Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-02-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that the parents of children with mental health problems are aware that their child may be eligible to claim disability living allowance.
Justin Tomlinson
The DWP recognises the position of parents who have children with mental health problems and supports them through the award of Disability Living Allowance where the relevant entitlement conditions are met. As a Department we have multiple channels to ensure our customers are provided with the best possible information about their entitlement to benefits. These include:
Public Information
The Department provides information on benefits, including Disability Living Allowance (DLA), in a range of formats on www.gov.uk. This includes information relating to DLA for children and includes links to benefit eligibility calculators that will signpost the user to further information about DLA for children.
Customer Facing Staff
Learning and development for our customer facing/telephony staff raises awareness around the different needs of vulnerable customers. We also have a portal that all staff can access to appropriately signpost support available.
Staff would actively consider this in their dealings with parents of disabled children, offering information on claiming Disability Living Allowance if appropriate.
Partnership Working
The Department also works with a range of organisations that provide information and advice on claiming DLA for children, such as Disability Rights UK, Contact a Family, Young Minds, NetMums and Carers UK. Our policy teams ensure that national partner organisations are kept informed about policy changes.
Visiting
Where a family is identified as needing a visit, our visiting officers typically complete holistic benefit checks which would include DLA considerations for any child.
