Scheme of Personal Assistance Allowance to Differently Abled Persons with High Support Need

What is the personal assistance allowance for high support need?

Scheme of Personal Assistance Allowance to Differently Abled Persons with High Support Need is a caregiver allowance run by the Department for the Welfare of Differently Abled Persons, Government of Tamil Nadu. It was started during 2019 and is administered through the Commissionerate for Welfare of the Differently Abled and the District Differently Abled Welfare Offices.

The scheme recognises a cost that other disability benefits do not touch. Where a person's disability is severe enough that they cannot be left alone, someone in the household has to give up paid work to care for them. The department describes the scheme as encouraging assistance to the caregiver who supports the persons affected with severe disabilities, and provides financial assistance of Rs 1,000 per month to the care taker who supports a differently abled person with high support need.

The eligibility gate is the Assessment Board. The department states that this assistance is given based on the recommendations of the Assessment Board and certified as "differently abled persons with high support need". This is a specific certification and it is different from an ordinary disability percentage on a disability certificate.

Scale. In 2024-25 an expenditure of Rs 1,702.01 lakh was incurred to benefit 14,987 beneficiaries. Rs 1,547.16 lakh is provided in the Budget Estimate for 2025-26.

Who is eligible, and who is excluded?

You can apply if:

• You are the caregiver, the person actually supporting a differently abled person in daily life, typically a parent, spouse, sibling or adult child.
• The person you care for is certified as a differently abled person with high support need on the recommendation of the Assessment Board.
• The person you care for holds a disability certificate from the appropriate certifying medical authority, and the National Identity Disability Card or UDID card issued for 40 per cent and above disability.
• You are a resident of Tamil Nadu and apply in the district where you live.
• You have a bank account that can receive Direct Benefit Transfer.

You cannot apply if:

• The person you care for has not been assessed and certified as having high support need. A severe disability percentage alone is not sufficient; the Assessment Board certification is the operative document.
• You are not the actual caregiver. The allowance follows the person doing the caring, not the household in general.
• The differently abled person is living in a government or aided institution where full-time care is already provided. Tamil Nadu runs 22 government residential special schools, rehabilitation homes and halfway homes where residents receive care, food and medical services directly.
• You have no disability certificate for the person you care for.

How to apply for the personal assistance allowance

1. Get the disability certificate for the person you care for. Certificates are issued by the appropriate certifying authority for the particular disability, at medical boards in Government Medical College Hospitals, District Headquarters Hospitals, Taluk and non-Taluk hospitals, and at special camps. The State Resource cum Training Centres at Chennai and Tiruchirappalli also issue disability certificates and the NIDC.
2. Apply for assessment as high support need. Ask the District Differently Abled Welfare Officer to place the case before the Assessment Board. This is the step that decides the application, and it is the one families most often skip.
3. Collect the application form for the personal assistance allowance from the District Differently Abled Welfare Office.
4. Attach the documents, the disability certificate, the Assessment Board recommendation, the NIDC or UDID card, your own Aadhaar and bank passbook as the caregiver, proof of your relationship or caregiving role, and residence proof.
5. Submit the application to the District Differently Abled Welfare Officer, or through an e-Sevai centre where the department directs departmental applications, and keep the acknowledgement.
6. Follow up on scrutiny. The District Differently Abled Welfare Officer scrutinises the case before sanction.
7. Check your bank account once sanctioned. Departmental allowances are credited by Direct Benefit Transfer.

What documents are required?

How to get a case before the Assessment Board

Because the Assessment Board certification is what the scheme turns on, it is worth setting out separately:

1. Approach the District Differently Abled Welfare Officer with the existing disability certificate and a written request for assessment as high support need.
2. Attend the assessment with the differently abled person. The board looks at the degree of dependence in daily activities, not only at a percentage figure.
3. Where the disability is intellectual, or involves cerebral palsy, autism spectrum disorder or multiple disabilities, take along any records from the Early Intervention Centre, special school or the State Resource cum Training Centre where the person has received services.
4. Collect the board's recommendation in writing; this is what goes into the allowance file.

Why applications get rejected or the allowance stops

• No Assessment Board certification. The single most common reason. A high disability percentage on its own does not establish high support need.
• Caregiver's bank account not Aadhaar-seeded, so the DBT transfer fails.
• Disability certificate expired, where a temporary certificate has not been renewed at a medical board.
• Change in circumstances, the person cared for has been admitted to an institution, or the caregiver has changed, and the record has not been updated.
• Duplicate claim by two people in the same household for the same person.

Related schemes worth knowing

• Maintenance allowance — Rs 2,000 per month to the differently abled person, given on the basis of a medical certificate without considering income, paid by DBT before the 5th of every month. 2,50,987 beneficiaries received it in 2024-25.
• Unemployment allowance for differently abled persons unemployed for more than a year after registering with the employment exchange, paid by educational qualification for 10 years.
• Marriage assistance: Rs 25,000 with an 8-gram gold coin, rising to Rs 50,000 where either spouse is a graduate or diploma holder.
• Interest-free bank loan up to Rs 1.50 lakh for a beneficiary's contribution towards a government-allotted house, over 5 years.
• Early Intervention Centres for children with disabilities below 6 years to 93 centres with 290 special educators serving 2,466 children.
• Rehabilitation homes for spinal cord injured persons at Tiruppur, Coimbatore and Thiruvannamalai, and rehabilitation homes for intellectually disabled and mentally ill persons.

Help and grievance

• Toll-free helpline: 1800-425-0111, exclusively for differently abled persons, at the State Resource cum Training Centre, Chennai.
• Hearing impaired: WhatsApp video call 9499933703.
• District level: the District Differently Abled Welfare Officer, in all 39 districts.
• State level: Commissionerate for Welfare of the Differently Abled, Chennai: scd.tn.gov.in.

There is no fee for the assessment or the allowance application, and no agent can secure an Assessment Board certification.

How to check your application status

This allowance is sanctioned entirely offline, through the District Differently Abled Welfare Office, so there is no portal login or SMS tracking number to check. Follow up through these channels instead.

1. Keep your acknowledgement. When you submit the application, or the file goes forward for Assessment Board review, the District Differently Abled Welfare Office issues a receipt or diary number. Quote this every time you follow up; without it, staff have to search the file manually.
2. Ask about the Assessment Board stage first. Since the allowance cannot be sanctioned before the person you care for is certified as having high support need, the first thing to check is whether the case has actually been placed before the Assessment Board, and whether the board has met and recorded a recommendation. This step, not the allowance paperwork itself, is where most files sit for the longest.
3. Visit or call the District Differently Abled Welfare Officer. This office holds the physical file and can tell you whether the application is pending scrutiny, awaiting the Assessment Board's recommendation, sanctioned and sent for Direct Benefit Transfer mapping, or returned for a missing document.
4. Use the state helpline for a second check. Call the toll-free number 1800-425-0111, run from the State Resource cum Training Centre in Chennai, if the district office is unresponsive or you want to escalate a delay. Hearing-impaired applicants can use the WhatsApp video call number 9499933703.
5. Check your bank account directly once you expect sanction. Because payment is by Direct Benefit Transfer, a sanctioned case shows up as a credit rather than a status message. If the Assessment Board recommendation is confirmed but no credit appears for two to three months after that, that gap itself is what you should raise with the district office, since it usually points to a bank account or Aadhaar-seeding problem on file rather than a pending decision.
6. For a state-level grievance, if the district office gives no clear answer, write to or visit the Commissionerate for Welfare of the Differently Abled in Chennai, whose details are on scd.tn.gov.in.