To want to beat anyone who says disability benefits are easy to scam....

[WitchOfEorzea]

...around the head with this envelope I have in my hand. A DLA application for dd.

Seventy questions filled in, with the aid of an online guide.

19 pages of additional information in essay format that couldn't possibly fit in the little boxes they give you.

22 pages of official reports from consultant paediatricians, specialist speech and language therapists, GP, nursery, portage and IDS.

And they will still probably make it as difficult as possible for me if it's a anything like my experience of getting PIP.

People commenting on how easy it is to scam the system make me want to cry.

I think I deserve a drink now!

You don't need a diagnosis to claim. Some genetic disorders will never be confirmed by diagnosis, but it doesn't reduce the issues. SWAN is good.

I think people think it's like it used to be where you could just get one sick note and that was it for years. I hear it's horrendous now.

You've never needed a sick note to claim DLA or PIP because they are inwork benefits.

I know the feeling, 3dc on dla here. Doesn't help that dh is in denial and has asd himself so goes round telling people about all the "free stuff" we get for our children who "hardly have any problems at all". I don't think he gets how long I spend doing stuff for the dcs.

Witch thanks mental health is a bugger to prove even with a yearly mental hospital stay

Obviously I'm faking it for the free goat...

Sorry for anyone else going through the wringer with them

The problem is that they used to be fairly easy (if you knew your way around the systems) to scam - particularly in MH.

When they clamped down and stopped a lot of people's benefits I was working in MH and received copies of claim forms as people put my name on them as their professional and some people had been out and out lying for years. Not even exaggerating - lying. And then TELLING me what they wanted me to write even though it was completely untrue.

So they threw the baby out with the bath water and now make it so difficult that people who are genuinely entitled and in need of the benefits often don't get them. And a lot of people might get it on appeal but people with genuine MH problems often give up before then because it's all so stressful.

DS2 gets DLA and my god, it was a right pain in the arse.

Lots of judgey comments from some people because me and DP are both in well paying jobs. Clearly they don't realise that DLA and PIP allow you access to other things that you can't get without them.

All of DS2's DLA money goes towards things that help him manage his disability. So far this has been things like noise cancelling headphones and a kindle, because he finds it tough to read actual books.

It's sad that people are so obsessed about benefits, it just goes to show how Murdoch and the Tories are doing their job properly. Perhaps Murdoch could spend his resources going after tax evasion instead, but that would be bad because he's one of them!

pickled There are hundreds if not thousands of undiagnosed children who are eligible for DLA. Just because they have no diagnosis doesn't mean they aren't disabled.

Try educating yourself at the SWAN UK website.

Op I am in agreement with you. I was turned down for PIP four times in the last 10 years. I have struggled on and eventually got awarded mid rate care and mobility two years ago for three years. Then I got a letter through after two saying they were reassessing me. I got a lovely assessor who came to my house and was mystified why I was only on mid rate mobility.

A couple of weeks later someone called from PIP and asked me when my mobility had got so bad. So I told her it had always been that bad. She backdated my claim for six months (the maximum she could) onto high rate mobility and told me to ring if things worsened with regards to my care needs.

I actually felt vindicated after being told I wasn't 'that' disabled so many times.

When children have a lifelong disability then I don't understand the need to constantly reassess. If they have cerebal palsy it's not going to magically get better, they won't suddenly be able to walk or control their bowels. Putting parents or carers through this so often is just not necessary.

totally agree, OP. DC has asd, severe LD, very limited speech and language, statemented at school under multiple constants (i.e. pages upon pages of reports) and I had a 9 months battle to get DLA - only got it after an appeal (was turned down when I applied first time and also when we requested a reconsideration).

Ds wasn't diagnosed when he first started getting DLA, he still doesn't have a formal autism diagnosis (does have others) but gets HRC and LRM. It's about the impact it has on the person not the diagnosis.

