Disability allowance for persons under 16 years of age
The requirement for the payment of the disability allowance is that the child has an illness or injury that requires treatment, care, and rehabilitation, that lasts at least six months and imposes particular strain and requires greater commitment than the care of a non-disabled child of the same age (KELA)
- A hearing-impaired child who is under school age, uses hearing aids, and needs treatment and rehabilitation to ensure language or other development, is usually paid basic disability allowance.
- Increased disability allowance can be paid if the degree of hearing impairment is severe and involves problems with speech or language development. In such cases the child usually receives regular speech therapy. They might also use augmentative and alternative communication methods.
- Highest disability allowance can be paid for the severely deaf-blind or children with severe hearing impairment as well as another disability.When writing the description, keep in mind that the children with hearing impairment and their situations are very different, so it is important to describe your own child’s situation and needs exactly as they are.
- As an attachment to the disability allowance application, it helps to write a separate description about the effect the hearing impairment and other potential impairments have on the strainfulness of every day life. You can find support for this at the Kela allowance instructions, which describe in accordance with the disability allowance requirements the strain and commitment required by the treatment, care and rehabilitation related to hearing impairment (p. 34).
