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CPAG in Scotland's Disabled Children and their Families Ebulletin - April 2009 Dear Colleague, Welcome to the third edition of CPAG in Scotland's Disabled Children and their Families e-bulletin keeping you up-to-date with relevant news and developments. Contents:       CPAG in Scotland news and events             - Factsheets              - Training               News             - Changes to child tax credit backdating              - DLA higher rate mobility and blind people             - Family Fund eligibility for 16 and 17 year olds             - Lone parents and JSA in the school holidays    CPAG in Scotland news and events New factsheets A new factsheet providing information for advisers on benefits and tax credit topics relevant to those working with families with a disabled child will be published next month. Disabled young people outlines entitlement to benefits at 16: when a parent can and cannot continue to claim for a young person and whether the young person staying at home will be better off claiming in his or her own right if they are unable to work. To request printed copies please email acarr@cpagscotland.org.uk Also available Disabled children-a checklist of financial help for families lists the range of benefit, tax credit and other help available to families with a disabled child or young person up to the age of 20. You can view a pdf version here Training We provide training courses set at different levels of knowledge and experience for those working with families with a disabled child. We can offer these either at our offices in Glasgow on the dates shown or in-house at your workplace. Introduction to benefits for disabled children and their families  23 November 2009, Glasgow (half-day) This is a basic level course, aimed at people working with families for whom welfare rights isn't a speciality or who are new to the field. We are offering it at the special discounted rate of £25 per person. It can also be delivered in-house or at a venue near you for a total cost of £150 for up to 20 participants. Disability living allowance for children 22 October 2009, Glasgow (one-day) Course fee: £90 for CABs, £105 for voluntary organisations, £150 for statutory organisations. Reduced cost places are available for poorly funded groups. If you would like to book a place please click here or contact Betty Kelly on (0141) 552 3303 / bkelly@cpagscotland.org.uk To view our full training programme and for further information: www.cpag.org.uk/scotland/training/courses  News Changes to child tax credit backdating New rules have been introduced that will make it easier for families to get full backdating of additional tax credits when a child is awarded disability living allowance (DLA) for the first time or has an existing award increased to include the highest rate of the care component. The disability element for a child is included in your maximum amount of child tax credit (CTC) if you are responsible for a child who gets any rate of either component of DLA with a further severe disability element included if the child is awarded highest rate care component. These are currently worth just over £50 and £20 per week respectively. However the tax credit rules had required that for this amount to be backdated fully to the date from which DLA was awarded, a claimant had to notify the tax credit office both at the point the DLA claim was made and when a decision was known. Only telling the tax credit office after the DLA claim was decided would result in a maximum of three months backdating. Although some Revenue literature did explain this rule there was evidence that many claimants were not aware of it and so lost out on large amounts of tax credits as DLA claims and appeals can take very much longer than 3 months to be decided. From April the rules are simpler: Although a claimant still has to notify the Revenue when an award of DLA is made to get any additional CTC, if that notification takes place within three months of getting the DLA decision the extra tax credits can be paid from the date DLA was awarded, regardless of how far back this goes.  You can access the new rules in full here http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2009/pdf/uksi_20090697_en.pdf DLA higher rate mobility and blind people The Government has announced that from April 2011 people with a severe visual impairment will be able to qualify for the higher rate of DLA mobility component. The vast majority of people with sight loss experience varying levels of mobility difficulties and may receive the lower rate of the mobility component. However, currently the higher rate can only be paid to blind people who are also unable to walk, virtually unable to walk, deafblind or are severely mentally impaired. The exact definition of severe visual impairment to be used in the new rules has yet to be decided but it is expected that it will involve a combination of visual acuity and field of vision. The change which is estimated to increase the awards of 26,000 people – among them a significant number of children- has come about as a result of campaigning by RNIB.  Read more about their campaign here Family Fund eligibility for 16 and 17 year olds The Family Fund helps low income families with severely disabled children by giving grants for things that make life easier and more enjoyable for the disabled child and their family, such as washing machines, driving lessons, hospital visiting costs, computers and holidays. From April the age limit for applications to the fund has increased and now includes severely disabled children aged 16 and 17 and the Fund is keen for applications that will reflect the particular needs of a young person between these ages. The upper earnings limit for the family is £25,000 per annum. For more information on eligibility and applications visit: www.familyfund.org.uk Lone parents and JSA in the school holidays Recent changes to entitlement to income support (IS) have meant that those who are in receipt of IS solely because they are lone parents will no longer be entitled if their youngest child is aged 12 or over. In October the relevant age of the youngest child will drop to 10 and then to 7 from October 2010. There are exemptions for lone parents with a disabled child but these do not apply if the child is entitled to DLA lowest rate care component or only a mobility component. Lone parents in this situation now have to be available for work and claim jobseekers allowance (JSA). The DWP has estimated that this may apply to around 6,000 families. However with the school holidays approaching it is worth being aware that changes to the JSA rules mean that during the holidays lone parents do not have to be available for work if they are looking after a child of less than 16 and it would be unreasonable for them to make other arrangements for the care of the child.  Other concessions reflecting the responsibilities of being a lone parent out with school holidays - including that the availability of appropriate and affordable childcare will have to be considered by Jobcentre Plus staff when deciding whether a lone parent is able to look for, take up or leave a job have also been included in the amendments to the JSA regulations. For more information visit: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2008/pdf/uksi_20083051_en.pdf CPAG would be interested to hear of any problems advisers come across in the implementation of either of these changes to the regulations. ^ back to top If you wish to unsubscribe from all CPAG in Scotland's welfare rights e-bulletins click here. If you only want to unsubscribe from this ebulletin email acarr@cpagscotland.org.uk with 'unsubscribe disabled children' as the subject. If this e-bulletin has been forwarded to you and you wish to subscribe to it click here. We would welcome feedback on the e-bulletin, please contact us at acarr@cpagscotland.org.uk with your comments. Thank you. ^ back to top Child Poverty Action Group is a charity registered in England and Wales (registration number 294841) and in Scotland (registration number SC039339). Company limited by guarantee registered in England (registration number 1993854).Registered office: 94 White Lion Street, London N1 9PF. VAT no. 690 8081 17.