surprised if it was awarded on that basis, unless the intolerances were so profound they caused disability or had a huge impact on the child's daily living activities.

As hairybikermummy says, they would also have to be diagnosed/treated by a consultant specialist in that field rather than a blood test from an independent laboratory. Do they have coeliac disease, which is a true gluten allergy? Or a confirmed lactose intolerance? If not you may find a claim difficult.

sidge
interesting point too. Does being coeliac qualify for DLA - I didn't think it did. Not sure if DS2 is true coeliac or not as I won't give him gluten to pre test and don't want him put through invasive testing as he wouldn't understand.

being coeliac doesn't qualify you for DLA, but it does mean free prescriptions. You should be entitled to have gluten free staples on prescription and as they are children you wouldn't have to pay.

some more information here

thanks Daisy
I can get a few GF products through my lovely GP who gives me the prescription without the coeliac diagnosis. I can't get much as so many are full of additives that he can't tolerate either. But the few we can get are darned welcome{grin]

that's good your GP does that pagwatch. They are sooooo expensive though aren't they? My shopping bill is about £20 a week more because of my GF status. I can only imagine that it's worse with kids.

soooo expensive !
I cook a bit and that helps but OMG snacks and biscuits !!!!!
Ah well.