DLA, Appealing and the effects on WTC/CTC

silversand

Just a quick note, a bit late for you but hopefully will help someone else.

Before going all the way to appeal you can just ring up and ask them to look at the decision again

I'm currently going through this, having been awarded middle rate care instead of high rate care. The last time this happened all we had to do was ask them to look at it again and I got my high rate care without having to go through the stress of appealing and going to tribunal

Claireybear

I have been told always appeal if you are not happy, the success rate at appeal is 1 in 2 apparently.

It seems they have got stricter recently, a lot of people seem to have had their dla reduced

Claireybear

Also, if anyone is appealing, dont worry about the time limit, the leaflet is printable from the jobcentreplus website with the form on it, and all the advice i have found on the internet suggests that unless you know why the award was reduced then you should just state that you cannot explain why the decision is wrong until you have seen the decisions that were made. Everybody gets sent a huge booklet to be filled in then anyway, whatever you say on the form.

Turning_into_scrooge

Claireybear wrote:

I have been told always appeal if you are not happy, the success rate at appeal is 1 in 2 apparently.

It seems they have got stricter recently, a lot of people seem to have had their dla reduced

I had mine reduced to low rate care from middle rate even though i now need more help during the day and nighttime help for at least 5 times a night. I contacted welfare rights who came to see me at home and took all the information from me and is appealing the decision for me.

You may as well go straight to appeal as they will automatically look at your claim again the same as if you phone up and disagree with it. It just saves allot of time if it isn't changed when they re look at it the first time.

EDIT: When i phoned up to ask why i had been dropped down form middle to low I asked if the criteria had changed, she said no it was still the same.
So no one should be dropped down if you are at the same stage you were when you first applied or worse.

silversand

Yes they do look at it again, but (certainly in my case) I got it looked at twice, which made all the difference.

The first time they looked at it they refused to change the decision so we decided to go to appeal, they then looked at it again and changed it in my favour