Child Disability Payment decision making guide

Disengagement

You must use discretion and judgment where an individual or person acting on their behalf:

  • is uncooperative about providing supporting information
  • has not responded to us

If the individual has disengaged, you should use discretion to make a person-centred decision based on the individual’s situation, and consider:

  • good cause
  • the balance of probabilities
  • a case discussion

Every effort must be made to:

  • contact the individual to explain that a lack of information may cause delays and impact their determination
  • understand or explain gaps or inconsistencies using decision-making tools

The individual might fail to supply requested supporting information as part of their review. You must use judgement and discretion to consider whether their assistance should be suspended.

You should ensure you have consulted and follow the guidance in relation to suspensions before suspending assistance.

The role of local delivery teams

Local Delivery staff can offer support to individuals making an initial application who:

  • need support to gather supporting information
  • have no support networks

You should only refer an individual to Local Delivery:

  • before part 2 of an application is started
  • after part 2 of an application is received (but only if Local Delivery have already been involved in the case)

Before making a referral, you should consider if:

  • an application is not detailed enough
  • local delivery have not been involved
  • other decision-making tools have been used first

Deadlines

You should set a deadline for the individual to respond to a request for information only if:

  • you’ve made every effort to contact the individual by other means
  • more additional supporting information is strictly necessary to determine an individual’s eligibility to Child Disability Payment

Suspensions

You may need to suspend an individual’s entitlement to Child Disability Payment.

Suspensions can happen as part of any determination where:

  • the individual has ongoing entitlement (known as a ‘scheduled review’)
  • a decision must be made without an application or review form (known as an ‘unscheduled review')
  • the individual has failed to provide requested information by the end of the period you set and the information is required for you to make the determination

You should refer to the guidance on gaps and inconsistencies when considering whether the information you have requested is required to make a determination.

You should always try to ensure that the invite is sent prior to or during the reminder stage. Where this is not possible, it must at least be sent before a suspension.

In suspending payment of Child Disability Payment, you should make a further request for the information. The request should note that, if the individual fails to supply the information by the new deadline, you may then determine that the individual is no longer entitled to Child Disability Payment.

Where an individual has an existing entitlement to Child Disability Payment, you may need to end the individual's award if the individual fails to supply the necessary supporting information. However you must carefully follow the guidance in the suspensions chapter (Ending entitlement after a further request for information section) if you are going to do that.

Sign up to our newsletter

If you are an organisation or individual who works with people who may need information or support on any of our benefits, sign up to our stakeholder newsletter.

We'll never send you content you haven’t asked for and you can opt out at any time.

Please enter a valid email address

Read our privacy policy