Child DLA Overpayment and Reporting Changes of Circumstances

What You Must Report

Once your child has a DLA award, you're legally required to tell the DWP about certain changes promptly. Failing to report can lead to overpayments that must be repaid — and in serious cases, civil penalties or prosecution.

Changes you must report include:

• A sustained improvement in your child's care or mobility needs. If your child's condition improves to the point where they no longer need the level of care the award was based on, that's reportable.
• A change of address. This includes moving within the UK or abroad.
• Planning to go abroad for more than 4 weeks. Short holidays don't need reporting, but extended stays do.
• A hospital stay or a stay in a care home. NHS hospital stays do not usually affect child DLA payments — the 84-day hospital rule was abolished for children in 2016. If a child is in a care home for more than 28 days, report a change in how the fees are funded, a temporary stay becoming permanent, or a move to another care home. Local authority funding can affect the care component.
• A change of appointee or the person receiving the payments.
• The child going into local authority care or moving to a different household.

Report changes to the DWP Disability Service Centre by phone. In Northern Ireland, contact the Department for Communities Disability and Carers Service.

What You Don't Need to Report

Short-term fluctuations in your child's condition are not changes of circumstances. DLA is assessed over an extended period and accounts for the fact that most conditions have good days and bad days. A good week doesn't mean you need to call the DWP.

A new diagnosis for the same underlying difficulties — such as an autism diagnosis for a child who was already receiving DLA based on behavioural and care needs — is not a change that would reduce the award. It might actually support a higher award if the diagnosis reveals needs that weren't previously documented.

How Overpayments Happen

Overpayments most commonly occur when:

• A child's needs genuinely improve but the parent doesn't report it, so payments continue at the old rate
• A family moves abroad without notifying the DWP
• A child enters local-authority-funded residential care and the care component should have been suspended after 28 days

The DWP can recover overpayments in full. Recovery is usually made by deducting from future benefit payments, though lump-sum repayment can be requested.

Penalties

If you do not report a change or a mistake, you might be paid too much and have to repay some of it. You might also have to pay a £50 penalty. Deliberately not reporting changes is benefit fraud.

When Needs Get Worse

If your child's condition worsens — they develop new care needs, their nights deteriorate, or they start needing more supervision — you can ask the DWP for a supersession to increase the award. This is different from a change of circumstances that might reduce payments.

A supersession request is essentially asking the DWP to look at the case again with new evidence. The existing award continues while the request is processed. For a change related to your child's disability, if you report it within one month after the 3-month qualifying period ends (or within any longer period DWP allows), the supersession takes effect from the first day after that period ends.

Staying Organised

Keeping a running record of your child's care needs — even informally — protects you in both directions. If needs worsen, the record supports a supersession request. If needs improve, reporting promptly prevents overpayment building up.

Our Child DLA Claim Guide includes an agency communication log for tracking every report, phone call, and response, so you always have a dated record of what was communicated and when.

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