Disability Living Allowance

Well done for having the guts to persevere. After DH's ESA debacle last year I resolved never to "ask" for anything ever again so that some jobsworth could make me feel about 1/2 inch high or like Oliver Twist. Suspect entitled to Blue Badge for DH but find the whole application process too humiliating.

This is why we pay NI so everyone who needs it is entitled to it.

Today this was discussed on the radio and it think it was something like 40% of appeals are unheld so it is certainly worth doing. Good for you.

vamp it sounds as though you never got to appeal. It seems to have been reviewed in house. If you appeal and opt dor an oral appeal you go before a tribunal of three people
A lawyer
A doctor
A person who has experience of disability.
They review all the evidence, question you as to your needs, invite you to put in any supporting evidence you have!
They can also commission other reports GP notes or commission an examination
When they are satisfied, they discuss the case and come to conclusion.
The percentage of successful appeals is higher in people who opt for an oral rather than paper tribunals!

Also get proper help in completing the form. Many people do not fill it in correctly

Vampire, your story is all too familiar from my experience with CAB. I am frequently staggered that some person in an office can ignore the reports given by medical professionals. But they do. Appealing is a stressful procedure and not good for anyone who is in need of help, but always worth pursuing. Also it's always worth getting guidance from experts as you did. If it's Attendance Allowance, then Age UK will be the best port of call.

Thanks.

gracesmum...don't do it on your own. They aim to make you feel uncomfortable so that you don't claim your entitlements. Contact your local disabilty rights group. They told me what to write on forms and drafted letters for me to copy out. They also spoke to DWP with my permission. They were the ones who encouraged me to put in a second appeal. They will hold your hand every step of the way. Don't let the accountants win. If you're entitled then claim.

alisonma when was it on? What channel? I'd like to see if I can get it on iplayer.
I was working so didn't hear it.

My son got the highest level DLA (quite rightly) but, because he was living with us, he was not entitled to housing benefit which is ok because we could afford to take him in, but not all parents could. He had help filling in his application form from a lawyer working with CAB.

Now, however, having been allocated his own flat, the level of support he has been given is superb.

I'm glad your son is getting all the help he needs. I would imagine his support is coming from the local authority rather than the DWP. They seem to be the ones who are attempting to save money by miraculously curing (cutting) the number of sick and disabled.

I worked as a volunteer Benefits Advisor with Age Concern for 10 years and supported and accompanied DLA and Attendance Allowance apellants to many Tribunal Appeals. From my memory the success rate was considerably more than 40 %.

DLA and AA forms are scored like credit rating reports, get above a certain score, you get the benefit, get below it and you dont,. Because the forms are scored by medical unqualified and fairly low grade staff my experience was the simpler your disability the easier it was to get the benefit. As soon as claimants had multiple disabilities and complicated medical conditions the staff scoring it didnt understand either the illnesses or the disability and seemed to just refuse benefit.

Although the word 'Tribunal' sounds intimidating the procedure is not. The three people on the tribunal panel and the claimant and whoever is with them. sit round a table in a small room. The panel members ask you about your condition and how it affects you, it is not confrontational nor an inquisition. They are seeking information. On several occasions the Doctor on the panel actually understood the disabillity problems my claimant's medical conditions caused better than their GP.

Always take someone with you, from a Disability Rights group or a friend or member of your family who knows a lot about your problems. It is easy to forget things in a tribunal and to have someone beside you who if you are answering a question and leave something out can turn and say to you 'Remember when....' so that you can then say more is really useful.

Always write to your doctor asking for a letter about your condition. Say specifically what information you need. For example 'I said that I am afraid to leave the house alone because my diabetes is unstable and I am afraid I might have a blackout'. He can then confirm that your diabetes is unstable and that you have lost confidence etc. The form sent to your GP by the DWP focusses very narrowly on physical disability, which would not cover an example like the one above.

Most of the people I attended Appeals with said afterwards how nice and friendly the panel were and how unintimidating the experience had been.

I don't think the people checking the claims realise there is a real human suffering behind it.

When my husband first became ill we applied for ESA - as he was self employed we received a 30 page form to fill in (one of the questions was "if you are giving up your business because of the economic downturn when do you expect that to end!!).

When he received the diagnosis that his illness was terminal we were not advised of any benefits we could claim. A friend who did some work for CAB found out for us that we could claim DLA under Special Rules so we applied. We received another long form which we completed and sent back. This was sent back to us with another form (basically asking the same questions). These were returned and after 4 weeks we were told we were entitled to claim DLA. Two weeks after that we received another form stating they needed to find out what work my husband could do - this was shortly after he had received news that his life expectancy would be around 8 weeks!

Surely if someone at the office dealing with this type of claim had actually read the forms properly they would have realised he was terminal and would have saved us the further anxiety.

Within 2 weeks of my husband passing away I received a letter stating he had been overpaid by £72 and asking me to send a cheque.

That was beyond insensitive. Of course they'd blame the computer not a person.

Soon I'll have to start the benefits game in ernest as I'm soon to be dismissed for ill health. My wages drop to half pay this month. Will we get housing benefit? Who knows? Even if we do it won't pay all the rent because the maximum payout for a couple in this area is only £69 a week. I defy them to find a property that I can rent for £69 a week (I don't live in a posh area btw lol). Also as a couple we're deemed to only need one bedroom. The fact that our youngest children come to stay with us every weekend and during the school holidays is irrelevent.

Then there will be the joys of ESA. Will I qualify or won't I qualify?

