Third of families with disabled children have gone into debt trying to access care
A THIRD of families with disabled children have gone into debt trying to access care.
Half have spent more than £10,000 fighting for basic support their kids are entitled to for free, a survey shows.
Others have plundered cash in pensions or borrowed to pay for services such as education or mobility support — four in ten seeing savings wiped out.
The survey, by campaign group Let Us Learn Too and the Disabled Children’s Partnership, piles more pressure on ministers to fix social care.
It comes after The Sun’s Give It Back campaign won 10,000 extra respite places for families of disabled youngsters.
NHS scientist Alan Courtney and his wife Gillian, both 44, from Cheam, Surrey, took their local council to tribunal to secure an assessment for their autistic son Nathaneal, eight.
They then sued the Department for Work and Pensions for mobility allowance owed to daughter Amelia, five.
Alan said: “Everything is a battle for money with needless tribunals and court cases that waste money and time. For Amelia, time’s not on her side.”
Stephen Kingdom, of the Disabled Children’s Partnership, said: “Families are having to fight a system that should be there to help their children. They shouldn’t have to use their savings.”
Hayley Harding, the co-founder of Let Us Learn Too, said: “We’ve heard from families who had to sell their home.”