To go against DLA appeal advice?

[Divinity]

My DS(7) has ASD. He is in the aspergers category and while he struggles socially he is doing well academically.

His application for DLA was turned down despite the masses of evidence. It was turned down because

A) the school had ticked the yes box to whether he could dress himself, feed himself and use the toilet independently. Yet he soils himself every other day on average and is still in nappies at night.

B) the Occupational Therapist report said that he can dress/feed himself independently after I said he could. Trouble is I meant that he can dress in bits but not the whole sequence (and is easily distracted). He can eat himself but 95% of the time its with his fingers.

The advice of a charity specialising in DLA appeals is that it would be very difficult to win based on the above, that its very gruelling meeting so recommended withdrawing the claim.

I need to tell them asap if I'm withdrawing as the meeting is soon. But my friends say I have nothing to lose by going.

What are people's experience of dla appeals? Is it traumatic? I don't want to waste people's time if I've no chance but at the same time want to put my side across.

Yes duck its in the form. I used the cerebra template and asked cab for feedback so its all in. I also got statements from swim instructor + childminder.

I think I will ring the school about a letter then cab for advice

All his ieps from infant school were sent in. He's moved to a seperate junior school now and has no support in place. We (myself and the headteacher) are looking to get an advisory teacher in to look at his social needs/toileting but they're proving to be elusive!

He's doing fine academically which is why he was taken off his iep just prior to leaving infant school.

I have a weighted blanket bought from sensory direct only want £20 plus postage for it. It's one you can add or remove weights to suit the weight if a child and has a dinosaur cover. It was about £130 brand new

Pursue it definitely.

What have you got to lose? Everything to gain.

It's gruelling, but then again, so is being disbelieved and not getting what's due you.

A huge amount of appeals are upheld too. The DWP often make shocking decisions and are overruled. I am sure they deliberately do this in the hope that people will back out.

As I was reading your post I was thinking that he might not be able to sequence and then you said exactly that! So trained professionals on a board will also be looking for you to say that as it's a reasonable explanation.

UPDATE

Well I had my son's appeal today and I WON!!!!!!!

The panel were lovely. The GP said I would be surprised at how much they knew about autism. He gave a good explanation of the autistic spectrum which I suspect was for the terse, grumpy, benefits officer beside me. Ha.

Thank you so much to you all for telling me to go for it, I was ready to withdraw the application.

So un-MN hugs and

Am so glad you won your appeal. Was reading through thread to tell you to go for it. Great result

Brilliant. Well done for being strong

So glad you won. I am so cross at this tick box culture and tell my patients to write down their worst days and never say yes as the forms are yes/no.

Oh, how wonderful! Good for you.

Merry Christmas [fgurn]

Er, not a festive gurn. A

Haha. A festive gurn was what the benefits officer pulled when the judge said payment was to be backdated to May!

Fantastic! Have a happy Christmas!

I have a DS with Aspergers. He has received DLA since the age of 6, when his school advised me to apply for it. I had never even heard of DLA before that.

My DS's difficulties sound to be very similar to your DS's. The main expense for us (SN related expense) is that DS1 will not use public transport - he has an absolute meltdown if I suggest getting the bus. DH works in an out of town location that is not on a bus route. Therefore, we have needed to run two cars for the past 11 years (DS1 is 16 now) - that is an expense we would not have had if DS1 had not had issues with public transport.

Having said that, DS1 now has his DLA paid directly into his account as he is 16. That is absolutely fair enough but I am still running the second car to take him to school & to meet friends!

Oh wow, posted without reading Page 2 - durrr!

Congratulations! The money will help you support your DS, that's great news.

I was just about to write a long post but I see you've won anyway :)

Basically tribunals are really good. They are based on fair and intelligent reasoning, and are one part of the process where they ate not set against you reaching the criteria.

I've observed a few and was really blown away by the tribunal process and people.

As you can testify, it's well worth doing!

Tbh in all the applications I've seen or helped with, what you write and how is important but massive emphasis goes on what evidence you have. So professional reports, documents etc.

As a hcp I found it very hard to help anyone to get dla based on the form I got sent, much better chance if they completed their form and I provided a supporting letter than the client ticking the hcp involvement box and then dla writing to me with their form.

Excellent news. The appeals system really can work well for difficult conditions to explain on paper and if you have a knowledgeable panel.

I haven't read all the replies as am just off to bed, but I am mum to 2 SN boys, both on the spectrum. My oldest was turned down for dla, because school said "he could cross the road without support!" Despite the fact they never left the school with him! (There is a crossing outside the school that was put there after DC was hit by a car on his way home from school one night. I was with him, long story short, too many people and he'd shut down!)

DLA was denied despite a wealth of information supplied by physio, paed, etc. It was awarded and backdated at panel, didn't have to open my mouth. The first question they asked was "what rate do you think your DC should be on?"

I don't think you have anything to lose by going to appeal tribunal, wishing you luck x

Just seen the update, congrats op! :)

Brilliant news, well done!

Fantastic

It seems unfair more and more people are put off from appealing. I hope you mention to whoever it was that told you not to appeal that you did and you won! (may help another families too)

Have you applied for carers allowance, if not please do so, this will also be backdated.

Merry Christmas

I totally agree Rose it made me quite angry that the OP had been told that it wasn't worth going to appeal. Was coming on to write an angry post about how she'd been given completely false advice, when I saw that the OP had done it anyway. Good on her

I would go as far as saying the tribunal panel are the only people in the process who are there to act fairly and justly, with no benefit to themselves or their jobs/ colleagues etc in refusing people.

The judges, doctors and disabled advocates I met were genuinely experts in both the law and in how disability can affect people's daily lives. I saw them spend long amounts of time preparing and reading all cases, discussing and debating the key points and knowing exactly what they needed to ask the appellant in order to get to the truth. They dealt humanely and justly, knowing what processes people had gone through to get to the tribunal.

They made sure every person not only felt heard, but was heard. I was them totally change their minds after talking to a person, learning new information and insight they were completely open to changing their minds - not bound up by ego or needing to be right.

I also saw them ask telling questions, probing through lots of flannel and confusion to get to the point - and not being conned by someone who wasn't being quite honest.

I went into the experience being quite cynical and I totally changed my mind! I would advise anyone to go to tribunal. I wish there was a way of spreading that message do people don't give up...

Go to appeal. We were told not to bother with Dh's appeal. We went, we won. Turned out the information provided by the hospital had been from six years ago and hadn't for some reason been updated. It's worth it.
(I have three with AS too, they get DLA).