claiming DLA?

Alice_Holt

iammumtoone wrote: »

I will fill the form out an make an appointment with the CAB to check it for me.

That's a good plan.

I would contact them asap as most CAB's are very busy and you are likely to have a wait before getting an appointment.

Re: Completing the form. I would suggest you complete the personal details / GP section etc, but leave the care needs sections blank.
Take the typed page(s) (per post 8) containing your draft version of what you would want to say about your son's care needs / supervision required around tantrums / and how the care needs are significantly more than other 10 yr olds for the various sections. Leave lots of space between your sections, so you can write down any suggested amendments from the CAB appointment.
If you have a diary of care needs then take this with you.
If the advisor can give you copies of relevant pages from the Disability Rights Handbook - then this may be useful (or your local library may have a copy).

Ask if your CAB has a benefit caseworker who may be able to assist with an appeal if this is necessary. Some do, some don't - each CAB is different it depends a lot on local funding sources.

poppy12345

NeilCr wrote: »

This. Twicefold

Please do it.

Personally, I'm not going to answer any more specific questions about the form completion. It won't help and, to be honest, from your responses, you are going to really, really struggle trying to do this by yourself

I completely agree! Great advice too from Alice as always!

Spendless

As an alternative to CAB if you struggle to get an appointment or there's no benefit case worker there, I used to volunteer for DIAL (diability information and advice line). They are also a charity and have people who can help fill in forms. See if there's one near you.

http://www.focusondisability.org.uk/dial-uk.html

I know they've also had funding cuts in recent years (I sometimes bump into old workmates), but thought I'd give you a suggestion of plan B of who to ring.

iammumtoone

Today I am going to read the information booklet that came with the form and the other helpful links provided about about filling in the form.

Tomorrow I will start on the form. I am not going to write on it but type all my answers up, I can then take this to the CAB so any amendments can be made without ruining the form.

I counted 26 pages of questions that relate to child, other pages are general info (address etc). I plan to do on average 2 pages per day meaning it will take 2 weeks I wont get a CAB appointment until after that.

I am also going to use a stopwatch to time how long every things takes so my answers are accurate. Whilst I would appreciate the help an award would bring I only want what I am entitled to I want to make sure I don't unintentionally exaggerate (I am well aware that things can often seem to take longer than they actually do).

To anyone else in this situation I advise you do not wait until it is needed as someone pointed out earlier I could have done this anytime whilst I was working (I now see I should have done) It is going to be stressful and time consuming. The time I will spend on this could/should be spent job hunting.

poppy12345

iammumtoone wrote: »

Today I am going to read the information booklet that came with the form and the other helpful links provided about about filling in the form.

Tomorrow I will start on the form. I am not going to write on it but type all my answers up, I can then take this to the CAB so any amendments can be made without ruining the form.

I counted 26 pages of questions that relate to child, other pages are general info (address etc). I plan to do on average 2 pages per day meaning it will take 2 weeks I wont get a CAB appointment until after that.

I am also going to use a stopwatch to time how long every things takes so my answers are accurate. Whilst I would appreciate the help an award would bring I only want what I am entitled to I want to make sure I don't unintentionally exaggerate (I am well aware that things can often seem to take longer than they actually do).

To anyone else in this situation I advise you do not wait until it is needed as someone pointed out earlier I could have done this anytime whilst I was working (I now see I should have done) It is going to be stressful and time consuming. The time I will spend on this could/should be spent job hunting.

But the money would be for your son not for you.

iammumtoone

poppy12345 wrote: »

But the money would be for your son not for you.

Yes I do know that I clearly worded that wrong I only want what he is entitled to. I think it is because I view it as it would be down to me to decide what the money was spent on to help him, he is not given the money directly to decide how he wishes to spend it.

£20 a week is not alot, but means more when you only have JSA to live on. Really I want the recognition that he has a disability more than the money. His needs are he needs me to take him to and from school (he gets extremely stressed if this doesn't happen) I want the JC to appreciate and understand this fact when I am job searching.

[Deleted User]

You said earlier that the school are unlikely to back up what you are going to say, have you spoken to them to confirm this? if so then I really doubt you will get DLA for him.
I said earlier that it gets easier with age, and it does but different ages for different kids, they are all different. my lads 34 and still ignores some of my advice lol.
By all means give it a go but don't hold your breath.

poppy12345

venison wrote: »

You said earlier that the school are unlikely to back up what you are going to say, have you spoken to them to confirm this? if so then I really doubt you will get DLA for him.
I said earlier that it gets easier with age, and it does but different ages for different kids, they are all different. my lads 34 and still ignores some of my advice lol.
By all means give it a go but don't hold your breath.

This is the exact reason my daughter was refused DLA...because the school believed there was nothing wrong...and they knew i was applying.

[Deleted User]

If he doesn't have an IEP or EHCP and both the school and ed psych contradict what you are claiming it's not likely you'll be successful.

iammumtoone

_shel wrote: »

If he doesn't have an IEP or EHCP and both the school and ed psych contradict what you are claiming it's not likely you'll be successful.

The only reason he doesn't have an IEP is the school don't do the. He did have then when he first started when they did them..