Money matters
There are a number of benefits you may apply for if you care for a child with SEND. Whether you are eligible and how much you receive will depend on your family’s individual circumstances. This may include your income, your caring responsibilities, and your child’s needs or disability.
Benefits that may be available to parents/carers of all children include, there is additional information in the blue sections.
- Child Benefit – this is a benefit available to all parents with children aged up to 16 (or up to 20 if they continue in full-time education or training) and is paid at a standard rate per child.
- Guardians Allowance – a top-up to the weekly child benefit payment for carers who are bringing up a child whose parents have died.
- Universal Credit – a single benefit that is replacing several benefits that used to be awarded independently (including child tax credits, income support, and housing benefit)
Additional benefits that may be available for parents/carers of children with SEND include:
- Disability Living Allowance (DLA) – you may be able to claim this if your child (under 16) has a disability that impairs their mobility or requires much more looking after compared to a non-disabled child of the same age.
- Personal Independence Payment (PIP) – this is a benefit that may be available to people (aged over 16) with a disability that impairs mobility and/or requires help with day-to-day life.
- Carer’s Allowance – a weekly benefit that may be available to people who are full-time unpaid carers of a person with a disability or medical condition.
- Universal Credit – if you care for a disabled child, you may be eligible for additional funding through Universal Credit.
- Disabled Students’ Allowance – your child may be entitled to contributions towards any specialist equipment or support needed to pursue higher education courses.
- Disabled Facilities Grant - If you are disabled, or someone living with you is disabled, a Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) may help pay for your home to be adapted.
To calculate how much you may be entitled to in benefits, you can use the Turn2Us benefits calculator.
Havering Funding Arrangements
Funding for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in Havering comes from three main sources:
- The Local Authority
- The Dedicated Schools Grant
- The National Health Service
Funding from the Local Authority includes funds from the Government as well as money raised by the Council Tax. The spending is agreed by elected Council Members. For Children and young people with SEND this funding is largely used for social care services which includes social workers, short breaks and direct payments as well as residential placements. However it is also used for SEND transport and some other services for example educational psychologists.
The Dedicated Schools Grant is specifically for schools and other educational services specified in the conditions of the grant. Most of it goes directly to schools but a small amount is kept back for services provided by the local authority for example support for children with hearing impairment. Once the funding is distributed to schools it is up to the Head teacher and the Governors how it is spent. This funding pays for the support for children with SEND which is provided by the school. For children who require considerable additional support a school's budget can be topped up from the small amount kept back by the Local Authority. This funding is also used to pay for out of borough placements.
Funding from the NHS goes to the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) who then commission the services to be provided for SEND. Most of these services, for example therapies, are currently provided by the North East London Foundation Trust (NELFT) however this is currently under review and so a more detailed explanation will be provided in the near future.
In common with other Local Authorities Havering is currently considering how these funding streams can be put together to maximise the amount of support available to children and young people with SEND.