Disability Living Allowance for both wife and son - anything else I should look at?

exexpat_2

Hi all,

My wife is currently in receipt of Disability Living Allowance (middle band). My son may also be eligible - looking into that now and awaiting a decision.

My question is - with two members of the family in receipt is there any other assistance we should be looking at? I've been very lucky to find a good job locally but it's not paying all our outgoings so any assistance we receive we will be grateful for.

My income prevents us from getting any of the income assessed benefits (like income support or child tax credits to quote two examples) but as my wife is currently unable to look after our son he has to go to a childminder.

If I gave up work our financial situation would be much worse even though we wouldn't need the childminder so I'm pretty sure that keeping working is the right thing.

Just wonder if there's anything else we need to look at? I spend every spare minute out of work being a carer but because it's not full time (thankfully my wife can be left to herself most days) I am not eligible for any carer's allowance. Council tax discounts only seem to apply for physical disabilities which is not what we are talking about here.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Feel free to challenge any of my assumptions - I think I've done my homework so far correctly but not sure where else to look for help.

Thanks in advance,

e

rogerblack

I assume your wife was not working in the last sveral years, so would not be eligible for contributory ESA.
You would not be eligible for carers allowance unless you are:
A) Caring for >35 hours a week.
Earning under 100/week after expenses.

The expenses can be considerable, but are strictly limited.

An additional amount of tax credits is payable if high-rate care DLA was to be gotten for your son, as far as I'm aware, not for mid-rate-care as your wife.
I'm not sure if this might bring tax credits back into payment.
Have you done all of the 'switching' you can - electricity, phone, ... going through every single outgoing, and reducing it or deleting it?

sleepless_saver

If your wife has a permanent severe mental disability, then she shouldn't be counted for council tax purposes, so if she is the only other adult in the household you could claim single person discount. The council will have a form about this for her doctor to complete. See link for the criteria.

Otherwise, if your income is too high for you to get income related benefits, I don't think there's anything else. You wouldn't get carers allowance anyway as you earn more than £100 a week.

McKneff

How old is your child and what is the nature of their disability

missbunbury

Are you sure about the child tax credits? Use entitledto to check this as many families are eligible for child tax credits even if they breach the threshold for working tax credits, and if you are eligible you might also get help with childcare, although this depends on the age of the child/ren.