Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the report entitled, The Disability Price Tag 2019, published by Scope in February 2019, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that all families with disabled children receive adequate support under universal credit to help meet additional costs.

The disabled child addition (DCA) is intended to provide extra support as caring responsibilities can mean parents of disabled children are less able to take up work and may need extra support for longer periods than others.

In order to provide families with disabled children an adequate amount of support to meet additional costs, payment have been aligned through two different rates which are dependent on the rate of DLA/PIP the child is in receipt of.

A disabled child that is entitled to the lower rate will receive £126.11 a month and a disabled that is entitled to the higher rate will receive £383.86 per month. These rates are both payable on top of the Child Element in Universal Credit.      

The total amount of tax free, state support available to a higher rate DLA care and mobility child, together with child benefit and Universal Credit can be worth over £16,000.