People who are profoundly deaf or deafened may be able to claim Disability Living Allowance (if under 65) or Attendance Allowance (if over 65).

In order to qualify for these you need to require help from another person in order to live a normal live. If you think about it, a deaf person needs help from everyone they talk to, whether it be slower and clearer speech, stopping what they are doing to look at the deaf person, moving to a better-lit position, being in the same room, writing it down, using more gestures, etc.

The forms that need to be filled in to claim for these allowances can be quite long and daunting, so it may be advisable to seek help with filling them in. This help may be obtained from Citizen’s Advice Bureaux or the Benefits Agency.

The Government provides information about the DLA and AA on its website.

Action on Hearing Loss provides useful factsheets on various benefits. Click here to see their factsheets on benefits. Their factsheets include:

• Disability Living Allowance
• Attendance Allowance
• Challenging Disability Living Allowance and Attendance Allowance Decisions
  

Some deaf people who have claimed DLA or AA have been turned down at the first attempt, but have gone on to appeal successfully.

 

One profoundly deafened person who applied for DLA said that she was turned down initially. Her advice is to seek help right from the start from someone who knows how to fill in the forms and the correct sort of wording to use. She also said it is important not to play down your problems with communication because of your deafness – this is what she felt she did on her first application for DLA because she “did not want to appear to be whingeing about my problems”. For the appeal, she felt the person who helped her indicated the communication problems she faced in everyday life much more strongly and in more detail. The appeal was successful and she is now in receipt of DLA.

 

Changes to Disability Living Allowance

From 2013 the Disability Living Allowance for people aged 16 - 64 will be replaced by a new Personal Independence Payment. To see more information on the Personal Independence Payment on the Government's website click here.