Disabled parent

mell1

Hi, in need of some advice. I'm disabled and in receipt of HR DLA both elements. My partner is my fulltime carer and receives IS.

In July of this year we moved house to a property that had been adapted to enabled me to use my wheelchair in the house. What i didn't realise was our new home is 1.8 miles outside the designated area for the secondary school my children attend. So this meant we are no longer entitled to free school transport.
I must add that up until the move we had free school transport and we have said we will take the children to the same stop that they always used. The school bus is only half full.

I have appealed and lost, so took it to the higher appeal and lost again, despite the childrens current school saying it would severly damage their education to move them at this stage. Our MP has also written a letter in our support. But we have still being refused.
I cannot move them to the nearer school as my daughter is half way through her options and the nearer school doesn't do the same subjects as she is at present at an acadamey and the new school is goverment maintained. My son has suffered in the past from school phobia and it has taken over a year of induction to get him into this school. They are both now getting superb grades.
We can buy seats on the bus for them at a cost of £167.00 per term for each child (there is two of them) we just simply can't afford it.
Does anyone know if there is a charity i could ask for help? I have found many for parents of disabled children but not the other way around.
Thank you for reading x

tomtontom

Have you had any help with your budgeting? If you post a statement of affairs on the Debtfree Wannabe board they'll be able to help you free up some funds to cover the cost.

mell1

Thank you, before i was take ill i was a budgeting advisor for for a debt charity, i have looked at all ways. We can do it but not for very long.

poppy12345

Unfortunately there isn't anywhere that you could get help from with this as far as i know, because as you said all the help available is for disabled children and not the other way round. The same thing happened to me when i moved into my adapted house last year. I live 2 miles from my daughters school and she has special needs so moving schools for her just wasn't an option. I claim standard rate for both parts of PIP and i couldn't get any help with transport. I drive but some days can't because of my disability but it made no difference. I drive my daughter to and from school and if i can't for any reason she has a lift with a friend. £167 per child seems an awful lot per term. Can't you get a monthly ticket for each child? If you can't then your only options would be to either move schools or if you or your partner drives to take them yourself.

cte1111

Scope have got some advice on ways of applying for grants, worth a read:
http://www.scope.org.uk/support/disabled-people/money/grants

poppy12345

cte1111 wrote: »

Scope have got some advice on ways of applying for grants, worth a read:
http://www.scope.org.uk/support/disabled-people/money/grants

Most of these grants are for disabled children. There isn't anywhere that would help this situation sadly.

cte1111

poppy12345 wrote: »

Most of these grants are for disabled children. There isn't anywhere that would help this situation sadly.

I'm not sure that's correct. I work for a charity, who support adults with learning disabilities. I know that one of our clients has recently had extra support awarded to her, as she was struggling to get her child to school. Her child hasn't got a disability but it was awarded to help the family, who have difficulties caused by the parent's learning disability.

mell1

you have all been really helpful, Thank you.

I agree 167.00 a term seems an awful lot to me as well. I have asked if i could pay it monthly but they have said a term or nothing (very helpful). Its a 80 mile round trip a day for us and if i am not well and need my partner with me (sometimes i need immediate suction) then he can't leave me anyway. Even my doctor wrote a letter to this effect.

Seems so crazy that their seats are empty everyday on the bus. But i will try the charity suggestions. Thanks again.

sheeps68

Not directly related but I would suggest you look into young carers groups for your children as a little extra. Also as this is the sort of situation faced by children within the groups there maybe some local advice for you. You can access young carers by a variety of sources e.g. children's social care should have information but so do school nurses and schools. You may even find it via the internet search.
Maybe, just maybe, adult social care and or children's could be persuaded to contribute as a section 17 payment to ensure yours and children's needs are met.

mell1

sheeps68 wrote: »

Not directly related but I would suggest you look into you carers groups for your children as a little extra. Also as this is the sort of situation faced by children within the groups there maybe some local advice for you. You can access young carers by a variety f sources e.g. children's social care should have information but so do school nurses and schools. You may even find it via the internet search.
Maybe, just maybe, adult social care and or children's could be persuaded to contribute as a section 17 payment to ensure yours and children's needs are met.

Thank you, i hadn't considered that

z.n

Have you considered asking the school to put out a message explaining the problem. There may be other parents who routinely drive their children to school or even a staff member able to help. You could get lucky.

Try http://www.dppi.org.uk/ http://www.disability-grants.org/

Or maybe Citizens Advice for info on suitable charities and or legal advice.

It seems grossly unfair of the LA to refuse to help with the costs- are you confident that they have taken all the circs into account (ie your need to move due to disability.) It seems fundamentally unfair and unreasonable not to take into account the reasons why you are now outside catchment- those reasons are directly related to your disability and thus surely should rightly be taken into account? An expert in disability discrimination might be able to find a hole in the LA arguments/policy.