Disabled 17 year old and ESA claim

Penny-Pincher!!

bonjen3 wrote: »

Thanks Tehya for trying to help, I think I'll try and find a disabled friendly forum , I can't be bothered trying to justify why my son's DLA money shouldn't be classed as an income. Perhaps I should just put my son in residential care , costing the country £1000's each week for his 24/7 care needs, instead of trying to find out which measley benefit he is legally entitled to claim

OP, I really wasn't being funny with you as Im disabled myself, so understand about care needs and extra costs involved being disabled.

Is he receiving the correct amount of DLA if he requires 24/7 care?

Has he had an assessment done through Social Services to see if he's entitled to any support that way, like a care package?

Penny-Pincher!!

Ive just found this info for you.
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/BenefitsTaxCreditsAndOtherSupport/On_a_low_income/DG_10034876

Or this one:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/DisabledPeople/EducationAndTraining/HigherEducation/DG_10035904
Hope it helps.

PP
xx

Own_My_Own

Hi Bonjen 3,
My son has aspergers and could not claim while at college as I was still getting child benefit. Once he leaves college and you stop getting CB, he then becomes an adult and can claim ESA.
Not sure about the age thing as my son was 18.

Please ignore some of the comments on here. They ARE some people who WILL help.

bonjen3

Thanks guys. I'll check these links out. The system seems very unfair -
My friend has a severely disabled youngster (also 17) who is still in full time education in a special needs school, she gets high rate care/ high rate mobility and full ESA for her , (but no child benefit / child tax credits as you cant get ESA and child benefit at the same time.) Our kids are the exact same age, she has been getting this benefit since her daughter turned 16, Unfortunately my friend and I never discussed benefits until 2 weeks ago. If I'd known last year, my son would also of been eligable for ESA and he would be £400 a month better off, but because I didn't know the benfefit existed until 2 weeks ago, my son cant claim it? Thats why I thought he could claim income support or something else in place of ESA

Tehya

Your welcome Bonjen,

I know how hard it is to look after someone whilst struggling with finances. If we, carers, all decided to down bedpans etc we'd bring Social Services as well as the NHS to it's knees but of course they know we'd never do that as we love our carees. It's a shame we're still so much under-valued.

But please try and stick around as there are some fantastic people on these boards and there's a great little feature called ignore if you really don't want to 'listen' to certain folks.

Oh have you tried the Disability & Dosh board on here, we're a friendly bunch mostly. It's thanks to the folks on there that I still have my sanity, mind you the peeps closest to me would probably argue with that statement.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=155&order=desc

pmlindyloo

There was a fairly recent thread from a poster about a very similar scenario.

Your son can claim income based ESA whilst doing a course. If the course is such that a person of his age would not be able to access it as it is for special needs then it does not matter how many hours he does.

It is also true that you cannot claim CB and CTC if your son chooses to claim ESA, You would be able to keep your carer's allowance.

What you need to do is a 'better off calculation'. You could do this yourself using the turn2us site or you can visit CAB who will do one for you.

Are you better off if he claims ESA or are you better off if you continue with claiming CB and CTC?

pmlindyloo

Here's the thread I was talking about:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4099321

robpw2

Tehya wrote: »

I think that's a tad harsh.

I went to college and got no money from anyone , there was no ema , didnt get dla and i had to support myslef ,
the majority of other students at college will get no extra money ,

they will have to get part -time jobs or their parents will have to help them

just because her son has got autism why has she written him off and assumes that he can get no part-time job her first defence was he will need care whilst their .

i am sure he could do something perhaps a paper round or working from home using the computer etc .

Own_My_Own

robpw2 wrote: »

I went to college and got no money from anyone , there was no ema , didnt get dla and i had to support myslef ,
the majority of other students at college will get no extra money ,

they will have to get part -time jobs or their parents will have to help them

just because her son has got autism why has she written him off and assumes that he can get no part-time job her first defence was he will need care whilst their .

i am sure he could do something perhaps a paper round or working from home using the computer etc .

THAT IS THE MOST RIDICULOUS THING I HAVE EVER HEARD !

No parent of an autistic child would ever WRITE THEM OFF.

I think an apology is needed !

Tigsteroonie

robpw2 wrote: »

i am sure he could do something perhaps a paper round or working from home using the computer etc .

He's autistic, is disabled sufficiently to warrant both care & mobility DLA, and is going to college to study life skills .... Do you really think he'd be capable of independently undertaking a paper round or working productively on a computer?

This is a question about benefit possibilities. Don't turn it into an entitlement rant.