Anger over child's benefit move

A six-year-old boy with a serious heart condition has had his disability living allowance stopped. The County Londonderry child has had open heart surgery three times, and is now waiting for a fourth operation. The boy's mother Anne gave up her job to care for him and is now living on income support.

In a statement, the Department of Social Development said that because of of the Data Protection Act they could not comment on individual cases. "It's very hard for the upkeep of a car and it's something I can't do without and I have had to borrow money," Anne said. "He gets very cold very quickly, far quicker than you or I would get cold, so when we are at home I need to make sure that I always have a supply of oil and it's hard with the oil being so pricey as it is."

The family are being helped by Sinn Féin councillor Billy Leonard, who said many genuine applicants are not getting what their entitlement. Mr Leonard said they suspected there was a policy to cut back on DLA recipients and that he had informed DSD Minister Margaret Ritchie's office of this case. "We have been in appeal situations where very, very genuine cases have been heard and they have been disallowed, but on appeal upheld, one of my colleagues described it as a cull of DLA cases," he said.

One of the complications of this case is that when the family appealed the decision to cut off the DLA the paperwork was lost. The DSD spokesperson said they would write separately to Mr Leonard on the processing of this particular case. They said that about 173,000 people in Northern Ireland were in receipt of the tax-free benefit. "The assessment of whether they are entitled and to what level of entitlement they have is done by decision makers at the Social Security Agency, who have access to specialist medical advisors,'' it said.