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Children with disabilities - can you get extra tax credits?

If your child has a disability, or if you're responsible for a child with a disability, you may qualify for extra Child Tax Credit.

Who can get the extra money?

You can get extra Child Tax Credit if any one of the following applies:

  • Disability Living Allowance is paid for your child
  • your child is registered blind
  • your child came off the blind register in the 28 weeks before you claimed tax credits

If the Highest Rate Care Component of Disability Living Allowance is paid for your child, you may get an additional payment for their severe disability.

You can still qualify for the extra money even if the Disability Living Allowance stops because your child goes into hospital.

How much will you get?

The amount of extra Child Tax Credit you get depends on how much care your child needs. In this tax year - 6 April 2012 to 5 April 2013 - you could get up to approximately:

  • £2,950 a year, that is around £57 a week, if your child is disabled
  • £4,140 a year, that is around £80 a week, if your child is severely disabled

The amount you get also depends on other money you have coming in.

Disability Living Allowance doesn't count as income when your tax credits are worked out

Other benefits like Carer's Allowance do count as income and can reduce your tax credit payments

To find out more about how much you may get, use the online calculator or call the Tax Credit Helpline.

How to claim

If you're not currently getting tax credits

To claim you'll need to fill in a claim form. You can only get a claim form by ringing the Tax Credit Helpline. You should send in your claim form as soon as you think you qualify for tax credits.

If you are already getting tax credits

If you now want to claim extra tax credits because your child has a disability, ring the Tax Credit Helpline. You should do this as soon as you know that Disability Living Allowance (or the Highest Rate Care Component) will be paid for your child. Contact the helpline within one month of finding out, to make sure that you get your payments backdated to the earliest possible date.

More useful links

Provided by HM Revenue and Customs