‘I’m terrified how me and my disabled son will cope when youngster advantages cease’
A mum whose disabled son’s advantages have been slashed when he stopped being classed as a toddler stated she is “literally terrified” how she’s going to cope.
Samantha Tolmie is pleading with Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to supply extra help for households with disabled youngsters who’re left worse off when their youngster advantages finish. Her son Lewis was recognized with a uncommon terminal dysfunction, Batten illness, as a child and requires 24/7 care.
Until now, he acquired £202 per week, made up of kid tax credit of round £178 and youngster advantage of £24 per week, in accordance with Contact, a charity working with households with disabled youngsters. But after turning 20 on the finish of February, Lewis is not eligible and should as an alternative apply for Universal Credit.
Contact stated it means the household’s profit earnings for Lewis is about to be reduce by round 1 / 4 to £157 every week. Child Tax Credits often cease after a toddler turns 16 however can proceed till 20 years outdated, as in Lewis’s case, in sure circumstances.
Ms Tolmie, 54, who lives in Doncaster, has additionally seen her housing profit and council tax profit decreased as Lewis is now classed as a non-dependent residing in dwelling. The mum, who can not work as she cares full time for her son, stated she pays round £500 a month for electrical energy as Lewis wants a spread of life help together with two ventilators, an oxygen concentrator and two feeding pumps which all have to be plugged in and working always.
In a letter to Mr Hunt forward of his Budget on Wednesday, Ms Tolmie has known as for an “energy social tariff” for households who’re reliant on life-saving electrical tools. She has additionally urged him to make sure households with disabled youngsters aren’t worse off beneath Universal Credit and for him to organise a sequence of cost-of-living funds for disabled households.
Around 40% of households with disabled youngsters are worse off since claiming Universal Credit, in accordance with Contact’s 2021 survey of just about 3,000 UK households with disabled youngsters.
“I never get a break from being Lewis’s 24/7 mummy to my son – like most mums, my children are everything and I have given my life over to keeping Lewis happy and safe for as long as he chooses to be here,” Ms Tolmie stated. “Everyone who meets Lewis can see his sparkly personality and how much he wants to be here. That is why I do what I do – like all mums.”
She stated having their Child Tax Credits ended, which is their largest profit earnings, is “truly frightening”, including: “I am a single parent and Lewis has a terminal disease. It’s not possible for me to go out and get a job as I am a carer 24/7. “There is nowhere else we can get money from. I am literally terrified and too afraid to think about how we are going to cope financially when our financial support drops… when we are due to move over to Universal Credit.”
Ms Tolmie added that the system “is unbearably complicated” for younger disabled individuals in training transferring over to Universal Credit. “Lewis is clearly unable to ever work and yet we have to go through processes including an interview for fitness to work,” she stated. “It feels cruel for families already under enormous pressure to try to work out how to claim these benefits, and to try and pull together all the information and ‘evidence’ required.”
A Government spokesman stated: “We know the challenges families are facing, which is why we are increasing disability benefits by 6.7% in April and are providing a £104 billion support package – worth an average £3,700 per household, including cost of living payments. We have also delivered on our promise to halve inflation so that everyone’s money goes further.”
