DISABILITY LIVING ALLOWANCE FOR CHILDREN IN HOSPITAL

Motion Text

That this House expresses its concern at the suspension of disability living allowances (DLA) for children spending more than 84 days in hospital; congratulates the Contact a Family and The Children's Trust's campaign, Stop the DLA Takeaway, to restore DLA payments for those children; recognises that the NHS does not cover all of the child's expenses during their stay in hospital; notes that if a child's DLA is suspended, the parent's carer's allowance is also stopped; further notes the increased expenses experienced by families during this time, including parents' loss of earnings, travel, parking, childcare for siblings and meals away from home; believes that this can be financially devastating to vulnerable families at a particularly difficult time; acknowledges that disabled children who spend such long periods in hospital are likely to have complex disabilities and will therefore require the kind of one-to-one support that even the most well-resourced hospital wards do not provide; and further recognises that parents not only want to be but are required to be with their child in hospital, but are presently financially penalised for doing so.