The forms are horrendous. Ds is due for a renewal middle of next year and I am dreading it.

I was lucky and didn't have to fill in my DDS form myself her Nutrition nurse did it and then filed it on the system for me so that when it needs renewing it can be printed off and signed and sent back in (obviously changing any information if needs be)

I did attempt to fill it in myself but messed two forms up and just lost my rag with it all so she offered to help and I took it. (Thank God)

YANBU....they are awful forms to complete.

Sorry, posted too early!!

I have also been told numerous times that my DD does not need DLA by friends and family. I have had 5 reports of benefit fraud against me because I am apparently claiming it fraudulently..

Obviously my DD is disabled but because you can't see her disability people think that I am making it all up for the money & reckon that when I am having long arse hospital stays we are actually on holiday ignorant bastards

DigestiveMuncher

This is exactly why I don't tell anyone other than really close family and friends what we claim and why. At this moment in time it's me, DP, MIL, FIL, my mum and dad and two of our friends who also claim DLA for their disabled children. It's not that I don't trust other people, it's just that my well-meaning brother might mention to someone about DS2 having an invisible disability who might mention it to someone who bashes benefits.

It's none of your family's business, really. It actually disgusts me that 'family' would even report it in the first place! Even if you were claiming fraudulently, you're not supposed to turn on your own bloody family. This just shows how much the Tories have got us to turn on each other though.

BowieFan

Sadly it was a family member that actually grassed me up. (we didn't talk all that often and obviously do not talk at all now) anyway she had seen me and DD out in town shopping and as DD was walking and shows no signs (with clothes on) of being disabled in any way decided she would stand their screaming at me and everyone else in town that i was nothing but a fraudster using my child to claim x amount of money. That i was a disgusting human being and that i didn't deserve my DD. I was mortified.. anyway 2 weeks later i had a letter all my money was sanctioned and an investigation into DLA i was lucky enough that my daughters nutrition nurse got involved straight away and sorted it out before they stopped my payments and id of had to claim for pip!!!

Pickled my children received high rate long before they were diagnosed. Dla is based on the needs of the child/person not a diagnosis.

allwayscarrymashems

if that comment was aimed at me my child also receives high rate due to the amount of care she needs...

I think a lot of people mix up DLA/PIP with when the goverment back in the day shunted a lot of unemployed people onto incapacity benefit or it's predecessor to make the figures look better.

They think that because everybody who wasn't working was put on it then that it's ridiculously easy to claim now.

What I don't understand is why is there no outrage at the waste of money spent on appeals and the likes. My DD's application was rejected despite letters/reports from two consultants, the GP and a specialist nurse. We then had to go to tribunal which involved a lawyer, a doctor and a diability rights worker. There was about 12-15 rooms int he building. All with those independant panels. We waited an hour and every single person that came out had won their appeal. How much does all of that cost?

Yanbu I fill in these forms for my bil and they are a nightmare, I also find some of the questions degrading.

shut up, shut up shut up

it is not happening...

www.undiagnosed.org.uk - Swan UK

Pickled,and anyone who believes that benefits such as DLA should only be given to people with a diagnosis, please read the information on the link about the world of undiagnosed genetic conditions - many 1000s of people with learning disabilities, physical disabilities and complex health needs have no diagnosis. Vast genetic studies like the DDD study and 100,000 genome study are trying to find diagnoses for participants, who have developmental disabilities with no diagnosis.

I'm sorry I reminded you!

It is horrible and degrading. It was bad enough doing my own for PIP but...doing DD's was heartbreaking.

Dozens of pages of what she can't do, what she'll never do without help and knowing that her getting help pretty much depends on you checking off those tick boxes with your answers.

Just take the countless medical professionals word for it. How often do they think entire teams of medical staff lie? They know all of her difficulties, I just don't understand why all this red tape is necessary.

As mentioned it costs god knows how much and for no good reason!

No it was for pickled, which is why I said pickled at the start