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Financial support - baby with physical disabilities

3 replies

annaspanner18 · 11/09/2024 12:10

Hoping for some advice / signposting.

Someone I know has a baby who was born with lots of physical challenges (including spina bifida among others issues), but primarily issues with bladder and bowel, bladder is exposed outside the body and has ileostomy, stoma etc.

Baby is now around 20m old and cannot have corrective surgery until they reach a minimum weight which is slow, plus other health issues are complicating this. Until surgery they are unable to get any childcare provision as the nurseries won't take baby due to infection risk.

She is trying to work full time from home with baby, but is struggling to juggle workload demands and baby, plus has a 6 year old also. No support from family or DH.

What financial support might she be able to get to allow her to give up work and focus on family? Or reducing hours to part time to increase eligibility for tax credits?

She says they're not entitled to DLA or carers allowance as baby needs no more care than any child that age (but that they cannot go into childcare surely changes that?). She has been to CAB and has come up empty.

Grateful for any advice anyone can offer.

OP posts:
EndlessLight · 11/09/2024 13:30

Have they actually applied for DLA and appealed if refused? It sounds like the child does need more care and supervision than typical at that age.

Curlygirli · 13/09/2024 16:16

I agree with PP, your friend should definitely apply for DLA. It’s based on care needs, so as long as she can explain her child’s needs and provide evidence to back it up, she may have a successful claim. The DLA wait times are at least 18 - 20 weeks so the child will be older by the time the claim is looked at. Also, I’m in a FB group for DLA and many people have been successful in claiming for children under 2.

annaspanner18 · 13/09/2024 20:40

Thank you, they only applied a year ago when baby was still a babe in arms. Will encourage them to reapply 👍

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