Budget - tougher for DLA claimants

Indie_Kid

covlass wrote: »

They didnot award my daughter any thing and said the was not "mentally impaired" MMMmmmm so how bad do you have to be ?? She is 13 mental age of a 4 year old attends a special needs school for severe learning difficulties and complex needs she has Severe Autism Sensory integration needs challenging behaviour and asthma. We knew from day one that there would be some form of disability due to the fact she had a bleed on the brain. Yet despite this they still declined her claim.

DLA for children is based on them having needs above that of a child their own age. The diagnosis is irrelevant.

de1amo

Quiet_Life wrote: »

1.103 The Government will reform the Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to
ensure support is targeted on those with the highest medical need. The
Government will introduce the use of objective medical assessments
for all DLA claimants from 2013-14 to ensure payments are only made for
as long as a claimant needs them.



This is a direct quote from the budget

that could be read as 'all claimants from 2013-14 as in ones making a claim from then--my claim was long ago accepted!!

SingleSue

I can see both sides of the coin re depression.

I have suffered with mental illness on and off since my eldest was born, so 16 years...sometimes I am fine, at other times I am not.

In 2005 after struggling with mild depression for a while, I finally fell off the cliff and started careering down the cliff face into a complete and severe break down complete with absolute exhaustion...put plainly, my mind nor my body could cope anymore. I was working at the time and luckily, my work were understanding so I could take sick leave..in total, I was signed off for 19 weeks.

I didn't know about IB (I thought you had to be not employed to receive it) or DLA for depression, so when my company sick pay ran out, I went back to work against medical and company advice because of the impact on the family budget. To be honest, I can't really remember what I was doing back then, I just know I was blooming dangerous to be around as my brain was just not where it should be...I was a complete and utter mess. My doctor pleaded with me to take more time off, I refused because of money, my condition relapsed but still I carried on.

Who knows, if I had known I could have claimed IB or DLA for it, maybe my recovery wouldn't have been so protracted or maybe I would have made a complete recovery unlike the almost complete one I am left with....

Depression, the real hard depression, is not a walk in the park, it is not a pull your socks up and get over it thing, it is a long hard slog to recovery. Some people are helped by keeping busy, others need to have that complete break from the rat race and are barely able to function at the required level to work.

One thing I would know, I would have failed a medical interview....if people ask how I am, I always reply fine. Hardly anyone outside of my immediate family, the doctor or the management at my company, knew I had had a breakdown, I put on a happy face.

blue_monkey_2

covlass wrote: »

They didnot award my daughter any thing and said the was not "mentally impaired" MMMmmmm so how bad do you have to be ?? She is 13 mental age of a 4 year old attends a special needs school for severe learning difficulties and complex needs she has Severe Autism Sensory integration needs challenging behaviour and asthma. We knew from day one that there would be some form of disability due to the fact she had a bleed on the brain. Yet despite this they still declined her claim.

This is the thing, that your daughter can be denied yet someone can fill in a form and get Higher Rate Mobility and, in effect, a free car by saying their legs do not work properly. I know it happens because I know someone who get's it and they are more active than I am. Nothing to do with being able to work and being on DLA, they are on their feet for 8-10 hours a day with their job and are more active than I am but they can get a car by filling in a form.

The system HAS to change, your daughter is more than entitled, the above person I mentioned is not (in fact I know 2) who are getting the money your daughter is entitled to.

Indie_Kid

blue_monkey wrote: »

This is the thing, that your daughter can be denied yet someone can fill in a form and get Higher Rate Mobility and, in effect, a free car by saying their legs do not work properly.

The car isn't "free".

SingleSue - to get IB, you would've needed to have enough national insurance in the last few tax years.

SingleSue

SH - I more than qualified on the NI front.

blue_monkey_2

You can only apply for DLA if you have a condition that is going to last a good time, you cannot claim for a broken leg for example, so how do you know if depression is going to last 6 weeks or 6 years? Which is why DLA is not an appropriate benefit for Depression. Sick pay, LHA, IB yes, but DLA no.

If someone gets better after 6 months do you think they are going to call the DWP and say they do not need the money any more?

SingleSue

Blue Monkey - That was the way I looked at it.....as it was, it took 5 years and I am still recovering now.

blue_monkey_2

sh1305 wrote: »

The car isn't "free".

SingleSue - to get IB, you would've needed to have enough national insurance in the last few tax years.

So if you get HRM by lying and then use that benefit to get a car you have not had a free car? Hmmm. In both cases I know the families would not have been able to afford a new car yet they got one by lying on the forms to get awarded HRM. Interesting.

nogginthenog

bex4adz wrote: »

Hi everyone I have just call DLA and they said that ALL existing and new claimants will have to go through the medical including those of us who get an indefinate award

So basicly people are getting Reassesed.....It you have had a medical and you have been assessed as indefinate and unlikly to improve it should just be a formality
Unless of course the crossbar is going to be set at a higher level.