To give up trying to do ds's dla claim on line?

[ledkr]

Has anyone else had this problem? We put the day aside to fill it in and it was like an ordeal.
Kept coming up with asterix's to say dob wrong or address it was a nightmare,we double checked and re entred the info in differnet formays but stil no joy.I am so annoyed as we put the time aside.
Does anyone have advice on the best way to do it,shall i print off a form or order one?

YANBU. I gave up after about an hour, then downloaded one and found as you type the boxes don't get bigger, the type gets smaller and ends up invisible!

I don't have a textphone atm to get a hard copy so have done nothing about it for 6 months...

They backdate it if you do it online too. I had to ring though it doesn't work on google chrome they said it only works on Internet explorer 6 or below.

YANBU. I sat with my means went trough the form with her, and the online on just crashed constantly, we ended up filling in the PDF one on the laptop then printing it and sending it off.
It took us the whole day to fill it in, and it was incredibly emotional. It's as if writing it down makes it real :-(
Hers came through in about 3 weeks, they wrote to her GP and hospital consultants in the first week after they received the form, and awarded her MRC/HRM indefinitely.

Good luck, it's a horrific thing to go through, and the stupid website just makes it even worse :-(

I type mine in Word using the same headings as the form, then strike a line through the form and write Refer To Attachment across it. The whole thing takes me about three months from start to finish - ds has AS/ADHD and hypermobility but no involvement from professional services so it's quite a trick to get the wording just right. But I do a bit every day with the occasional day off. I start it well ahead of due date so that I can be sure not to be late with the renewal.

Doing it in Word also means I have a copy to hand on hard drive when it comes to renewal, which eases the strain consierably.

Cerebra guide is the best one I've seen. There are others but the don't compare.

CAB are very helpful if your application is straightforward as realistically they only know about the administration of DLA and aren't qualified to phrase specific conditions to fit the form's requirement. It can be better to get a key worker from a disability organisation to help if that's what you need.

Don't forget to take photocopies and send it registered/recorded, and perhaps even phone DWP to check they've received it, just in case.

YANBU.

The online form is dreadful. It doesn't save reliably and it doesn't give you anywhere near enough space to put down all the stuff you need to say. A cynic might think it was deliberately designed to withhold support from genuine claimants.

I tend to request a paper copy (to get a date for the thing), then download the PDF copy from the website, fill in the PDF copy with the basic details and in every big section type: "see enclosure 14.3" or whatever, like streakybacon. Then type up all the answers to the sections in Word. Save the PDF, save the Word doc, and then print off. You should be able to re-use a lot of the Word doc when you renew, saving time (though they tend to revamp the form from time to time to keep you on your toes so be careful about eg heading numbers.) Even re-using a lot of stuff it took me about a month to complete last time.

When it is all printed, I punch holes in it and submit it in a ring binder with the empty dated form: it's pretty heavy by the time I have finished. I send it recorded delivery because they lost one in an office move once and they refused to start looking for it till I told them I had proof it had arrived weeks ago.

I confess to being one of those cynics r3dh3d. Can't remember the actual phrasing of the question, but a few applications back there was one box asking a very open question about support needs that gave about an inch of space to provide the answer. Mine in Word ran to six pages of A4 . I'd have barely got started if I'd tried to answer on the form.

I believe they give you that little space so that you can't be specific enough about the child's difficulties and they can then reject the claim on the basis of insufficient evidence. Manipulative is what it is.

I downloaded the form then completed it in my own time on the computer.

Printed it out and sent it off.

I didn't know you could do it online. Just taken me four weeks to do dhs. Sent it off last week. Scared stupid now.

sorry ive not disappeared ill be back later am on visiting Nan duties