DLA questions

Minerva69

MrsKelly wrote: »

Yes we did get the statement of reasons from DLA but CAB advised us we could only appeal if the decision was illegal, not if it was wrong.

Spoke to my CAB friend again yesterday, who said that you have been given the incorrect advice and this is wrong. You can appeal against the decision, it's nothing to do with it being "illegal". He said the CAB Advice Session Supervisor (who all advisers have to check with before giving out advice) should have picked up on this. He suggested you apply again, or try and see a different CAB adviser. He said make sure you include every little item of information about how the medical conditions affect your husband's life, you're better off including too much information rather than not enough.

I haven't got time to say much more now as have to go out, but if you want to discuss this any further please send me a PM. I also just did a quick Google search and found this link for the Menieres Society: http://www.menieres.co.uk/index.html, you may have already seen it.

MrsKelly_2

Minerva69 wrote: »

Spoke to my CAB friend again yesterday, who said that you have been given the incorrect advice and this is wrong. You can appeal against the decision, it's nothing to do with it being "illegal". He said the CAB Advice Session Supervisor (who all advisers have to check with before giving out advice) should have picked up on this. He suggested you apply again, or try and see a different CAB adviser. He said make sure you include every little item of information about how the medical conditions affect your husband's life, you're better off including too much information rather than not enough.

I haven't got time to say much more now as have to go out, but if you want to discuss this any further please send me a PM. I also just did a quick Google search and found this link for the Menieres Society: http://www.menieres.co.uk/index.html, you may have already seen it.

Thank you i am going to apply again. Yes my CAB advisor said unless they did not apply the law correctly there was nothing we could do about it. My argument was when they got one of the illnesses wrong on the day how can the law have been applied correctly when none of them knew what it even was! I'm not sure what to do about this now because the tribunal was in May but we didnt get the statement of reasons until August, we only had until the beginning of September to do something about it though

Matt_h_6

We've recently got DLA for our daughter. The one thing I have learn't is that you have to not give up with them! We got our initial award back in Jan 08 but at the lowest rate. Based on her conditions she was entitled to the second rate. We had to go through the appeal process a number of times. it was only when it got to the the point where we would have to go to a appeal board did they role over and then just said "OK you can have it" This makes a huge difference as you can then get the carer allowance which was what we were after. This took 10 months in total!

If you can get help from the health profession applying that also makes a difference as they tend to know the key words to describe the conditions that they will pay out on.

We found out later from a friend who worked in the system that the unofficial policy was to reject initial claims for higher rates as a high proportion of people give up at this stage, greatful to get anything. It made our blood boil as there are lot of people out there who don't have the patients or ability to get what they are entitled to and would just scrape by. For us, the extra money makes a huge difference as we can now afford to put her in developmental classes that help her develop and hopefully get to a stage where as an adult she can lead an independant life.

MrsKelly_2

We went to the appeal stage and we got rejected but as i said the Doctor didnt even know what Menieres disease is her reckons he looked it up and it was a swelling of the leg! We were also told afterwards that on the day the Doctor should do most of the talking but he didnt the Solicitor wouldn't let anybody and he was putting words in peoples mouths confusing everyone then not allowing it to be corrected. The money would make a great difference to my husbands health because he stressed about the fact that he cannot work and i have to look after him, we struggle but that is just the way it has to be when a loved one is ill. Congrats on getting there with your Daughter.

NoahsPennilessMummy

Hi

My son gets high rate care and low rate mobility due to his autism.
He has been awarded it till he is 14 ( he is 5 now).
These are very long and complex forms to fill out and it took me weeks with mine....both times..he got high rate at 3 years till he was 5 and we then had to reapply again and he got both components then for 9 more years.
My advice is to look at the Cerebra website....it has a 60 page document you can print off about how to fill the form in, it is based on claiming for a child but it will give an idea of how to put across the info they need to know.
It is all about telling them succinctly what they need to know about the condition and how it affects you.
I ended up filling form in and typing up 4,000 word document about how he is affected as they do not give enough room on the form.
I also included a broken down list of what I have to do for my son in an average day starting at time he got up and working through the day.

SuziQ

Matt_h wrote: »

We found out later from a friend who worked in the system that the unofficial policy was to reject initial claims for higher rates as a high proportion of people give up at this stage, greatful to get anything. .

There are people who work in this system on this forum- and they vigourously refute this!
My son got high rate care first time we applied 4 years ago,he got it for ayear and then we didn't apply again. He was awarded high rate care and low mobility again this june on first application.

I think the case is more that many forms are not filled in correctly(ie how is the ordinary man in the street to know how to word things?) and that many cases are simply not straightforward.

