Overview

Child Disability Payment provides support for the extra costs that a child with a disability might have.

You can apply for Child Disability Payment for a child under 16 with mental or physical disabilities.

You can also apply for Child Disability Payment if the child's disability has not yet been diagnosed. In such cases, you can tell Social Security Scotland about any symptoms they have and how they're affected.

Payment components and rates

Child Disability Payment is tax-free and made up of 2 components:

• care
• mobility

Children:

• over 3 may qualify for both the care and mobility component
• under 3 do not qualify for the mobility component

Care component

This has 3 different payment rates:

• lowest
• medium
• highest

Lowest

Is a weekly rate of £23.70 and paid if the child either:

• needs attention from someone, for a significant part of the day, in connection with their bodily functions due to a physical or mental disability
• is 16 or older and, due to a mental or physical disability, unable to prepare a cooked main meal for themselves

Middle

Is a weekly rate of £60.00 and paid if the child either:

• needs frequent attention from someone during the day, or prolonged or repeated attention at night, in connection with their bodily functions due to a physical or mental disability
• needs continual supervision during the day, or another person to be awake for a prolonged period or at frequent intervals at night, to avoid substantial danger to themselves or others
• gets renal dialysis treatment, during the day or at night, at least twice a week

Highest

Is a weekly rate of £89.60 and paid if the child either:

• needs frequent attention from someone during the day, and prolonged or repeated attention at night, in connection with their bodily functions due to a physical or mental disability
• needs continual supervision during the day, and another person to be awake for a prolonged period or at frequent intervals at night, to avoid substantial danger to themselves or others
• gets renal dialysis treatment, during the day and at night, at least twice a week
• is terminally ill

If you get the highest rate of the care component, you'll also get Child Winter Heating Assistance.

Mobility component

There are 2 payment rates for the mobility component:

• lower
• higher

Lower

Is a weekly rate of £23.70 and paid if the child:

• is 5 or over
• can walk, with or without equipment, but most of the time needs guidance or supervision from another person to move around outdoors

Higher

Is a weekly rate of £62.55 and for children 3 and over.

It’s paid if the child either:

• cannot walk, or is virtually unable to move around outdoors due to their disability

• has a severe visual disability or is blind and deaf
• has a severe mental health disability 
• has severe behavioural difficulties, due to a severe mental health disability, and needs supervision during the day and at night to avoid substantial danger to themselves or others
• would experience a serious deterioration in their health from the exertion of walking
• is terminally ill

If the child is entitled to the higher rate mobility component, you can apply to lease an accessible vehicle.

Questions you’ll be asked

Documents are available to download showing a sample of questions asked when applying for Child Disability Payment. They're for reference only and should not be used to make an application.