Nursery World - Autism benefits 'too hard to get'

Children who have autism spectrum disorders are being deprived of their entitlement to support services and benefits because of the complexity of accessing them, according to a report by the National Autistic Society. Autism: Rights in Reality, published last week to coincide with Autism Awareness Week, said people with autism and Asperger's syndrome 'don't fit the current ways of thinking about disability nor the eligibility used to measure the support needs of people with disabilities and their families'.

Autism: Rights in Reality, published last week to coincide with Autism Awareness Week, said people with autism and Asperger's syndrome 'don't fit the current ways of thinking about disability nor the eligibility used to measure the support needs of people with disabilities and their families'.

It found that more than a third of carers (36 per cent) openly admitted that they did not understand the benefits system, and almost two-thirds (64 per cent) of those who had claimed benefits encountered problems filling out the forms.

But where people were able to get some help, they had to fight for it. Of those receiving disability living allowance, 30 per cent had gone to appeal to get the right rate, rising to 45 per cent among families on low incomes.

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