Many children and young people who have experienced early life trauma are eligible for disability benefits. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland these are called Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and Personal Independence Payment (PIP). In Scotland they are called Child Disability Payment (CDP) and Adult Disability Payment (ADP).
A child or young person doesn’t necessarily need a specific diagnosis. They just need to have care and/or mobility needs in excess of a typically developing child or young person. Both the adult and child payments recognise the costs that come with additional care needs; we want to make sure that everyone parenting a child or young person who has experienced early life trauma knows about these benefits.
We currently offer specialist information and support to complete these applications for the benefits system in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Scotland has a separate benefits system and information can be found on the mygov.scot website – see below
Disability Living Allowance – DLA – is a disability benefit for children under 16 years old in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It is there to help with the extra costs that come with caring for a child with a health condition or disability, such as specialist childcare, special equipment at home, replacing items or driving to appointments. For our children these health conditions can include developmental trauma, FASD or attachment disorders as well as neurodevelopmental conditions such as ASD, ADHD and sensory processing disorder. These conditions do not need to be diagnosed in order to make an application.
To find out more about DLA and whether it might be relevant to your family at all, please join one of our free webinars or watch our free 30-minute videos.
Select your preferred webinar date and time, or access the video below:
Alternatively, if you’ve had a look at the video or watched the webinar, or just know that you definitely do need to get started but need a bit of help … you have two options!
Firstly, you would be very welcome to join one of our new mentoring groups which 
we are running with the help of some funding from Adoption England.
Or secondly, if you are someone that likes to get on with things at midnight or in snatched moments and likes feeling you can do it yourself, but would still like to feel there’s a helpful friend right next to you …
Our Support Pack takes you through the entire application process using videos alongside various support materials. You can purchase a three-month subscription to the Support Pack here (although if you are on Universal Credit and would like to waive the fee please do contact us first with your statement so we can send you a code):
Personal Independence Payment – PIP – is a disability benefit for young people and adults 16 years and over in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It’s also to help with additional costs that come with living with a health condition or disability, such as help at home, driving to appointments and private therapies. As with DLA, you don’t need a diagnosis but professional evidence of care and/or mobility needs is helpful. Our information and support focuses on health conditions resulting from early life trauma, mental health conditions and/or developmental conditions and does not cover physical disability issues.
If you would like to find our more about PIP, including transferring from DLA to PIP, appointeeship and the assessment process, again you have two options!
Firstly, for a two hour session in a small group, please join one of our monthly webinars. Select your preferred date and time below.
Alternatively (or as well as attending a webinar!) we’d love to welcome you to join one of our new mentoring groups which, as for DLA, we are running with the help of some funding from Adoption England.
