Dla - april 2011 new rules

FleurDuLys

Great news Jetta! No more stressing about this for you :T

jonnypb

Is anyone thinking of trading in the payment to get a car?

Been looking round and the Renault and Vauxhall dealer have both said if you can get a car before the end of march then do so as they've been told alot of the AP are going up by quite alot from 1st April.

The suspicious side of me thinks that this is only because they know alot people will be entitled to HRM come 11th april

jetta_wales

jonnypb wrote: »

Is anyone thinking of trading in the payment to get a car?

Been looking round and the Renault and Vauxhall dealer have both said if you can get a car before the end of march then do so as they've been told alot of the AP are going up by quite alot from 1st April.

The suspicious side of me thinks that this is only because they know alot people will be entitled to HRM come 11th april

We ordered our car the day the letter came lol. Because my other half is a 'young male driver' insurance is terrible and we're paying nearly the same amount per month in insurance as the HRM will be so it was a no brainer for us.

nannytone_2

very few registered blind people will get HRM come april 11th!

Richie-from-the-Boro

nannytone wrote: »

very few registered blind people will get HRM come april 11th!

But you get the higher rate DLA if you are under 65 and you have an acuity of less than 3/60 [ can read the top line of an eye test chart from 3 metres away ] / or

- more than 3/60, but less than 6/60 [ can read only the top line of the eye test chart from 6 metres away ] and you must have

- - a complete loss of your peripheral vision and
- - severely restricted central vision [ no more than 10 degrees in diameter ], sometimes called tunnel vision.

If your sight is too poor to be measured in this way, for example you can only 'count fingers', or you only have light and dark perception, you will qualify. If your visual acuity is better than 6/60 you will not qualify, for example if your acuity is 6/36 or 6/18.

jetta_wales

Richie-from-the-Boro wrote: »

But you get the higher rate DLA if you are under 65 and you have an acuity of less than 3/60 [ can read the top line of an eye test chart from 3 metres away ] / or

- more than 3/60, but less than 6/60 [ can read only the top line of the eye test chart from 6 metres away ] and you must have

- - a complete loss of your peripheral vision and
- - severely restricted central vision [ no more than 10 degrees in diameter ], sometimes called tunnel vision.

If your sight is too poor to be measured in this way, for example you can only 'count fingers', or you only have light and dark perception, you will qualify. If your visual acuity is better than 6/60 you will not qualify, for example if your acuity is 6/36 or 6/18.

That is all correct but it is a tighter criteria than that needed to be registered as blind. You can be able to read the top two lines on the chart and be registered as blind.

nannytone_2

its even more than that jetta.

being registered blind isnt just about how far you can read down the chart. its also about how many degrees of sight you have.

jetta_wales

nannytone wrote: »

its even more than that jetta.

being registered blind isnt just about how far you can read down the chart. its also about how many degrees of sight you have.

Do you mean measurements of peripheral vision for those with reduced visual fields like tunnel vision? I was indeed giving a pretty basic example.

jetta_wales

I don't know wether or not the criteria are new but this is what it says on the RNIB website and it doesn't seem too dissimilar to the DLA's classification for it now tbh.

Generally, to be registered as severely sight impaired (blind), your sight has to fall into one of the following categories, while wearing any glasses or contact lenses that you may need:
visual acuity of less than 3 / 60 with a full visual field
visual acuity between 3 / 60 and 6 / 60 with a severe reduction of field of vision, such as tunnel vision
visual acuity of 6 / 60 or above but with a very reduced field of vision, especially if a lot of sight is missing in the lower part of the field.
To be registered as sight impaired (partially sighted) your sight has to fall into one of the following categories, while wearing any glasses or contact lenses that you may need:
visual acuity of 3 / 60 to 6 / 60 with a full field of vision
visual acuity of up to 6 / 24 with a moderate reduction of field of vision or with a central part of vision that is cloudy or blurry
visual acuity of up to 6 / 18 if a large part of your field of vision, for example a whole half of your vision, is missing or a lot of your peripheral vision is missing.

Richie-from-the-Boro

If you have the 10 degrees, you are side tracked before the April date, and its backdated. Generally the 10 degrees is the ' magic key ' and has been accepted by dot gov dot uk as the qualifier. For this reason without interview or intervention they will automatically move you over to the higher benefit so save ' clogging ' the system up with appeals they know they will lose.