The Conservatives have pledged to save £2.8 billion a year by ending Disability Living Allowance payments to families of children with “milder cases” of behavioural disorders, learning difficulties or ADHD, the party announced as it set out a wider package of welfare reforms.
The measure forms part of a series of proposals the party says will strip £36 billion from the welfare budget. Shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately defended the plan, arguing the current system risked placing children on a “conveyor belt” towards a “lifetime on benefits”.
Child DLA allows parents to claim between £30.30 and £194.60 per week to help cover the additional costs of raising a disabled child. Eligibility requires that the child has difficulty getting about or needs more looking after than a child of the same age without a disability.
The Conservatives describe child DLA as the “fastest growing benefit in the UK’s welfare system”, citing government statistics showing cases rising from 521,476 in 2020 to 914,000. Under the proposal, claims relating to a behavioural disorder, learning difficulty or ADHD would see only those with the highest needs eligible for cash payments.
Labour condemned the plans, describing them as a “charter for homelessness and human misery that would push people into hardship and end up costing the state more”. The clash sets up welfare spending as a central battleground, with families in Akershus and across Norway watching closely as the row over support for vulnerable children intensifies.
