Does a disabled child get PIP or DLA?

Full answer

The UK benefit system uses different disability benefits depending on age, and understanding when a family needs to switch from one to the other avoids a gap in support around a child's 16th birthday. **DLA for children -- birth to 16** Disability Living Allowance for children is available from birth (in practice, claims are often not accepted until a child is at least 3 months old, other than for terminal illness under Special Rules, which can be claimed immediately) up to age 16, for children who need much more looking after or supervision than a child of the same age without a disability. It has two components: a care component (three rates: lowest, middle, highest) and a mobility component (two rates: lower and higher), assessed against how the child's condition affects their care and mobility needs compared with a non-disabled child of the same age. **Why children cannot claim PIP** PIP is specifically designed for people aged 16 and over, using different assessment criteria (based on the claimant's own ability to carry out specified daily living and mobility activities, rather than a comparison to a non-disabled child of the same age) -- so a child under 16 is not eligible for PIP regardless of the severity of their condition, and must claim DLA for children instead. **What happens at 16** Around three months before a young person on child DLA turns 16, the DWP normally writes to the family to begin the process of moving to PIP -- this is not an automatic conversion; the young person must go through a fresh PIP claim and assessment process, including the standard PIP eligibility criteria and, usually, a face-to-face, phone, or video assessment. Child DLA does not simply continue after 16, and if the PIP claim process is not completed, the DLA award will eventually stop. **Assessment differs significantly** Because PIP assesses a person's own ability to carry out specific activities (rather than comparing them to a non-disabled child of the same age, as DLA for children does), some young people who received a high rate of DLA as a child do not automatically receive an equivalent rate of PIP, and vice versa -- families should not assume the PIP award will simply mirror the previous DLA award. **Worked example** A 15-year-old with autism receives the highest rate care component and higher rate mobility component of child DLA, reflecting the very substantial extra supervision and support they need compared with other 15-year-olds. Three months before their 16th birthday, the DWP initiates the move to PIP; the young person completes a PIP2 form describing how their condition affects specific daily living activities (such as engaging with other people, planning and following journeys, and managing their own care), attends an assessment, and receives a new PIP award based on points scored against the PIP descriptors -- which may end up at a different rate/component combination than their previous DLA award, depending on how their needs map onto the different PIP assessment criteria. **Practical tip** Families should respond promptly to DWP correspondence about the move from child DLA to PIP and provide full, specific, up-to-date evidence of the young person's needs, since delays or incomplete claims can result in a gap in payments around the transition.

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