Disability living allowance for over 16's with diabetes

N9eav

I must admit that we were rather surprised when out daughter got diabetes that you could claim for DLA. I did not need it, but when it turned out to be £100's a month and your child tax credit increases too, I took it. What surprised me was that it finished at 16, when medically she was not different than 15 and 364 days. Some people with young children might need it, but there are far more deserving cases out there.

edinburghfiona

I was recently working on a research project about mental ill health in people with diabetes and coronary heart disease. There is good research evidence indicating that people with chronic illnesses are more likely to experience depression, so in fact being diabetic and suffering from depression could well be linked and worthy of getting some financial help to make life easier. However, I completely agree that lots of people that have diabetes lead full and active lives - but think we should remember that not everyone deals with (and is able to deal with) the condition in the same way.

System

Fran wrote: »

Disaability Living Allowance forms are not straightforward and a lot of older people struggle with them let alone a 16 year old! I have experience helping people fill them in. This is why Citizens Advice Bureaux and other Welfare Benefits advice centres have to spend time helping people fill them in. The forms appear to ask the same questions again and again and this is confusing. People don't realise they have to fill in this repeat information each time it applies. That is only one way it's difficult. It is hard to know for how long each day you might need care or how far you can actually walk without experiencing severe discomfort.

Agreed, DLA forms are a NIGHTMARE to fill in, it took me about 2 months to work up the mental capacity to get them done, luckily i did get help from CAB.

countrymusicfan

I think the point people are missing is not all diabetics are healthy and fit. I know that I, as a diabetic, am and so is my son, but my brother who has suffered with it since a child can't work because he has lost all the feeling in his fingers. I know diabetics who can't work because they have no control over their diabetes. I know diabetics who are into sports, but not all of us are fit and well. It affects different people differently. We are not all the same.

dmg24

***Old thread alert***

Before anybody takes the time to reply to the OP, you should be aware that the thread is several months old, so (hopefully) the OP's concerns have been resolved by now!

martinsgiftstogo

foxhaven wrote: »

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.

While people with Diabetes don't need to eat special food...what they DO eat, needs to be eaten regularly to avoid swings in blood glucose levels.

Also, some people with Diabetes regularly have sudden drops in their blood glucose levels which have no obvious reason,and that can result in life endangering situations.

Having said that...my son's DLA stopped at 16 and only started again when he developed complications in his 20's

foxhaven

Diabetes is NOT a disability, it's a disease which can cause a disability if it's not looked after and controlled properly. So getting a disability allowance for DM unless there's some other good reason is simply an attempt to con the benefits system. There are nearly 3 million diagnosed diabetics in this country, me included. Do you really think that we're all entitled to a DA. going about our normal lives??:rolleyes:

foxhaven

vegankris wrote: »

My OH is type 1 diabetic, and even though it's under control there are still extra expenses such as travelling to the hospital for checkups and glucose tablets(which he has to have around in case he take a hypo) so at the very least I think he should get travel expenses for the former and the latter available free on prescription.

I pay 0.49p for glucose tablets, less than a can of sugar free Coke. So what's the big deal?? He should pay for his bus trip to the hospital out of his pocket money unless he spends all he gets on condoms!!

margaretclare

countrymusicfan wrote: »

I think the point people are missing is not all diabetics are healthy and fit. I know that I, as a diabetic, am and so is my son, but my brother who has suffered with it since a child can't work because he has lost all the feeling in his fingers. I know diabetics who can't work because they have no control over their diabetes. I know diabetics who are into sports, but not all of us are fit and well. It affects different people differently. We are not all the same.

In your brother's case it will be the EFFECTS of diabetes which cause the disability and this is different from suggesting that it is diabetes itself which is the disability and therefore deserving of DLA.

My DH's diabetes comes to him down both sides of his family, so there is - and he's been told this by senior consultants - a large genetic component. One of the misapprehensions about diabetes nowadays is that it's a 'lifestyle disease'. This ignores the other factors.

DH's brother and first cousin also have diabetes, but they manage it in completely different ways. His brother, he thinks, is totally irresponsible. If DH hadn't 'taken it by the scruff of the neck' when first diagnosed 25 years ago, made it his business to discover all he could about it, keeps up to date with the latest research and developments, and made a complete lifestyle change, he would - I'm certain - by now be suffering some of the serious effects: heart disease, blindness, loss of limbs, you name it. He watched his mother go blind and die in her early 60s from neglecting her own diabetes.

Incidentally, when he went for his last annual check-up with his hospital consultant, it was the last in that particular form. No need now to go to the hospital and be told what he knows already - all that can be managed at his local surgery, and this is recent policy. No need for hospital travel costs. Specsavers now do the check-ups for retinopathy - no need to go to the hospital for those, either.

It should not cost any more for food, that is, of course, if you follow the guidelines for 'healthy eating' that are well-publicised. We've just come back from holiday in northern France and there was no problem at all with the meals we ate.

countrymusicfan

foxhaven wrote: »

Although diabetes is a disease it is NOT a disability. And it's a myth to suggest that anyone with DM needs special foods. I was diagnosed in 1981 with T2 and use medication and insulin and have never let it get in the way of leading a full and active life. You've got it for the rest of your life so get on with it and stop whining.

90 % if diabetics are fine and it is not a disability to them, but I have a friend who has been looking after himself, quite well, but still suffers so badly with high and low swings in his blood sugar that he needs constant supervision and a specialist dog. Surely in his case he should be granted DLA.