Changing from IS to DLA/CA for child - What is best?

Rainbow_Butterfly

Hello, I am hoping someone might be able to point me in the right direction.

History: I am a single mum to a 4 year old little boy who was born extremely prematurely and has developmental issues as a result. He is currently at around the level of a 2 year old. He isnt in school as the other children his age are, he has stayed on at nursery, does 4 hours a week at bigschool, and has a 1:1 support lady with him the whole time at both. He has a CAF, and we are in the process of applying for a statement of Special Educational needs for him. He is not toilet trained, shows no sign of being in the near future, and needs help with basic things like feeding himself and getting dressed. His long term prognosis is not great, he should continue to make progress, but he will always be significantly behind childred his age, and this gap is likely to widen as he ages.

I have been receiving IS since July last year, I went to a lone parent appointment last month and they suggested that I should have been on Disability living allowance/carers allowance instead, and gave me the forms and a contact number for a charity for someone to help me fill them in. I have the appointment for that on the 31st.

I have also been doing some self employed admin work online (when the little one is asleep in bed), averaging under the £20 a week allowed on IS. It was my understanding from the Job centre, until this new idea of DLA/CA was thrown into the mix that I would need to be back at work by the time my son was 5 (May) and I had planned to increase the hours of my self employed work to 16hours a week at that point to satisfy that requirement. The job centre had also previously told me that if I did this then I would be eligable for the £250 bonus, plus £40 a week extra as I have been on IS for over a year. I am also studying with the Open University, and hope eventually to go back to work full time, circumstances allowing, I am by no means someone who will stay on benefits forever.

I am rather confused about what the best course of action would be going forwards. I was hoping someone might be able to point me in the direction of the answers to the following...

- How much DLA/CA is likely to be for us
- Whether you are allowed to work at all whilst on it?
- Whether there is a similar incentive (£250 + £40pw) to coming off DLA as there is with IS?

If I am asking silly questions, I apologise, I know so little about this, and am just trying to make an educated decision about what is best.

I also receive Housing benefit (private rented), council tax benefit, and child tax credits, if these affect anything.

Many thanks.

Rainbow_Butterfly

Oh.. reading back through posts on here has also just lead me to the following..

I didnt know you could get carers allowance and IS?
http://www.hlp.entitledto.co.uk/viewhelp.aspx?sid=13&helpfile=IncomeSupportRulesCarers

It also seems that the rules on IS are changing too which I didnt know about.. and that once your child is "School age" you get moved over to JSA. I wonder what would happen then in a case such as mine where my son is school age but not attending school (and therefore is at home with me so I am unable to work).

Bah.. I am now even more consfused!!!

cosmic-dust

The DLA would be for the child, depending on the rate the child got (has to be middle/high rate care) you could apply for carers allowance and you would get a carers premium on IS. You don't get CA and IS like your second post suggests. Whatever you get in CA they take off your IS.

If your child got DLA then your child tax credits would also increase.

You can work whilst on CA earning £100 per week, not 100% sure how this would affect the carer premium on your IS though.
Once on CA you don't have the same rules as lone parents, there is no need to move over onto JSA.

Rainbow_Butterfly

Thank you. Hmmmm... so I would actually get DLA for my son, and CA premium on IS?? Am I right in how I have understood that? Is there any way of finding out the sort of figures that this might involve? I am finding this whole process incredibly confusing.

cosmic-dust

Rainbow_Butterfly wrote: »

Thank you. Hmmmm... so I would actually get DLA for my son, and CA premium on IS?? Am I right in how I have understood that? Is there any way of finding out the sort of figures that this might involve? I am finding this whole process incredibly confusing.

Dla Rates: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/disabledpeople/financialsupport/dg_10011925
CA = £55.55
Carers premium on IS = £31.00
Weekly amount for you = £86.55

Kay.Samuels

I recieve DLA for my son (there are different rates for this), and carer's allowance (£55 a week) and IS (although not the full IS amount, a carer's premium amount of £85 a fortnight). As my son recieves high rate of care component we also receive a disabled child element on shild tax credits.

ALSO because he receives DLA and I am a lone parent of a disabled child on carers, I am not pushed into looking for work, I am a carer (that dreams of going to work again like I used to when I had a life of my own).

DO you have a good lone parent advisor?? Mine has been really helpful in the past, giving me information verbally and in writing for me to look over when I get a rare moment's peace. I think it's the luck of the raw though whether you get a good one or not! :-)

LL30

Just to add, BLISS are very helpful in supporting parents of prems who are being held back from entering school at the 'normal' age. It may not apply to you, as you sound like you've got lots of support, but the forum is really useful and the phoneline is a great help. There are quite a few Mums on there agonising about whether to apply for DLA etc due to their child's circumstances. Might be useful, might not, just thought I'd pass it on as a Mum to a prem myself xx