Diasbility Living Allowance - help

raddy59

My mum-in-law is "getting on". She is in constant arthritic pain, finds it increasingly difficult to walk and needs a little help keeping her flat going.

She made an appointment with a reputable company who will help her tidy around, hoovering and stuff for about an hour a week. The lady who called to see her said, because of her difficulties, she should be entitled to disability living allowance. Now, we have the forms and she's not sure - we don't want her to miss out on any help that is available, nor does she want to claim if she is not eligible.
She doesn't want to fill out all the forms, she is not keen to claim, and she doesn't want to have her "affairs" trawled through unnecessarily - especially if she isn't entitled.

She receives a mobility allowance.

I was wondering if there is somebody we could speak to (independent of the civil servants) who can help her?

Richard1075

When you have said that Mum gets Mobility Allowance, what is that? The reason I ask is that Disability Living Allowance has two portions: one for personal care and the other is for mobility. DLA is only awarded up to the day before her 65th birthday. You cannot claim DLA after 65 and you have to claim Attendance Allowance, which only has a personal care component.

The social service department of your local council [may be called Adult Services now] will come and go through an assessment for your Mum's needs and it could be that she could get assistance either through an agency nominated by the Council or look at employing a Personal Care Assistant under the Direct Payments Scheme. This is means tested so they will need to make both an assessment of needs plus and financial assessment to see if Mum needs to make a contribution.

The assessment can also lead to a visit from the Community Occupational Therapy Service who will see about adaptions and aids if necessary.

Age UK offer a cleaning and shopping service, but this can be quite expensive. Other things to think about is if there is any gardening that is needed to be done, window cleaner, wheelie bin cleaner ..... all of these can be included in the assessments both for needs and financial as these cost can be offset.