Feel like giving up now-DLA renewal.

zzzLazyDaisy

It is often the case that there is no-one apart from the carer who can provide information about the claimant's day to day care needs.

Yes medical advisers and support agencies can provide information about their OWN knowledge of the claimant - but they don't live with the claimant or spend a lot of time in the same house as the claimant.

Personally I normally advise the claimant to obtain reports personally from medical and other professionals involved in their care and submit them with the claim form, but I know that some professionals will not provide a report unless contacted directly by DLA.

Provided this has been done, the carer is the most likely candidate to provide the 'statement from someone who knows you best'. Either way, it is better than just leaving the statement blank (in my view).

LostandAfraid

Thank you again everyone,i have already sent the form without a statement but I know it's not too late to get one,i suppose if my husband writes one they could either take notice of it or ignore it but it wouldn't do any harm.

I did send a copy of the most recent care plan that my social worker gave me,i explained it was no longer in place because she had since discharged me,i gave her contact details and I am sure we have a letter somewhere confirming the discharge and saying why so we are looking for that and if we can't find it we could ask if they still have a copy on file,it was only two months ago.

Really trying to stay calm and not panic too much about it but obviously it's hard,i appreciate all of your advice,it has helped a lot

Twisted_Cherry

Ask your husband to write the statement, it does not have to be a professional person involved in your care. If the DWP want more information on your needs they can write to those professionals they need to. As someone else said ensure your GP surgery are aware that the DWP may write and you want to be made aware of it.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

rogerblack wrote: »

If they do this, they are breaking both guidance and the law.
Yes, they may decide that a professional has more expertise.
However, for them to simply ignore care needs specified by a carer needs specific reason.

In practice - in some cases they do seem to take this into account.

Should - if possible - you add medical opinion - certainly.
But a report from the carer can be a powerful bit of evidence containing facts not known by anyone else.

I should also note that they are unlikely to reject a form written in blue ink.

there is no law regarding this section where you do you think its unlawful I cant find it in legislation which would make it illegal.

they shall simply consider, the statement relating to the care needs and mobility needs in the statement in this section but it is not regarded as "evidence".

rogerblack

atrixblue.-MFR-. wrote: »

there is no law regarding this section where you do you think its unlawful I cant find it in legislation which would make it illegal.

they shall simply consider, the statement relating to the care needs and mobility needs in the statement in this section but it is not regarded as "evidence".

On what basis do you say that it's not evidence.

Evidence is everything that is relevant to the decision in question.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judicial_review_in_English_law#Fettering_discretion

It is not legal to have a blanket policy to ignore certain kinds of evidence, without taking individual circumstances into account.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

rogerblack wrote: »

On what basis do you say that it's not evidence.

Evidence is everything that is relevant to the decision in question.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judicial_review_in_English_law#Fettering_discretion

It is not legal to have a blanket policy to ignore certain kinds of evidence, without taking individual circumstances into account.

I said.

Note I didn't say ignore.
and say when they look at.
'someone who knows you' section holds no meaning when its completed by a member of family its often sidelined when they look at relationship to the person filling in this form. its always better and holds meaning and authority when its filled in by a professional.

they are not acting illegally when they read it and taken into consideration, the decision maker can then consider that it was written by family and be a bias statement and sideline it.

they are not acting illegally when they contact the doctor ask for a report and then read report and consider it, but the decision maker doesn't even seem bothered by it.

they act within the law to mention in the decision makers letter when you get refused or accepted to say.. what we considered to make a decision:

A report from your GP.

Your claim form dated DD/MM/YY

A statement/report from your Social worker.

Our own independent medical advisor report

Atos medical report.

they only have to consider it they don't have to ACT upon it.

which is why so many people get so frustrated when they get refused when all the evidence and statements in support of the claimant seem to be ignored some people are dumbfounded how a decision to refuse was made even tribunal services get gobsmacked on refusal decisions.

I mentioned nothing about a blanket policy.

rogerblack

atrixblue.-MFR-. wrote: »

I mentioned nothing about a blanket policy.

'someone who knows you' section holds no meaning when its completed by a member of family

That's pretty blanket to me.

LostandAfraid

Okay I am back again and want to say thank you for all the points of view shared because all of them have helped us to build a picture of what can be done to help with this.

We did drop the letters off to my gp with the bullet points and also asked if she would consider writing a short note including the night needs I have.

She wrote the note and did cover some but not all of the night needs,we found out today that she read my bullet point letter after she read the request about the note but she has covered some of it and that has been sent.

The reason she had not covered it fully was because the receptionist had not filed the bullet point letter onto my medical notes but the gp has requested that it is done to assist her with any report they send her.

As I say though she did cover some of it so that reassures me to some extent and she now has my bullet point letter on file so if they send her a report that will be there for her to refer to,she is aware of it all but I suppose when you have a lot of patients with various illnesses you can only remember so much and only so much gets noted when I see her about once a month.

My husband has decided that he would like to write a statement,i do understand that they may decide it is not impartial enough but the way I see it the worst they can do is ignore it so we felt it was worth doing.

I have an appointment with a new consultant next month too because in all honesty I need it,things are not going well at all and I need much more help but I suppose if I need to appeal then I can use that as further evidence,i also started trying to keep a diary,something I should have done already but I am not in a good place and writing it all down is so hard for me but I will possibly use it when I have a couple of weeks there or if I need to appeal or if they ask for one.

Thank you all again,i am very scared,i never used to get this scared,i would just send the form and wait for them to contact my gp but I know things have changed and it is harder now so you need to get your evidence as much as possible and not rely on them looking for it.

We will now wait and hope.