Disability Living Allowance

Claims must be made for those under 65 years who need encouragement to look after themselves for a period greater than three months.

Disability Living Allowance is not affected by savings or income already coming in, and will not affect any other benefits already claimed.  It can lead to extra money from other benefits in some situations.  There is a fast-track system called special rules for those people who have been diagnosed as terminally ill.

When making a claim for Disability Living Allowance the person will need to have ongoing problems that meet with the "disability test" for at least three months previously. There are six disability tests as defined by the Disability Benefits Unit for the Disability Living Allowance care component defined as follows:-

During the day:-

• needing frequent attention throughout the day in connection with bodily functions;
• needing continual supervision throughout the day in order to avoid substantial danger to yourself and others.

During the night:-

• you require from another person prolonged or repeated attention in connection with your bodily functions;
• in order to avoid substantial danger to yourself or others you require another person to be awake for a prolonged period or at frequent intervals for the purpose of watching over you.

Part-time day care:-

• you require in connection with your bodily functions attention from another person for a significant portion of the day (whether during a single period or a number of periods).

Cooking test:

• you cannot prepare a cooked main meal for yourself if you have the ingredients.

Definition of attention and bodily functions:

• attention is the help needed from another person when dealing with bodily functions or personal care tasks.
• bodily functions are anything to do with breathing, hearing, seeing, eating, drinking, walking, sitting, sleeping, getting in or out of bed, dressing and undressing, going to the toilet, getting in or out of the bath, washing, shaving, communicating, speech practice, help with medication or treatment.

Disability Living Allowance does not look at the illness/disability in isolation but the effects of it when performing any of the above bodily functions from start to finish.

Disability Allowance is paid at different rates depending on how the illness/disability affects the person in relation to the disability tests.

The lower rate of £18.95 is paid when passing either or both the disability tests for cooking or part-time day care.

The middle rate of £47.80 is paid when passing at least one of the day or night time tests.

The higher rate of £71.40 is paid when passing at least one or the day and night time tests.

There are also six disability tests in connection with the higher rate of the mobility component of the Disability Living Allowance of £49.85, which require the physical condition to be such that:-

• you are unable to walk
• you are virtually unable to walk
• the "exertion" required to walk would constitute a danger to your life and would be likely to lead to a serious deterioration in your health
• you have no legs or feet (from birth or through amputation)
• you are both deaf and blind
• you are entitled to the highest rate care component and are severely mentally impaired with extremely disruptive and dangerous behaviour problems.

To qualify for the lower rate of mobility component of £18.95

• you must be so "severely disabled physically or mentally that, disregarding any ability, you cannot take advantage of the facility out of doors without guidance or supervision from another person most of the time"

If admitted to hospital or residential care, the care component will stop four weeks after admission, however the mobility component normally continues.

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