Of course not forgetting free prescriptions and teeth ...another apparent lottery.

We already know we can't have carer's allowance even though it's been agreed that I need to be watched over and supported. This is because my husband works 25 hours a week to help to support us and as he earns just over £100 a week we don't qualify. All the time he's at work he worries about me, poor man. If he didn't work we'd get it but let's be honest he needs a break from me and he needs the self esteem that comes from working.

Oh well that will teach me to be too ill to work

flicketyB I think you have confused DLA/AA with ESA,
eSA is point scored not DLA.
The threshold for ESA is 15 points.
However there are some recent changes to ESA which mean that even if you score 15 you might still not get it unless you are in the 'support' group.
However whenDLA/AA is replaced by PIP. This will be scored on a points system.

Another thing that gets me annoyed (oh dear I can feel myself going off on one!), the way that government departments (not just the ones dealing with benefits) seem to think that you know their procedures.

Most people only contact them because they are ill or need help yet I have lost count of the number of times I have been told that they couldn't proceed with my query/claim/complaint because I hadn't followed the correct procedure - but if you rarely contact them you are unaware of the procedures and nobody tells you what they are! They also change things and expect you to know - we had no idea what ESA was (we thought it was still sickness benefit). Jeni refers to PIP (what in the name of all thats holy does that stand for!! - sorry not getting at you Jeni). If I ever need to apply for any benefit I will no doubt be expected to know what that is. Its enough to make you turn to drink!

Correction. AA will remain as it is for the 65+ group. It will be DLA still for the under16s

Personal independence plan. Wry will replace DLA I think later this year. More difficult to pass than the present test. I haven't seen the actual test yet, but I know mobility will be assed on similar to the ESA criterion
,ie:- cannot mobilise on the level for 50metres without the help of another person , but having regard to any aids used such as crutches, frames, sticks or manual wheelchair.

It's all organised to confuse us and stop us from claiming. They play games of semantics. When the first refused me they said I 'preferred' to have someone with me when out of the house. I actually need someone with me as I said when I filled in the form and which was supported by my GP. It's not that I can't walk. It's that I wouldn't be safe if I was outside alone. It showed a complete misunderstanding of my condition.

Then when we start to crack the code they move the goalposts because it's not, as the government says, to ensure that the money only goes to those who are entitled to it but to reduce the total amount paid out.

I have a disabled grandson, and so have been following as much as I can the progress of the current government's welfare reforms, and in particular the proposed change from Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to Personal Independence Payment (PIP). This has made me aware of a powerful campaigning movement by disabled people which has developed on line through the social media during recent months. This group was actually invited to brief members of the House of Lords on one occasion, when attempts were made to moderate some of the harshest proposals in the Welfare Bill.

This group now has its own website where there is a lot of information available, including simplified versions of government consultations such as the proposed criteria for the award of PIPs. There is also a forum. I do recommend it, particularly to those of you who have not yet lost heart and are still in fighting mood.

wearespartacus.org.uk/

The current DLA forms (and presumably the new PIP forms) ask what you can or can't do. When my husband was diagnosed with cancer he was able to do most of the things listed, walking unaided, washing and feeding himself - general day to day activities. However he was terminally ill and could have lost those abilities at any time - the forms are there for the civil servants to tick boxes without having to make a decision based on human suffering. This is not the fault of the civil servants (although some of them could be a little more sensitive) they have their procedures and have to follow them.

If I remember correctly. If you read the special rules instructions it said to just tick special rules and supply the relevant cert. used tobe a DS1500. This used to be passed to MO of the dwp to say wether the claimant came under the SR or not. It may have changed. But there certainly did not need to be any reason to have to answer the care part of the form. Only the mobility!

I don't remember reading that we didn't have to fill in part of the form, in any event it was sent back to us with another form to fill in anyway.

Someone who deals with this kind of thing all the time is aware of the procedures and what is needed but most people only have to apply once and at a time when they are stressed and worried - if only a certain part of a form is needed for DLA then why not a simple form listing just those questions - or is that too logical!

When I was working I had to send things to people for completion and I always made sure that my letter contained full instructions on how to complete the form and what the procedure was once the form had been completed, together with my name and telephone number if they needed help. Try contacting someone at any government department these days!!

I have filled in millions of these darned things for clients and it is all a matter of how you word it - I got very good at telling the truth but making sure that it was worded in a way that would tick the right boxes.

Unfortunately I think that they still require details even under the special rules for people who are terminally ill - I have been doing this for a friend of mine and they have wanted all the form completed even though she is applying under special rules.

They even sent her a form under the new scheme for getting ill people back in work, even though she had DLA under special rules - they got a pretty firm phone call from me I have to say! - she has been pensioned off from work on the grounds of her cancer, so how they can start sending her forms about going back to work I do not know!

Just to add that these forms are psychologically very difficult - in order to get what you are entitled to you have concentrate on what you cannot do, whereas I was trying to encourage people to think about what they can do.

You have to repeat these depressing things over and over again on the same form and some people were very down after completing them. I used to have to spend ages on them - not just filling them in, but mopping up the damage afterwards.

The instructions from the DWP can be more confusing than the form.
Did you know the various departments do not communicate. If you have information you have to send it to all departments individually.
It can drive one potty!

Can I PLEASE point out that appeals people are NOTHING TO DO WITH THE DWP,

They are employed by the ministry of justice, also are not civil servants. Strangely we are called 'office holders'

I think but not sure they are recruiting for more disability qualified members at present.