The Upper Tribunal has awarded the higher rate mobility component of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to a KDR client with severe ADHD with low IQ, speech and language difficulties, behavioural issues, anxiety, low self-esteem and autistic spectrum disorder traits.
The appeal was supported by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions who had commissioned a specialist medical report to help them decide whether to do so.
The case hinged around whether ADHD could constitute a “state of arrested development or incomplete physical development of the brain” under regulation 12(5) of the Social Security (Disability Living Allowance) Regulations 1991. In this particular case the Upper Tribunal decided that it did.
To get higher rate mobility on this basis any claimant must also have “severe impairment of intelligence and social functioning”. It’s also only possible to get higher rate mobility via this route if higher rate care is also in payment.
It is likely that this judgement will only benefit children at the most extreme end of the ADHD spectrum. To get higher rate mobility a claimant must not only demonstrate “severe mental impairment”, but also very severe behaviour problems.
You can read the full judgement here.