Income Support - Disabled Child Premium

Hello,

I have a cl. who wants to know whether they will continue to get the Disabled Child Premium in their Income Support if their child goes into residential college and loses the care component of their DLA.
The DMG (Chapter 23 - Normal amount payable) says:

Qualifying conditions
23242   A DCP should be paid for each child or young person who
1.      the claimant or the claimant’s partner is responsible for and
2.      is a member of the claimant’s household and
3.      is disabled and
4.      does not have capital over £3000
5.      is not a long term patient

23243   For DCP purposes children or young persons should be treated as disabled if they
are
1.      in receipt of DLA

Two questions:

1. The above DMG seems to imply that if the DLA care component was lost, then the DCP may still be able to continue if a mobility component is still being claimed by the child in the residential college. Is this right?
2. The DMG makes reference to the claimant being responsible for the child and the child being a member of the claimants household in order for the claimant to receive a DCP. Is it not also necessary for the child to be included in the claim? The only reason I ask this is because CPAG says this is the case on p.228. Also, CPAG interprets IS Reg 16 (7) of IS Regs as saying that where a child is away from the parental home to attend school then the child cannot be included in the IS claim, but remains a member of his parents household.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

I think you might be reading the CPAG interpretation of R16(7) IS Regs incorrectly (unless I’ve misread your post - I assume you’re looking at the last paragraph of chapter 11 p2 on 215).

I took this interpretation (and r16(7)) to refer to 2 separate households claiming benefit.

I take it to mean that a child staying away from their usual family (1) and staying with another family (2) in order to attend school cannot be included in family 2’s claim for benefits but remains a member of family 1 where this is the family that is responsible for the child and where the child would ‘usually’ reside.

I think important issues not mentioned are who is paying for the child’s residential care/education? How long are they going to be there for? Are they there 7 days a week? Are they under the care of the LA etc. ?

Hi,

I think your interpretation is absolutely correct. The issue this has now been resolved.

Thanks.