I called the tax credits. The guy I was talking to seemed a little unhelpful at first. I was explaining that I now get DLA and he said it wasn’t relevant as it is not counted as income for tax credits purposes. I said wasn’t there an extra allowance or something on the tax credits? He said yes, for a disabled child. Did I have a disabled child? I explained that I was told we had to be getting DLA to get this extra Tax Credit component. He said they are unrelated.
So he asked me how long my child had been disabled, and I told him he was born like it. He was incredulous. How long have you been getting tax credits? Why didn’t you put this down on the original claim form. I said we didn’t know and he had only just been diagnosed recently. Next question – how long has your son been disabled? As in when was he diagnosed? That’s easy, quick check of the calendar, 23rd April. That was when the consultant told me the diagnosis was Autistic Spectrum Disorder, so that is the date from which he is officially ‘disabled’.
Oh my God I have a disabled child!
Anyway, the now very nice man (who obviously realised I was a poor hopeless idiot with no understanding of the way in which tax credits work) explained that there was a disabled child allowance of £48.84 a week, which I was now entitled to, which would be backdated to the 23rd of April as that is when my son was diagnosed. Not related to the DLA after all. 12 or 13 weeks of back payment to come. Worth £586-634. Less 25% because we are still repaying an overpayment from 3 years ago when my husband had an extraordinary year because the AA was taken over by new people and they threw bonuses at the staff. If we’d waited until April we wouldn’t have owed them a thing because Good Old Gordon changed the increase of earnings limit from £2500 to £25000. But I realised we would be over the £2500 in the October and called them up…..well, I had to get a job and everything.
Mind you, that worked out for the best really, because it is a great job and it has served me well. Hopefully I have served them well too. But we probably couldn’t have managed without it over the last year. So never mind that wee matter of having to repay all that money. If we were less honest, or were foreign, we wouldn’t have had to pay a penny (foreigners being allowed to get away with over-payments on the basis that they may not have understood the forms – I am an intelligent woman who speaks English as a first language and I don’t understand the Tax Credits system. Isn’t it racist to say that only foreigners don’t understand it…?) but everything happens for a reason, so I’ll have to let them off.
Anyway, the point is, if you have a child with any form of disability (even if acknowledging the fact that it isa disability is the hardest thing for you) and your earnings are such that you are in the Tax Credits system, you can qualify for up to and extra £48.84 a week and it doesn’t seem to be related to whether you qualify for DLA. Anyway, you can call and ask, it doesn’t cost a lot and it could be worth a good income boost if you are at the lower end of the scale. In our position it is worth the full amount (less the aforesaid repayments for the overpayment, but that’ll be all done soon), but of course it is reduced at the same rate as the rest. Worth asking, anyway.
