Child DLA Eligibility and Age Rules: Who Qualifies and When

The basic eligibility test

Child DLA is available to children under 16 living in England, Wales, or Northern Ireland who have a physical or mental health condition, disability, or developmental difficulty that means they need substantially more care or supervision than a child of the same age without a disability. It's non-means-tested — your household income, savings, and earnings don't matter at all.

The child doesn't need a formal diagnosis. If your child is on an NHS waiting list for assessment and their daily care needs are already greater than their peers', that's enough to claim.

Age thresholds for each component

Child DLA has two parts — a care component and a mobility component — with different age rules for each.

Care component — claimable from birth. The test is whether your child needs more help with personal care, supervision, or safety than a non-disabled child of the same age. There are three tiers: lowest, middle, and highest rate.

Higher rate mobility — claimable from age 3. Your child may qualify through the walking test if they're unable or virtually unable to walk, or if the effort of walking would put their life at risk or be likely to lead to serious deterioration in health. A child may also qualify through the severe-mental-impairment test if they get the highest rate of care, have severe impairment of intelligence and social functioning resulting from arrested or incomplete brain development, and have extreme disruptive behaviour that regularly requires physical restraint to prevent injury to themselves or others or damage to property, and is so unpredictable that another person must be present and watching whenever they are awake.

Lower rate mobility — claimable from age 5. This covers children who can walk but need guidance or supervision most of the time when walking outdoors, significantly more than a non-disabled child of the same age. Think: a child who bolts into roads, panics in unfamiliar places, or can't judge traffic.

Babies and toddlers under 3

You can claim the care component from birth, but you'll need to show that your baby or toddler needs substantially more care than other children the same age. For very young children this can be harder to demonstrate because all babies need intensive care — but if your child needs tube feeding, constant monitoring for seizures, or specialist medical interventions that go well beyond standard newborn care, those are strong indicators.

No mobility component is available before age 3.

The qualifying period

Your child must have needed the extra care or mobility support for at least three months already (the retrospective qualifying period) and be expected to need it for at least six months more (the prospective period). This means conditions expected to last under nine months total may not qualify.

The exception: if your child has a terminal illness (life expectancy within 12 months under Special Rules for End of Life), the three-month retrospective period is waived entirely and the claim is fast-tracked.

Residence rules

For claims in England or Wales, your child must normally have lived in Great Britain for at least 6 of the last 12 months if over 3 years old, 26 of the last 156 weeks if between 6 months and 3 years old, or 13 weeks if under 6 months old. Northern Ireland has separate rules. Exemptions exist for refugees, people with humanitarian protection, and armed forces dependents.

Scotland is different

In Scotland, child DLA has been replaced by Child Disability Payment (CDP), administered by Social Security Scotland. CDP has its own rules and application process, and can continue after age 16 (unlike child DLA, which stops). If your child lives in Scotland, apply through Social Security Scotland.

Plan your claim around the age thresholds

The Child DLA Claim Guide includes an age-by-age eligibility checker so you know exactly which components to claim and when. Free help is also available from Contact (0808 808 3555) and Citizens Advice.

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