Disability living allowance for over 16's with diabetes

penrith

N9eav wrote:

This is a bit specific, but We have been in receipt of disability living allowance for our daughter who suffers from diabetes. The extar cash is a great help to buy the extra more expensive sugar free foods etc.
She will soon be 16 and we have to re-claim. The forms are different as they focus more on her abilities and disabilities rather than the need of parents to care for her, and we are wondering if she is still able to receive it?

A cousin of mine got DLA middle rate for diabetes from the age of 6. When he got to 16/18 ( i forget which) he had to reapply and got refused, he reconsidered and appealed but still the answer was "no". Basically the reason for refusal was that because he was now adult he should be able to do all the things he needs himself whereas before, when he was a child the money was so that he could get the help he needed. e.g. have an adult around to make sure he has regular meals, make sure he takes his insulin, makes sure he had syringes etc etc.

Since been 16/18 he has developed diabetes related problems (eye problems, feet problems) as well as moderate mental health problems. He keeps starting a job but ends up having to leave due to his ongoing health problems. Whenever he is in a period of unemployment he applies for DLA but keeps getting refused so he is skint so has to look for another job, ends up off sick, ends up unemployed etc etc and so the cycle continues.

Certainally in my cousins case, he found his DLA stopped when he became an adult, i suppose because they believed his care needs changed.

Fran

Has your cousin had help to fill the forms in Penrith? It could make a difference if he's filling them in himself and not wording things in the right way or not putting enough info on the form.

penrith

Fran wrote:

Has your cousin had help to fill the forms in Penrith? It could make a difference if he's filling them in himself and not wording things in the right way or not putting enough info on the form.

My aunty used to go to an advice place when she filled the DLA forms in for him when my cousin was a child. Now my cousin does them himself. Loads of people including my aunty has told him repeatedly to go to the same advice place but he never does. I suppose it is his own fault he never gets DLA.

However, this aside, the main reason i mentioned all this was to say that when my cousin became an adult his DLA stopped because the reasons for which he was getting DLA as a child stopped (e.g. someone to help with insulin, syringes, cooking meals) was deemed to be unnecessary because he was now an adult and could deal with all this himself.

margaretclare

penrith wrote:

Since been 16/18 he has developed diabetes related problems (eye problems, feet problems) as well as moderate mental health problems.

Certainally in my cousins case, he found his DLA stopped when he became an adult, i suppose because they believed his care needs changed.

The diabetes-related problems you describe are as a direct result of faulty control. The fluctuating levels of glucose in the blood can and do damage all of the smaller blood-vessels resulting in the eye problems you describe (called diabetic retinopathy), feet problems (diabetic neuropathy) and there are other things which may not have shown up yet. I don't think the mental health problems are a direct result of diabetes.

My husband has been a Type 2 diabetic since 1981, he's now 70, and since knowing him (nearly 8 years now) I've learned an incredible amount about diabetes, far more than I learned in my previous nursing and midwifery career. Because now it's 'real', it affects someone close to me, and I see on a day to day basis how he copes with it.

He tests his blood-glucose levels several times a day. There are set levels that he tries to keep within. He keeps one testing kit in the car and another one on his desk indoors. He wouldn't move far without one! He uses fast-acting insulin 3 times a day with a meal and a long-acting 'bolus' insulin last thing at night. Without this tight control he would have developed these nasty side-effects long before this. He has the back of his eyes photographed once a year, he has a good relationship with the Nurse Specialist in Diabetes who holds a clinic in our little town, so he doesn't need to go to the hospital very often. This Nurse Specialist can get the latest testing kit for him at cost price, and they discuss and agree if he wants to change his insulin. He's so clued-up about it, mostly she - and the consultant as well - agree with him. We don't buy special foods, we eat what's called a 'heart-smart' diet - wholegrain bread and cereal, low-fat meat, fish, chicken, fresh fruit and veg. The only difference is, we don't have cake, biscuits, puddings, those kind of things. Or if we do, it'a a 'one-off', as a treat. We like to go down the sea-front and have an ice-cream maybe once a week.

My husband has a cousin who's also Type 2 diabetic - he would get better control if he went on to insulin but he's resisted this because he thought it might affect his licence as a taxi-driver. He takes tablets and his wife puts them out for him in a little pot by his place at table! But normally, an adult does not need the kind of care described by the OP.

Everyone is different and everyone needs to take responsibility for their own blood-glucose control. Control is crucially-important! Your cousin may have been lax or lazy, thought it didn't matter, thought all the nasty things wouldn't happen to him, didn't want to bother, wanted someone else to do it for him - who knows, I've heard all those type of excuses. Usually children are very good about everything - they learn it, learn to give their own injections and because they haven't known anything else, take it in their stride. Sometimes there's a rebellion when they hit the teenage years - want to be like all their mates, you see.

There's a vast amount of information on the Diabetes UK website: https://www.diabetes.org.uk

Aunty Margaret

Fran

He clearly can't cope though and does have care needs given what you said. It's a shame that he hasn't taken the advice and got help with the forms, the stability of a little bit of extra income could help him sort things out better.

Curry_Queen

I think DLA is one of those controversial benefits that people assume should only be claimed if they have, for example, missing limbs or a very serious debilitating illness, and we often see people judging who should or should not be entitled to claim it.

