Autism and DLA application, help please

[Eloise73]

Hi

Our health visitor came round today and said that we should apply for DLA for DD who is 2.5. I said I didn't think we'd get it as I work 4 days a week and our daughter is high functioning and she said it didn't matter and that we were entitled and it might help us get a bit of money to help with paying for her private speech therapy since our local area has a huge waiting list for SALT's - actually they don't seem to have many resources at all so we're kinda on our own with this. Am getting used to it now :(

I'm a bit confused by the mobility and care aspects of the payments. Do I have to be with DD 24/7 to qualify for the care aspect of it? And are all kids with ASD eligible for DLA?

Would be grateful for any advice, thanks.

Hi Eloise73, so....DLA

DLA is a benefit payable to the child, not you, so it is entirely based on her circumstances, although you as her representative will receive the money to do as you see fit with. It is an important distinction, because it answers your questions about your job, etc. The only exception to that is if the child is in residential care (e.g. residential school), when it all gets a bit more complicated.

In answer to your other question, DLA isn't based on diagnosis, but on care needs. So a child who has no additional care needs would not get DLA regardless of their diagnosis.

The Care part of the DLA is split into 3 categories. Basically:

Low Rate Care: 1 hour of 'extra' care per day.

Mid Rate Care: 'Frequent' care throughout the day or care during the night

High Rate Care: Frequent care during the day and at night (20 mins + or more than twice per night)

The mobility part is split into 2 categories:

Low Rate Mobility Over 5 years old

High Rate Mobility Over 3 years old and unable to walk, virtually unable to walk, or Severely mentally impaired with severe behavioural problems and entitled to High Rate Care.

The Cerebra guide to claiming DLA is excellent, and can be downloaded from the cerebra website.

cerebra website step by step guide filling in dla for children with mental impairment my son has asd been diagnosed at 2 . mobility just got cause he now 5 you need to be virtually unable to walk due to severe mental impairment or physical to claim before 5 . but try cerebra brilliant website good luck !!!!! xxxx

Thanks guys!!

i believe cerebra have a voucher scheme for speech therapy, dont know much bout it but it should be on there site, that may help you too

We got £500 worth of vouchers towards private speech therapy from Cerebra, so it's worth applying. Only snag is they have a limited list of therapists you can use so it can be difficult to get someone in your area. A friend of mine qualified for the vouchers but couldn't find anyone to work with her son so lost them.

Good luck with your DLA application. Do it in Word rather than on the form as the boxes are ridiculously small for the answers you need to give if you're to show all the evidence. Do it in stages - it's a horrible form and can make you feel really negative, so go easy on yourself.