Disability Living Allowance is the main benefit for disabled children in England. It is not means-tested, it does not depend on a parent working or not working, and a child does not need a formal diagnosis to qualify. It is paid because a child needs more day-to-day care or supervision, or has more difficulty getting around, than other children their age.
More families are receiving it than ever. In August 2025, 860,000 children were getting DLA, and the number has roughly doubled over the last decade. This report sets out what the official figures from the Department for Work and Pensions, and analysis of them, show about who receives DLA, for what conditions, and what it actually pays.
A benefit that has doubled in a decade
The rise is not a recent blip. The number of children receiving DLA has been climbing steadily for years.
Resolution Foundation, Growing pressures (2024), analysis of DWP Stat-Xplore, England & Wales, November 2023
In England and Wales the child DLA caseload rose from 333,000 in 2013 to 682,000 in 2023, a rise of 104%. By 2023 that was around one in sixteen of all children aged nought to fifteen, double the proportion ten years earlier. In England specifically, the Institute for Fiscal Studies puts the share of under-sixteens on DLA at 7.2% in 2025, up from 3.4% in 2016.
The August 2025 figure of 860,000 covers Great Britain but excludes Scotland, which has replaced child DLA with its own Child Disability Payment. The decade comparison above is for England and Wales, from a Resolution Foundation analysis of the DWP data. We have labelled which geography each figure uses rather than mixing them.
What is driving the rise
The growth is concentrated in a small number of conditions. In 2023, four in five child DLA recipients, 544,000 of 682,000, had learning difficulties, a behavioural disorder, or ADHD recorded as their main condition. Those three categories have grown at very different speeds.
Resolution Foundation, Growing pressures (2024), analysis of DWP Stat-Xplore, England & Wales, November 2023
Cases where the main condition is a behavioural disorder have risen most sharply. It is worth knowing how the DWP records conditions, because the labels are not the ones families use: autism is counted inside “learning difficulties” rather than on its own, and ADHD appears under the older clinical term “hyperkinetic syndrome”. So there is no separate autism line in the child DLA data, even though rising autism and ADHD recognition sits behind much of the growth.
A condition label is not an eligibility test. DLA is awarded on the basis of the help a child needs, not their diagnosis. Two children with the same condition can receive very different awards, and a child with no formal diagnosis can still qualify.
What DLA actually pays
DLA has two parts: a care component, paid at three rates, and a mobility component, paid at two. A child can receive one or both. These are the weekly rates for the 2026/27 year.
gov.uk, Disability Living Allowance for children: rates (2026/27)
A child on the highest care rate and the higher mobility rate receives £194.60 a week, the maximum. Awards are weighted towards care rather than mobility, and towards the higher care rates: most child awards include the highest or middle care rate. Across England, the IFS estimates the average award is worth around £5,700 a year, though awards range from about £1,500 to £9,700.
DLA also matters beyond the payment itself: a DLA award can be a gateway to other support, including extra amounts in Universal Credit and access to the Motability Scheme for children on the higher mobility rate.
How to claim, and what to do if you are refused
If your child needs more care, supervision or help getting around than other children their age, it is worth claiming.
The DLA claim form is long, and it rewards detail. Describe your child’s worst days, not their average day, and say how often help is needed and how long it takes. Vague answers are the most common reason for a low award.
- Our step-by-step guide to applying for DLA explains who qualifies and how the form works, and using AI to fill in the DLA form helps you turn what you live with into the form’s own language.
- For condition-specific help, see DLA for an autistic child and DLA for a child with ADHD.
- If your claim has already been turned down, do not give up. What to do when a DLA claim is rejected walks through asking for the decision to be looked at again.
Methodology and sources
The headline caseload of 860,000 children under 16 and the total of 1.4 million DLA claimants are from the DWP’s official statistics, DWP benefit statistics: February 2026, at the August 2025 snapshot. These cover Great Britain and exclude Scotland.
The decade trend, the condition breakdown and the award-rate figures are from the Resolution Foundation’s report Growing pressures (2024), which analyses DWP Stat-Xplore data for England and Wales at November 2023. The 7.2% share of under-sixteens, the average award of around £5,700 a year, and the England-specific figures are from the Institute for Fiscal Studies’ 2025 Green Budget chapter on support for children with disabilities and special educational needs. The weekly rates are the 2026/27 rates published on gov.uk. The maximum weekly award is the highest care rate plus the higher mobility rate. Where figures come from different years or geographies, we have labelled each rather than blending them. Data accessed June 2026.