Uprating of DLA refused - tribunal?

moochie

hi

as some of you may remember, in May i was dropped from HRC to MRC, and after getting the backing of my Psychiatrist and CPN, as well as taking advice from you guys on here, i applied for a reconsideration to reinstate my HRC.

Well, i got their decision yesterday and it has come back as decision unchanged, despite me describing in great detail my night time care needs, and having great supporting letters from my psychiatrist and cpn. Once again its come back saying i dont need caring for at frequent intervals during the night, which i do, or at least once for twenty minutes, which is again untrue.

I havent spoken to my CPN as yet (she doesnt work fridays) but i was hoping someone on here who had gone through the same experience would be able to offer any advice as to where to go from here. Do i just leave it and accept what they've said, despite it being untrue, or should i go to a proper tribunal? Could anyone who has been through a tribunal give me a brief overview of what happens? How stressful actually is it? I mean, they've refused me again with supporting letters backing up what ive said, what further evidence would i be able to take to a tribunal if this isn't enough?

Obviously i know people on here can't make a decision for me (i can't make decisions anyway so it'll be up to my partner and cpn), but any advice or experiences would be great.

thankyou very much for reading, and sorry for the long post!
Leanne

TheBottomLine_2

I'm sorry I don't know the ins and outs to help, but I can say that you should not just accept it. If you believe you have care needs enough to get the higher rate then you should appeal. If you can handle the stress which I understand can be very difficult then go for it. Someone will be along with the technical details soon enough.

jox_2

sorry to hear that.Give us a brief description of your night time needs, then we get more of an idea of how they came to their decision and how you can go about appealing.

Indie_Kid

Have you asked how they've come to this decision?

southantrim3

First of all I'd contact DLA and ask to speak to the Decision Maker (or one of their supervisor's) and find out what information they used to assess your claim. See if they took into account all the information that you had sent them.

Once you have done that I would then request an appeal which must be done in writing. All you need to appeal is to write a letter with your name and national insurance number, make sure you specifically request an "appeal" as asking them to look at again wont be enough. State your reasons for requesting the appeal and sign and date the letter. This is suffice to set the Appeal up. Sadly the can take 6 months to action.

Indie_Kid

You need a GL24 form to launch an appeal. You can request one from the DLA unit (08457 123456) and CABs and Job Centres have them too.

southantrim3

sh1305 wrote: »

You need a GL24 form to launch an appeal. You can request one from the DLA unit (08457 123456) and CABs and Job Centres have them too.

You don't actually need the GL24, as long as you have a request in writing stating "appeal" this is enough.

moochie

Hiya, sorry for the late reply, rather unmotivated at the moment, I’ve been sat here on and off since Saturday writing this L



Jox, in brief, my night care needs are as follows…
I need my medication dispensing as I am at serious risk of overdose, therefore do not keep my own medication
I wake up numerous times in the night due to pain and nightmares, and I’m finding increasingly that I hear and see things that seriously distress me (for example last night there were clowns in my room), so I have to wake my partner to calm me down, if he hasn’t woken up already, which he normally does. I also have panic attacks at night on a regular basis. My partner can be awake for hours with me until I’m able to return to sleep
I need someone to help me get in and out of bed to go to the toilet and to help me move around, I have undiagnosed severe back problems and hypermobility
I am at serious risk of overdose/self harm, I will self harm any chance I get therefore I need constant watching
Lastly (I think) I need someone to be awake with me watching over me whilst I go to sleep, which can take anything from 30 minutes to an hour, often much longer.

Hopefully this demonstrates that I meet the criteria of ‘needing someone awake once for at least 20 minutes’ and/or ‘needing someone to be awake to watch over me at night (point 2)’. My conditions are much worse than when I first applied, and no-one can understand why I have been dropped to MRC.


SH1305, my partner rang yesterday to find out why I had been refused, the operator said it was simply because ’although I am sometimes at risk of danger, I don’t need someone to be awake to watch over me at night, or once for up to around 20 minutes, to prevent danger to myself or others’, exactly what it said on the letter. When he pointed out that this was untrue and he knew it was untrue because he was the one that is up with me every single night she just said appeal it and is sending me the form.



SouthAntrim, he asked what information had been used and it appears that they have only used the letter from my CPN which I sent with my further information, my Psychiatrist said he would send one on separately, which he did last week, but the operator said that they had only used 1, which is obviously from my CPN, since it was in with the extra information posted for me by my partner.. I was given until the 12th July by DLA to provide all extra information, so we all assumed they would not make a decision until at least the 12th, but they made it on the 7th July without all the information I told them I was sending, so they gave me a deadline to get them the information, then went ahead and made a decision anyway without waiting for it all.

Thanks also to The bottomline, your input is much appreciated

I think from the horror stories I’ve heard about the appeals process I am just going to leave it, its not a case of the money, it’s the fact that they are stating something which is untrue and I am supported in this by both my CPN and Psychiatrist. I don’t think I could mentally cope with the stress and I’d end up in an even worse position than I am in now.


Thankyou all so much for replying to my question, you are all an invaluable source of knowledge and support and I really appreciate you taking the time to try to help

Leanne J

sox8369

Leanne - i know it feels too much strain for you right now - but seriously think about putting an official appeal into the DWP if you feel you deserve the award. It will take months to come to appeal and by then you may feel stronger to fight for it. But worth getting the ball rolling and then forget about it while it takes its natural course. Best of luck x x

moochie

Hiya Sox J

Thanks very much for taking the time to reply. I know what you’re saying is completely right, I do truly feel I deserve HRC as does everyone else, I mean I got it two years ago when I was much more well than I am now, but I really do think the stress will kill me! As well as the BPD I’ve got Dysthymia (not sure if anyone but my psychiatrist knows what that is!), on top of that severe depression and anxiety, these are just getting worse and worse, I don’t think I could cope with the stress. I’m going to talk to my cpn tomorrow and see what she thinks.

If they would do a reconsideration before the actual appeal as they normally do, I might give it a chance, see what happens at the reconsideration then cancel the appeal if necessary, but because I’ve already had an (incomplete) reconsideration I’m not sure if they’ll skip it and go straight to the appeal. I don’t even know how I’d know if they’d reconsidered it again, if it was unsuccessful surely they’d just carry straight on without informing me so I might miss my chance to cancel! No-one in my family is any good on the phone, I’m terrified of the things so I don’t know who to ask if this would be the case. My CPNs ace, but a little dotty when it comes to dealing with the DSS

Anyways, from what I’ve managed to read you’re not having a great time of it at the moment with the DLA so I’ve got everything crossed for you that things work out and you get what you deserve J

Thanks again, I really appreciate it
Leanne J

sox8369

Hey Leanne - when you put in for an appeal - they automatically do a reconsideration with a different decision maker as part of the process. I also understand that you can pull out of the appeal process at any point if you feel it is getting too much for you.

Sending you a big virtual hug - you have lots of support on here - hang in there but you should also fight for what is fair and have your award reinstated to the previous level.x