19 Year old disabled son starting college. Questions about PIP, UC, ESA etc

[Cooker455]

Hi, my autistic son has severe learning disability and is autistic. He starts residential college in September (home at usual school holiday times) and is currently claiming lower rate of mobility component and top rate of PIP daily living component. I'm reviewing things to to make sure that we are claiming all that he is entitled to and to adjust our finances, but am confused over what is what. So here we go....

Carers Allowance: I understand that I need to telephone DWP to tell them of when he is home on breaks? And something about being able to claim for the period prior to his arrival and post leaving due to bedding prep etc (he does bed wet when anxious)? That's a lot of phone calls, so I could be on hold for hours over the years trying to talk to someone?

PIP: Will his PIP be reduced? If so, by how much? Who sorts that out? Do the council take a portion? He did not have any savings so the council are paying for his attendance at college, he has to pay £300 per half-term into a college controlled account for day trips etc which we will do on his behalf.

UC/ESA: Should I be claiming for either of these on his behalf? Does he need to have a work assessment in order to claim for these? He has a mental age of around five years old, so will always need to be supervised at work and tasks will be very simple.

We were unsuccessful in our bid for Deputyship, I think our case was not strong enough because we made the mistake of not using a specialist solicitor. We have not applied for financial attorney at this stage.

Thanks for any help or steers, it's a little overwhelming now I've got to this stage.

[Eeviee]

Hi. All questions regarding benefits can be answered using a website called turn2us in the first instance so check it out. Carers allowance is what the carer gets not your son. Other benefits such as esa are claimable from the age of 16 I believe but check out the turn 2 us website. If your son is severely disabled I’m not sure why you couldn’t get deputyship ? I would look at the reasons why as perhaps you didn’t fill in the form correctly. Do you have a local charity that can help you fill in the firms ? Can you ask mencap for help ?

[49Twister]

I know they are phasing out ESA and everyone will eventually be on UC. You should be advised about this when making a claim, as I presume you’ll claim UC for your son.

Yes you will be able to claim CARERS allowance for the periods your son is at home so you will have to contact the DWP. I don’t know about pip but I’m sure someone on here will be able to advise, as eeviee as said check out the website.

[pudseyg in reply to 49Twister]

Hi, you will be able to get UC - as others said, this is replacing ESA now. We were asked to bring our son to a work capability assessment but had our gp write a letter saying it would be too stressful and confusing for our son and they didn't require this assessment. While he is in college he will lose the daily living portion of PIP but keep the mobility element. You can call DWP every few months and claim the daily living element for all the time he is home, including weekends. It's a bit of a faff, but every little helps!

[BenjiB]

My son is 23 and has just finished residential college.

The daily living component of PIP will stop. This can be claimed each time he is home. I just phone the day he goes back and give them the dates. The mobility part isn’t affected. Carers allowance is the same, you can claim for the time he’s home. I just phone the day he goes back and give them the dates. They then send you a form which you fill out. I always take a photo of the form as carers allowance is very delayed being paid.

My son gets Universal Credit which has not been affected. He’s been claiming this since he was 18. He’s in the LCWRA and it’s around £600 per month.

If your son has no other money, DWP appointeeship is sufficient, you don’t need deputyship for finance.

As for deputyship for health and welfare, we don’t have it. I too know lots of people who have been refused, it’s not easy to get. We don’t have deputyship for our son. So far we’ve not needed it. We are consulted about everything and involved in decision making. We still sign for medical procedures etc. if that changes I’ll look into it again.

[Cooker455]

Hi, just writing to say thank you for all your replies. My wife claims Carers Allowance, and we're on top of the procedure for that now, thanks.

We were thorough in our application for deputyship but the court refused as they said we were predicting adverse circumstances which have not yet happened! We can't predict what they might be but are aware of the terrible things that have happened in care facilities around the country. The appeal was refused as well. Should have gone to Irwin Mitchell.

So it looks like I should be claiming UC, I will go ahead with that and thank your again for all your helpful replies.

[BenjiB in reply to Cooker455]

Ah thank you for the update.

It’s very frustrating. We were advised by our solicitor that there needed to be a reason and not a perceived reason when we looked into it. There was a case brought which should have made the process easier, but sadly it oooks like it hasn’t!

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