Child Disability Payment (CDP)

You can claim the care component if your child needs more help or supervision compared with a child of the same age without disabilities. For deaf children, this can include help with things like:

• hearing, speech
• lipreading
• making themselves understood
• extra help at school
• extra supervision they may need to keep them safe, for example, for young children to stop them putting their hearing technology in their mouth.

The care component is £29.90, £73.90 or £110.40 a week.

You can claim the mobility component if your child is at least five years old and needs more guidance or supervision when walking outdoors than a child of the same age without disabilities.

If your child has physical problems with walking or another disability, in addition to their deafness, they may qualify from age 3. For more information about claiming the higher rate mobility component, visit the Contact website.

The mobility component is £29.20 or £77.05 a week.

To claim CDP your child must live in Scotland or another qualifying country (mygov.scot).

Citizen's Advice Scotland has more information about the residence and immigration rules that apply.

If your child attends a residential school, you can still claim CDP. However, if their accommodation is publicly funded and they spend 28 full days (midnight to midnight) in a row at school, payment of the care component of your award will be stopped.

Contact has more information about CDP and stays away from home.

If your child receives DLA and you move to Scotland, you must inform DWP. DWP will contact SSS. 

You will continue to receive DLA until a decision is made on your entitlement to CDP.

If you need help accessing or filling in the application form you can contact the free SSS Local Delivery service (mygov.scot). A specially trained client support adviser can answer any questions you have in a meeting at your home, in your local community, over the phone or a video call.

Alternatively, if you have questions about how to fill in the form for your deaf child you can contact our free Helpline by phone, text (SMS), SignVideo (video call with a BSL interpreter), contact form or live chat. If English isn't your first language, we can call you back with an interpreter in your preferred language for free.

You can complete Part 1 and Part 2 online.

You can call SSS to complete Part 1. They will then send you a paper form to complete Part 2.

Attention is the practical help you give to your child when they are present. This could include help with communication and language development or removing and fitting hearing technology.

Supervision means being present to avoid accidents or harm to your child or others.

If your child can’t do things that a child their age would normally be expected to do, give details on the form. If you know a hearing child of a similar age, it may help to make a comparison. Think about all the things you do for your deaf child that you wouldn’t need to for a hearing child of the same age.

Try to record each time you give your child more attention and supervision because of their deafness. This is what’s important for SSS when deciding whether your child is awarded CDP. It may be helpful for you to keep a journal for two or three days to remind yourself of the extra help you give your deaf child.

Here are some examples of extra attention or supervision.

• If your child is very young or a baby, making sure they don’t put parts of their hearing devices in their mouth.
• Refitting the hearing devices your child uses.
• Attracting your child’s attention before speaking to them.
• Repeating things because they haven’t heard you.
• Teachers needing to repeat what other children have said in class.
• Additional help with learning to make sure they don’t fall behind their peers.
• Being within touching distance of them when outside because they can’t hear you call them from a distance or hear sounds from behind, such as a car or cyclist approaching.

One of the legal tests for the care component of CDP is how much supervision a child needs. A child will be entitled to the middle rate of the care component if ‘the individual is so severely disabled physically or mentally that they require from another person [...] continual supervision throughout the day in order to avoid substantial danger to the individual or others.’ This is set out in the Disability Assistance for Children and Young People (Scotland) Regulations 2021 – Reg 11(c)(ii).

Continual supervision means frequent or regular, but not nonstop. Your child does not need to be supervised every single minute.

This legal test is relevant to deaf babies and young children who need to be supervised because of the risk of substantial danger from swallowing all or part of a hearing aid or cochlear implant processor, which contains a small button battery. This also includes potential risk to other children, who may pick up or swallow parts of hearing aids or cochlear implant processors if they’re removed or fall out, for example when children are playing.

If it's relevant to your child, you should include information about button battery safety. The audiology department at Great Ormond St Hospital have an information sheet about button battery safety and National Services Scotland (NSS) have produced a safety action notice about the risk of harm to babies and children from coin/button batteries in hearing aids and other hearing devices (SAN(SC)19/04).

• Medical reports or letters of identification, such as hearing test results, audiograms, discharge letters from hospitals, or cochlear implant mapping reports.
• Details of any other conditions your child may have, their severity and the effect they have.
• A daily diary of the additional care and attention your child requires because of their deafness and/or their additional needs.
• Test results or certificates, care or treatment plans, and therapies or adaptations.
• Social care or social work assessments.
• Educational support plans or reports or letters from your child’s school.
• The supporting information form filled out by someone who knows or cares for your child.

If your application has been successful, your decision determination letter will include:

• the rate you've been awarded
• the date payments will start
• the date SSS will review your award.

CDP awards do not have an end date. It will be paid until a new determination is made following a review.

CDP reviews

CDP awards do not have an end date. It will be paid until a new determination is made following a review. SSS will specify a review date in the determination letter. These are called ‘scheduled reviews’.

Reviews should be light touch, which means that SSS will look at the information you have already provided. They may ask you to provide up-to-date supporting evidence if they consider it necessary.

A new determination following a review may reduce or end your CDP. If this happens, you may be entitled to short-term assistance (mygov.scot) if you are challenging that determination.

SSS may review your CDP award earlier, if your child’s circumstances change. This is called an ‘unscheduled review’. Find out more about reporting a change in circumstance (mygov.scot).

Re-determination (mygov.scot) is the process SSS uses to review a benefit determination. A different case manager will look at the determination to refuse an application or the amount awarded and will make a new determination.

The letter you received will include a determination report. The decision report is where SSS explain their determination and acts as a record of your answers to the questions in the application form and the supporting information you provided. Read it carefully. If you ask for a re-determination, you should point out anything in your decision report that is wrong or inaccurate.

You have 42 days to submit your re-determination form. If you miss the 42-day time limit, you can still ask for a re-determination but you will have to explain why your request is late. You should give a good reason why your request is late. A good reason may include health issues or waiting for an advice appointment about the determination. SSS might not accept a late re-determination without a good reason.

SSS have 56 days to complete the re-determination.

Find out more about challenging a disability benefit determination in Scotland.

If you’re unhappy with the outcome of the re-determination, you have 31 days from the decision to appeal. If you miss this, you can still appeal but you must explain why your request is late. You should give a good reason why your appeal is late. A good reason may include health issues or waiting for an advice appointment about the re-determination. The tribunal will decide whether to accept your late appeal.

If SSS have taken longer than 56 days to complete a re-determination you can also ask for an appeal. You should receive a letter informing you of your right to appeal directly to an independent tribunal.

Your appeal is decided by the First-tier Tribunal, which is independent of SSS. You can choose whether to attend the Tribunal in person, have a remote hearing by phone or video call, or have the appeal decided on the papers. If you have a hearing, you will be asked questions about your child. Your child will not attend or be asked any questions.

Find out more about challenging a disability benefit determination in Scotland.