Parents caring for grown-up disabled children face benefit cap

The Guardian reports that the benefit cap will apply to carers looking after their disabled offspring, which they say will force some parents to move out of their home or put their child into care.

Ministers have repeatedly said disabled people will be exempt from the £500-a-week benefit cap that is due to come into force in April. But they have now accepted that if a parent is still looking after a disabled child after they reach adulthood, even if the child’s mental age is as low as eight, the parent and the child will be treated separately, and the parent will be subject to the benefits cap.

In the Commons last week the work and pensions minister Esther McVey said: “In practice most carers will be exempt [from the cap] because their partner or child is in receipt of disability living allowance.” She was then pressed by the Labour MP Andrew Gwynne to look at the rules again. He said: “Close reading of the regulations indicates that a household comprising parents and a disabled adult dependant receiving disability living allowance will not be exempt from the cap, despite the minister’s promises that they would be.”

McVey then admitted: “Should there be another adult in the house, that is then a separate household, so both have to be assessed separately.”

For the whole article, see Parents who look after grown-up disabled offspring face benefit cap