DLA in hospital and 16th birthday!

Hi all,

Dealing with a client who is on child DLA, but had his 16th birthday in hospital (about 4 weeks in) and is awaiting PIP decision now.

The issue is whether his DLA should be paid for 28 days (ie adult rate) or 84 days (ie child), or somewhere in between depending on when his birthday was.

DLA reg 10(2) - is ambiguous and not helped by DMG (61653) which points you back to the legislation, or sweet and maxwell p654 which doesn’t provide much extra commentary. There are two readings of the legislation - either 1.DLA should be paid for 84 days if claimant does not reach 16th birthday within first 84 days of his hospital stay, or 2. If claimant doesn’t reach 16 in those 84 days, his DLA should remain in payment indefinitely (unlikely I know, but that’s how it could be read - I think).

Thanks for any help!

option 1 is my reading