Night-time care and DLA for children

Updated 6 October 2026 · Checked against GOV.UK and the DLA claim form (DLA1 Child, 10/25)

Help your child needs after everyone in the house has gone to bed can count towards DLA. On its own, enough night-time help can meet one of the tests for the middle rate of the care component. The highest rate needs help both by day and at night. Here is when night starts, what counts and how to answer question 70.

When does night start?

The form's definition is simple: night is when everyone in the house is in bed. Its example is a child who goes to bed at 8pm while the parents go to bed at 11pm. Night starts at 11pm, and any help before then counts as help during the day.

So an hour spent settling your child after an 8pm bedtime goes in the daytime questions (question 54 covers settling in bed during the day). Waking at 2am and needing you is night help for question 70. DWP's guidance gives a similar example: a five-year-old taken to the toilet at 10pm, with parents going to bed at 11pm, needed daytime help. It also says households vary, so describe your usual pattern.

What counts as night-time help

In plain words, the law gives two ways to meet the night condition (section 72(1)(c) of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992). Your child needs either:

• attention from another person with bodily functions, such as the toilet, turning or treatment, that is prolonged or repeated; or
• someone awake for a long period, or at frequent intervals, to watch over them to avoid substantial danger to them or others.

The booklet puts the middle rate night test in everyday words: extra looking after more than once a night or once for about 20 minutes or more, or someone awake at night to watch over them several times or once for 20 minutes or more.

DWP's guidance adds that watching over does not mean looking at your child the whole time: it is enough to be awake for the purpose of watching over them. Frequent checks can also be bunched in one part of the night rather than spread through it.

Night-time help alone can count towards the middle rate. The highest rate needs both the day and the night conditions (section 72(4)), which GOV.UK describes as help or supervision throughout both day and night. GOV.UK also says you might qualify for Carer's Allowance if you spend at least 35 hours a week caring for a child who gets the middle or highest care rate.

Compared with children of the same age

Babies and young children wake at night too, and DWP's guidance says so directly: healthy children, especially very young ones, may wake for many reasons and need attention. For a child under 16 the help must be substantially more than a child of the same age normally needs, or a kind only younger children would need (section 72(1A)). The question is not whether your child wakes, but what they need when they do, how often and for how long.

Some children's needs may be substantially more from birth. DWP's guidance gives examples such as children who need regular suction because of a tracheostomy, children fed by tube and children who need oxygen regularly to survive. Care can be claimed from birth.

Wetting and soiling need care in how they are described. DWP's guidance says a young child's inability to do something because of immaturity is not a disability. It also says that if pads or nappies would remove the need for help, that night attention does not count. Its example where the help can count is a child with eczema who cannot wear pads, whose mother gets up once a night for 30 minutes to bathe him and change the bed. If pads or nappies do not solve the problem for your child, explain why.

Question 70, item by item

Question 70 first asks whether, due to a health condition or disability, your child wakes and needs assistance or supervision during the night. It then lists seven kinds of help:

• getting into or out of bed, or turning in bed;
• getting to and using the toilet, or managing nappies or pads;
• having treatment;
• settling or re-settling;
• supervision because they are unaware of danger or may harm themselves or others;
• supervision because they may wander about;
• supervision because they have behavioural problems.

For each one you give three numbers: on average how many nights a week, how many minutes each time and how many times a night. Write 0 for anything your child does not need help with. In the booklet's worked example, a child who wakes and wanders about has 1 for nights a week, 10 for minutes and 1 for times a night under wandering. Every box under behavioural problems is 0. Use question 72 for anything the boxes cannot show, such as what a typical waking looks like.

Examples worth describing

The booklet suggests telling the DWP if your child turns on taps or electrical equipment when awake, unlocks doors to go outside or disturbs others. Its other examples: becoming breathless and coughing more when lying down; needing propping up to sleep and checking they are still okay; night terrors.

For each, say what you do and how long it takes. 'He has night terrors' tells the DWP little. Compare: 'Three or four nights a week he screams and thrashes for about 20 minutes. I stay with him so he does not hurt himself, then settle him again, which takes another 15 minutes.' Use your own details and numbers.

Seizures at night

Question 65 asks about fits, blackouts, seizures and similar episodes, including hypos. As well as days, it asks how many nights on average each month they happen and how many fits your child has on those nights. It also asks about warnings, risk of harm afterwards and status epilepticus in the past 12 months.

Describe what you do during and after a night-time seizure: staying with them, keeping them safe, cleaning up if they are incontinent and settling them again. If you check on your child through the night because a seizure could happen without warning, say how often and why, as this may count as watching over to avoid danger.

Keeping a night log

Night-time help is easy to underestimate when you are exhausted. The booklet suggests keeping a diary and gives a night example: woke at 2:10, helped out of bed to the toilet, 15 minutes; had to stay until he settled, another 15 minutes. For one or two weeks, note for each night:

• the time everyone went to bed;
• the time of each waking and what happened;
• what you did and how many minutes it took;
• what would have happened if you had not been there.

Our free day and night care diary gives you a simple way to record this. Bring fair averages into question 70, not your best or worst week.

Evidence for night-time needs

Night-time help usually happens with nobody else around, so written evidence about it is worth gathering:

• letters or reports from the paediatrician, consultant or nurse that mention sleep, seizures or night-time treatment;
• a statement at question 38 from someone else who helps care for your child;
• aids used at night (question 41), such as a commode, with the help needed to use them;
• a copy of your night log if it shows the pattern clearly (the booklet lists diaries from carers or family members among the evidence you can send).

Send copies only. The care component normally needs the help to have lasted 3 months and to be likely to continue for at least 6 more. Our free DLA rate checker gives an honest likely band from your answers about days and nights.

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