My dad has menieres-has had it quite severly for 7 years but still manages to live a normal life-he is obviously one of the lucky ones as he does have the occasional day when he can get on and do things. On the bad days he can do nothing.Others are affected more severely every day-but those cases are much more difficult to assess than,for instance a paraplegic or someone with motor neurone disease (just examples.)as there condition never varies.

MrsKelly_2

SuziQ wrote: »

There are people who work in this system on this forum- and they vigourously refute this!
My son got high rate care first time we applied 4 years ago,he got it for ayear and then we didn't apply again. He was awarded high rate care and low mobility again this june on first application.

I think the case is more that many forms are not filled in correctly(ie how is the ordinary man in the street to know how to word things?) and that many cases are simply not straightforward.

My dad has menieres-has had it quite severly for 7 years but still manages to live a normal life-he is obviously one of the lucky ones as he does have the occasional day when he can get on and do things. On the bad days he can do nothing.Others are affected more severely every day-but those cases are much more difficult to assess than,for instance a paraplegic or someone with motor neurone disease (just examples.)as there condition never varies.

This is the problem with Meniere's disease, your father manages to lead a relatively normal life as his condition is under control whereas for 2 years my OH has had constant dizziness, DLA guidelines tell them that this is wrong and that with it they should get 'bouts of dizziness'.

This just doesn't happen for my OH it never stops ever, they actually said he was exaggerating the illness and his good days outnumber the bad. This was the opinion of the solicitor at the tribunal, despite medical evidence. Some people are under the impression that Meniere's disease is a phsychological thing, which it is not, but the annoying thing is if it was phsychological DLA would probably be given!

It took 18 months for OH to get a diagnosis and his main problem was always the dizziness, we didn't have a clue what it was and at first niether did the Doctors until they did the tests. But because this illness can vary from your father to my OH they don't listen. But the one point that DLA will not accept is that my OH never has a day without dizziness, he never has done since it started and no medication has helped. It seems to me that they use the guidelines they have and ignore everything else regardless of medical evidence.

In the opinion of Doctors and even the woman from CAB he should get DLA regardless as he has a permanent hip disability, even when he eventually has a hip replacement the consultant has told him this will only ease his problems not make them go away, a hip replacement will not cure the osteoartritis that degenerative hip disease causes.

Newly_retired

I am a CAB trainee advisor and so far I have helped 2 people complete their DLA forms and one Attendance Allowance claim. The AA was successful and one of the DLAs was not. But she has come back to the bureau for help to challenge the decision. Yes, the forms are long and there are ways of wording them which help the claim to succeed, so do get help, from CAB or relevant charity.

krisskross

Perhaps it would be better to concentrate on the symptoms and what effect they have on your husbands day to day ability and care and mobility needs rather than offer a diagnosis if they are getting bogged down with how Menieres 'usually' affects sufferers.

felixthemoggy

MrsKelly wrote: »

This is the problem with Meniere's disease, your father manages to lead a relatively normal life as his condition is under control whereas for 2 years my OH has had constant dizziness, DLA guidelines tell them that this is wrong and that with it they should get 'bouts of dizziness'.

This just doesn't happen for my OH it never stops ever, they actually said he was exaggerating the illness and his good days outnumber the bad. This was the opinion of the solicitor at the tribunal, despite medical evidence. Some people are under the impression that Meniere's disease is a phsychological thing, which it is not, but the annoying thing is if it was phsychological DLA would probably be given!

It took 18 months for OH to get a diagnosis and his main problem was always the dizziness, we didn't have a clue what it was and at first niether did the Doctors until they did the tests. But because this illness can vary from your father to my OH they don't listen. But the one point that DLA will not accept is that my OH never has a day without dizziness, he never has done since it started and no medication has helped. It seems to me that they use the guidelines they have and ignore everything else regardless of medical evidence.

This makes interesting reading.

I have suffered dizzy spells for 4 years, however the last 14 months I have not had 1 day when I haven't been dizzy.
I was diagnosed with Menieres 2 years ago but then had it dismissed as I am only 29, and this only affects middle aged women. So now I have just been tagged with having Vertigo - cause unknown !!
My HR dept at work sent me to see a top notch shrink as they felt its psychological - The shrink agreed and sent me for counselling. The counsellor says there is nothing psychologically wrong with me.
I've been through all the depts at Burnley hospital - I am now about to start all over again at Preston !
I'm contemplating applying for DLA as somedays I physically have to crawl around the house because I can't stand with the dizziness.
I'll let you know how I get on.