hi everybody me and my partner are looking for advice on claiming dla .
Our son is three years old and is under /speech and language / educational psychologist /
physiotherapy / and early development team . and there all saying he is still behaving at a much younger age .He still does not talk he is not very good on his feet and has only just masterd drinking from a cup . his brother and sister were quite forward in most aspects and he is just not progressing .

we have letters from physio and educational psychologist stating that he has learning difficulties
and with all of his appointments and things and fetching the children out of school we could realy use the extra money but have been putting it off for quite a while because we dont wanna seem like a money scrounging couple.

any advice would be greatly appreciated guys/girls mainly do you think we should claim?

thanks ste and amy

Hiya

It's not scrounging to claim what you are legitimately entitled to so don't think of it like that. It sounds like your son has difficulties in several areas and so must need quite a lot of extra care and help, more than other children his age. There can be a lot of extra costs with a disabled child so don't feel bad about applying for it. I think you should apply and it sounds like you should be entitled to something. They will probably write to one of the professionals working with your child but if you have a lot of medical evidence that helps support your case then send copies of letters with your claim. You need to put a lot of detail into answering the questions to really show how much help he needs. Once DLA is awarded you need to tell the Tax Credits as you can get extra Child Tax Credits and if you get DLA at middle or high rate for care then you may be able to get Carer's Allowance if you don't work but your partner does or if you work but earn less than £100 a week or if you get Income Support then they add on a carer's premium.

Jayne

Claim you are having extra costs due to your childs additional needs. Its sounds like motor and speech dyspraxia. Do you have a diagnosis yet? Fill in forms as it he is having his worse day so they know how bad it can get and enclosed a copies of letters from experts for evidence. If you dont feel confident in filling in form see if there is a Welfare rights near you who can help you.

thanks as of yet we have not had a definitive diagnosis we havnt heard of dyspraxia we have only realy read up on autism as thats the word that keeps popping up in meetings we have been told to get him into a special needs school but as i said we still dont have a diagnosis

Hi my son only global development delay when i put in for DLA he was only 9 months , from that he is now 3 years old , he has other complex problem's but still no diagnosis either , it was my son's physio and OT that told me to put in for it when he was 9 months . The money does come in handy with cost of appointments and any thing he needs as his motor skills are still not right , he is only like a 6-9 month old age . So yes defo put in for it xx