Not sure which forum this is best posted on. I am still relatively new to welfare rights so would really appreciate some help on this one. I have a customer who has a young daughter with a lactose and gluten intolerance. This adds a significant amount of expenditure onto her weekly shopping bill as she has to buy specialised food products. She is on Income Support so would receive free prescriptions, but her GP has advised her that he will/can not prescribe products. She also says that the chemist has told her that there is no help available. I feel that it must be possible for her to get some sort of assistance and I know that gluten free foods can be obtained on prescription. Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks.

In the past I had a client awarded DLA care on appeal for their child who was lactose intolerant. It was a while ago and I can't remember the details but it was argued that the close scrutiny of diet - checking ingredients etc. - was attention. This was an on going requirement as food manufacturers change ingredients often - so one day Xbrand of bacon flavour crisps OK the next not. Also supervision to ensure doesn't eat wrong things - sharing food with friends etc. Also attention dealing with the consequences - if he had injested lactose.

I read somewhere that the power to deliver specialised dietary foods to patients was going to transfer from GPs to pharmacies - all GPs were going to do was write a certificate saying a patient had an intolerance and then the pharmacy did the rest. Very sensible and of course it never happened.

http://www.info.doh.gov.uk/doh/point.nsf/0/bda34026c848af3b00256b6c0042f42a//Gluten%20Free.pdf

So the only route is through the GP and practices vary considerably. A client of ours whose surgery would only prescribe one loaf of bread per patient per week made a formal complaint to the practice manager and got the policy slightly loosened. But not much. Your client could also try and change practice.

As it is the child who has the problem the prescription would be for the child so all scripts are free anyway in that case.

There is unfortunately CSDLA/160/95 on the subject of phenylketonuria where the Commissioner argues that the 'policing of the plate' is not attention (but may be supervision) also see R(A) 1/91 and CSDLA /98/94 (uotes from from the Derby book).

I think that gluten-free foods can only be prescibed if the patient has coeliac disease. Food intolerances are not seen as endangering health and are often diagnosed by alternative practitioners rather than GPs. Therefore rather than going along the 'right to prescription foods' route I would suggest that the child needs more care than a child of his age without food intolerances, and specify the things that have to be done - home cooking with no ready-prepared meals, supervision of eating - even snacks, reading labels etc. Also coping with the sickness/diarrhoea/stomach cramps that occur when the food is inadvertently ingested.

Thank you all for your help and advice.

All much appreciated.

try the galactosaemia web site (the link is on the bureau computer otherwise I'd attach it) - they have some interesting arguments for claiming DLA linked to food intolerance. Hope it's some help.