It also makes it difficult because what one person my deem to be a disability, there are many more who just take it in their stride and wouldn't class themselves as disabled, but at the end of the day it's not for us to judge who should or should not be entitled, it's down to the benefit decision makers, and believe me it's not an easy benefit to claim and not one you could falsify either as medical evidence is needed.

Yes it does help to know how to word the forms to maximise chances of a successful claim, but this is down to their rather strange scoring criteria and is what makes the forms so difficult to complete without help, but again medical confirmation of everything you put down is necessary.

Before my mother died she had been very ill for a number of years and would most likely have qualified for top whack DLA on both care and mobility had my father made a claim, and life would have been much easier for both of them, but he didn't see it as being the State's job to financially provide for her and had the old-fashioned view of the "family" takes care of everything. No doubt if he knew that I was currently in receipt of the benefit I'd be scorned upon for "scrounging", but this is just his view, and unfortunately, also the view of many of the older generation.

If someone's life is affected by illness/disability then I think they have the right to at least try to obtain extra help, especially where their ability to earn a decent income is affected as stress often exacerbates medical conditions, and having a few extra pounds a week coming in can make all the difference.

Steviewonder1970

DLA is awarded based on the meeds arising from a condition or disability, rather than the disability or condition itself. Two people with exactly the same disability could, quite legitimately, receive different awards. It could be that now a person is 16, they can deal with their own injections and medication, thus removing the need for care from another person. Each case is looked at on it's own merits.

Curry_Queen

Steviewonder1970 wrote:

DLA is awarded based on the meeds arising from a condition or disability, rather than the disability or condition itself. Two people with exactly the same disability could, quite legitimately, receive different awards. It could be that now a person is 16, they can deal with their own injections and medication, thus removing the need for care from another person. Each case is looked at on it's own merits.

Yes, this is quite true and something maybe I should have stated a little clearer in my post (not been up long and need more :coffee: ) and also that you don't need to be actually receiving the care to claim, but have a need for it.

N9eav

foxhaven wrote:

Surely you are not in receipt of a disability benefit for your daughter just because she's a diabetic. That leads me on to ask if she's T1 or T2 and what age was she diagnosed. Is she physically or mentally disabled as well as being a diabetic? T1 diabetics do not need special sugar free foods and can virtually eat anything as long as sufficient insulin is injected to compensate.

Thanks for all the replies, they were most helpfull. The quote above was a little ignorant because it fails to realise that Diabetes is a disability. Just because someone does not look physically impaired or has loss of sensual fuunction it does not mean they just have a minor ailment.
My daughter was taken by ambulance to intensive care (aged 12), when it was discovered that she had diabetes and the condition almost killed her. We thought she had flu! Proves how much I knew. Anyway the diabetes support team told us to claim DLA for her as her condition was a disability. I was surprised to find that with their help on the form filling, we were in receipt of a reasonable sum to help with diet etc. (to be honest initially I thought it was a liberty claiming when so many people have worse problems and can't get any money, but the Government is pretty quick to take my money so I will take what they offer!) She is perfectly normal and has no limbs missing and is an A student at school. BUT she cannot eat what she wants and just top up the insulin. That is a wreckless way to live. The best way is to eat low sugar and healthy foods and control the sugar levels with insulin, but trying to do it with as lower doses as possible. The new 4 injections a day system seem much better. Anyway if anyone has the illness they will know how disibilitating it can be. It could lead to blindness which is scary. A friend of ours also had to have a limb ampuated as the diabetes would not let his foot heal properly after an infection.
Anyway it would seem by some comments that it is unlikely she will receive further payments on her 16th birthday. I will try as the Diabetes support unit at the hospital said that if she is in full time education there may be a chance. I just wondered if anyone had gotten it?

foxhaven

filigree wrote:

As I recall the main criteria is that your daughter needs something extra in her life that a healthy youngster wouldn't need. I don't have much knowledge of diabetes but I'll suggest what worked for us (son with epilepsy):

• Needs to make regular trips to clinic to see dietician or diabetes nurse. Time needed for travel, cost of bus fares etc.
• Travel time/costs of visiting pharmacy for medications (ie I had to travel to hospital once a month to collect medicine not available from Boots)
• Time spent - injections, sampling blood, keeping a food diary etc. Even if it only adds up to 30 minutes a day, put it down! I had to keep a seizure diary, I put that on our application form.
• Do you pay for special equipment not available on the NHS? I know insulin is free but do you pay out of your pocket for something that makes life easier?
• Does your daughter have bad spells, hypo attacks etc and how much help does she need to take meds to get back to normal?
• My MIL is diabetic and she goes to a monthly support group, and has regular visits to the chiropodist and sees the optician more often than usual. If any of that applies to your daughter, put it in the form.
• Is there anything she needs but doesn't get? My son was on the waiting list for Occupational Health for nearly a year but I still put it on the claim form - he needed OH even if he wasn't getting any at that precise moment.
• Don't leave out any unrelated health problems. I put down my son's asthma which is the least of his problems, but it does form an important part of the bigger picture.

Most important of all, get your daughter to contribute as much as possible, especially completing that page where you describe "in your own words" how your illness affects you.

Good luck, I sympathise with the chore of filling out these blessed forms every few years!

I can assure you that none of that is relevant for a diabetic. Epilepsy is an entirely different ball game and as far as the benefits agency are concerned, diabetes alone does not qualify or justify special consideration unless it's allied to either physical or mental impairment. And let me make it quite clear that diabetics do NOT need special foods or supervision to ensure proper control of the disease and a good quality of life.