State benefits for children with SLCN

Do children with speech and language impairments qualify for DLA? How do you apply?

Disability Living Allowance (DLA) is a social security benefit designed to help pay for the extra costs that having a disability entails. It is not means-tested and can be claimed by both adults and children. In the case of children, parents are generally responsible for applying for the benefit and receiving the payments.

A significant speech and language impairment is a sufficiently severe disability to qualify for DLA. However, demonstrating this on an application form is not necessarily straightforward. So Afasic has published a leaflet to guide parents through the application process, called Claiming benefits for children with speech and language impairments. This leaflet is available to purchase here https://afasic.org.uk/product/claiming-benefits-for-children-with-speech-and-language-impairments/