DLA Rejected for Son

atlantis187

Just got the dreaded rejection letter for the dla claim we made for our son back in June.
Some of the resons they have stated in the rejection letter seem fairly standard reply.
It says u are not elligable as you do not care for your son more than 1 hour a day. on the form we put down he needs care for around 3 hours a day. (I dont even think they have read the form properly).

By the way my son is nearly 5 he suffers from speech and learning development needs.

What can we do about this? feel totally despressed and angry as we spent an awfull amount of time filling the form in and putting on there as much as we could.

Please advise.

Thanks

merlin68

The care they need has to be more than a normal child that age.
What sort of care are you providing.
Most parents of five year olds would provide that level of care to be honest.

Muttleythefrog

No expert on DLA claims for children but I've never been more angry in my life than when I received a DLA rejection letter because it in no uncertain terms repeatedly says you're talking rubbish.. lies. You say you have difficulty looking after your self care and they reply 'you do not have any difficulty with self care' and you think to yourself... did I pass into the Twilight Zone. Effectively you've found the same. Hopefully people can give you speciifc advice in relation to what evidence you could get and what you can say in appealling that would help your case... or even whether you have a decent case.

If you feel unable to do this alone then it may be advisable to get legal support from CAB or the like.

shegirl

What are his care needs?

McKneff

I would have thought that the criteria for DLA would be for a lot more than 3 hours a day.

krisskross

gregbythesea wrote: »

No it has to be frequent (more than twice), throughout (spread out over a normal day and not just at one particular point of the day) and has to amount to at least 1 hour in total.

In that case surely all 4 year olds will qualify.

Have to say my definition of 'frequent' would be rather more than twice in 24 hours.

kingfisherblue

For children, the care needs have to be above those care needs of a child of a similiar age. All children have care needs, but to qualify for DLA the child has to have more care needs than would be expected.

atlantis187

thanks for your help guys.
I dont really know what extra information to submit, as we've included everything in the form as possible.
Can anyone please suggest what I should put in the appeal?
Also what support do CAB provide with the appeal process? can they help me type the appeal letter?

smunchkinp

no offense, but whats wrong with him, you say speech and learning development needs, but that can cover a whole spectrum of things.

my son was born 9 weeks early, and had major problems through his first 10 years with his speech, language, and overall development, but i never saw him as needing DLA. just extra help with schooling.

Muttleythefrog

atlantis187 wrote: »

thanks for your help guys.
I dont really know what extra information to submit, as we've included everything in the form as possible.
Can anyone please suggest what I should put in the appeal?
Also what support do CAB provide with the appeal process? can they help me type the appeal letter?

I would look at evidential situation. What evidence is in the process... request a copy from DWP. If child claims are anything like adult claims then your word will largely be taken with a pinch of salt unless backed by 3rd party. I was hoping that people with some experience of child claims would be able to advise as to good sources for this in light of the apparent problem types... for adult claims it'd almost exclusively be medical professional.. GP or specialist.. but with child claims there may be other options such as school. There may already be evidence of this type in the process.. check (the letter you got may indicate evidence used to take decision)... it'll be necessary to get hold of copies in order to properly make appeal case.

Regarding CAB or Welfare rights or the like.. highly variable service I understand area to area and deteriorating with cutbacks and increasing demand.. you might get little or no help or you may get a full on service with them wanting to construct your appeal and seek supporting evidence and perhaps even send someone to a tribunal to present your case.

enabledebra

As others have said- although all 5 year olds need 24 hour care they don't all need help with speech and other development issues. If help is needed with these things then the time spent providing this help should count. Whether DLA is payable and at what rate depends quantifying the time/frequency of help. See here for an explanation of the definitions of significant, frequently etc. http://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/f23.htm#significant

To challenge the decision you have had you can either ask the DWP to look again at the claim (carry out a 'revision') or you can ask an independent body to look at it (an appeal)

You can ask for a revision first and if unsuccessful can then appeal, or you can go straight to an appeal. Revisions can be much faster and you haven't lost the chance of appealing if you do this first.

To ask for a revision just write a letter to the DWP within a month of the date of the decision you've had. You should say the needs your child has are additional to a 5 year old child without disabilities and explain the time you spend meeting these needs (give specific examples to get the point across) and you could send them a copy of this to back up that they should take the extra issues into account http://www.osscsc.gov.uk/aspx/view.aspx?id=1557