Disabililty Living Allowance

[yesreally]

Have namechanged for this.

A friends daughter (aged 8) has been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Obviously they have had to make some changes in their lifestyle, but she is still going to school, after school activities, sleepovers etc.
The child is to receive £200 a month in DLA.
I'm shocked. Not at them for claiming it, as they were advised to by the diabetes nurse, but by the system.
There are cancer patients who cannot get the drugs they need to stay alive due to funding issues.
Am I alone in thinking this is strange?

I'm glad you've thought it out better.

my point is that people on the inside of these situations are often to be found saying "what me? no, I'm not disabled, thanks. there are plenty of people who have it worse. no, no, don't worry, we manage fine" etc. until, of course, the shit hits the fan, and it all starts coming unravelled - whether due to increasing need, or running out of the ability to cope.

I?m afraid to call myself disabled, and see my child as SEN not disabled.

I?ve just for the second year running had ATOS declare me genuinely unfit for work through multiple disability. It is a humiliating process, even with a kindly Dr who told me early I scored double the cut of limit.

I?ve just gone from struggling, with debts of £400, that I might have managed weekly, to suddenly now owing an unpayable £5400 overnight.
£5000 is disability tax credit being clawed back, and £400 is a CCJ for council tax from me being in hospital unable to pay my way. I don?t borrow, manage limited means, we?re officially below the poverty line, but now I?m in debt as well and DLA?s the only hope.

I have to find a way to pay back an incorrectly awarded disability tax credit as the amount that it can be clawed back at is to low for it to be paid off in time. Had I claimed DLA before, I wouldn?t be being penalised now.

I?ve been told I now have to claim DLA for one or both of us to pay of this debt. I?m sick with fear.

The thing I had was the knowledge and pride that I owed little and was only claiming on the National Insurance I?ve paid for decades. That?s gone.

My crime apparently, has been to not claim enough benefits, and now I?m being made to claim a benefit to pay back another benefit, and I?m very afraid of how we?ll be treated once we?re costing more, and hope I?m not judged by ?friends? as well, and really can?t see a good end to all this.

Thank for the info that i may be able to claim, think I may go to the CAB for some info

The CAB or if you have a disabled association/welfare rights organisation will do a full criteria check and if you have to go to appeal they will base the appeal on their original criteria check (as long as you have supporting professional imput).

You don't need a diagnosis as some people's MH/SN conditions are complex and do not fit into a category. As long as adoctor or psychologist has agreed that there is some sort of condition there.

Maybe they are afraid of the impact on the little girl if they start thinking of her as disabled.

My ds was told by a paediatric consultant that he must never let on that he is disabled when he goes up to secondary as he will be bullied to pieces if the other children find out.

(Not quite sure how ds was supposed to manage this: stay in bed on the days he can't walk I suppose? maybe tell his friends he is truanting?)

gasman, your mum can apply for a disabled facilities grant. It comes from the local council and is to help with alterations to your home required as a result of a disability. Really worth looking into if she needs a stairlift, it's exactly what the grant is for.

cory, that's dreadful. IME, consultants haven't the faintest idea.

cory, sorry your ds was told that. Hopefully he'll be told that the kids who do that will get re-educated (possibly involving a salt mine in Siberia), and he'll be confident to claim his human rights, not pander to prejudiced gits.

Diabetes is a life long life threatening illness, that requires yo to take over the job off the organ, I am a Type 1 Diabetic, if anything she should get more

Zombie thread.

But oh shit! I had forgotten somebody said that to ds! That explains so much about him later on! His fears and his resentment and his refusal to ever show pain or discuss anything painful. He's grown into a wonderful young man and I am so proud of him- but God! how could somebody say that to my lovely little boy and how could it have been part of so much shit that I just didn't remember it later?

Please, please, please- any posters who are involved in schools or the NHS or any other place where you come into contact with children, please think about what you say!!!

If you tell a child that it is inevitable that he will be bullied for what he is (ds) or she will fail in life for what she cannot help (dd), they will remember, long after the adults have forgotten, and it will shape who they are. Don't do it if you wouldn't want it done to your own child!

That little boy told me, years later, that the moment of his diagnosis was "the worst thing there is". He was an adult before he let on that he has frequent joint subluxations.
That little girl who was told no secondary school or employer would accept her disability tried to kill herself out of fear.

I would be interested to know how long ago the child was diagnosed. The family may well still be in the 'honeymoon period', and not felt the full force of living with a child with a chronic, incurable medical condition.