To ask whether anyone has successfully overturned a DLA decision handed at appeal? I am expected to find a mistake in the law?

[Namechangesenmum]

Would appreciate any advice here as I appealed and the original decision was not overturned

I underatsnd that I cant appeal based on disagreeing, but they've got it wrong 😢

Unfortunately you need to be very honest and very brutal about your son on the forms.

I'd wait until he is older. The care needs to be above what's expected for the child's age. At 7, children wouldn't be going out anyway. They would need supervision regardless of impairment. Already getting lower rate mobility and high rate care for a 7 year old is a good extra payment. Do you actually have costs related to his disability that exceed what you have been awarded?

No. You do not use the worst day as a basis for answering questions.

The decision maker needs to know about how the condition affects him most days

Then explain to me why the decision maker called me and changed his LRM due to SM I then? He has had MRIs that would have been sent to them as evidence from his pead. I never claimed he did. I just described how he was. Yet he got lifetime DLA on SMI and now gets 10 year and we will call just to catch up PIP award.
I have never used SMI on either of his applications.

Yet you are told by professionals to use the worst day

If your son was awarded DLA under the SMI criteria, he must have met the arrested development or incomplete development of the brain. It is one of the tests that has to be met in order for SMI to apply. See the government flowchart I linked to that has the legislation referenced for each point. You mention compared to neurotypical; if DS has autism, he is considered to meet arrested development or incomplete development of the brain test as per case law.

By all means describe a worst day and say how often that is, but don’t make out every day/most days are a worst day if that isn’t the case.

Are you sure your child doesn't have it? Maybe it's just not been said to you in those words. Does he have a learning disability?

Incompetent professionals, maybe

My son is autism presenting due to a genetic issue on the X chromosome but I’d technically not autistic. He has ADHD too. His MRI came back clear so I assumed his brain had development was normal. No one ever said his brain hadn’t developed normally.

Well I did think his pead was incompetent so maybe. sadly his worst days are maybe 5:2 which I said on his forms. I always tell the truth on his forms.

It's not just about a physical issue on the brain that you can see. Autism and Learning Disabilities can come under an impairment of the brain. A lifetime award does suggest your DC fits the category, there's no expectations that he will stop requiring additional support, so you could assume that he has arrested or incomplete development of the brain.

The chromosome disorder is likely to have been considered to meet the arrested development or incomplete development of the brain test. Sometimes this can be present even if the NHS MRIs are normal.

More recent case law also shows in some circumstances ADHD can meet the test.

I really don’t want to keep detaining the thread so I’ll just finish with
he didn’t get diagnosed with ADHD for 2 years after getting HRM and the chromosomal abnormality has not long been discovered due to the 1000 geonome study so these forms were done on just the diagnosis of autism and GDD

It's a few years since I went through it so apologies if things have changed but high rate mobility is much harder to get for younger children as they compare the child with a neurotypical child. They argue that any 7 year old is not safe without a parent outside alone so a 7 year old already has mobility needs anyway (if that makes sense)
The older they get the more they differ from a neurotypical child so the easier it is to get awarded the higher rate.
Mine was 12 when he was awarded mobility.

If you've already appealed & list you would need to find an error in the law which is very difficult.

You would be better off reapplying in a couple of years.

Here is the DWPs Decision Maker's Guide

SMI is covered from 61350 - 61386

I don't think this is very far. SMI has strict criteria, and op is best placed to know if he fits the criteria or not. I'm at the mediation stage as my son lost HRM when I stupidly thought the "changes" form for what I had changed only. I have proof for socail care, school and his PA he meets all criteria. However DWP said their reasoning was he didn't have have "complete and utter arrested development" there is no "complete and utter" as part of the criteria. So saying experts never get anything wrong esp during tomes of need to seriously cut back on spending.

If there was no need for appeals, they wouldn't exist.

Right, so the diagnosis of ASD and GDD class as meeting the arrested development or incomplete development of the brain test.

"op is best placed to know if he fits the criteria or not"

Clearly not, if she doesn't know what the criteria are.

Thank you. No one really explained it to me. I applied, got decision and accepted it.

I think it would be truer to say that these things can (but do not necessarily) meet the 'arrested or incomplete development' test

Here is the law. You are absolutely right to say that there is no "complete and utter" in it:

(5) A person falls within subsection (3)(a) of of the Act (severely mentally impaired) if he suffers from a state of arrested development or incomplete physical development of the brain, which results in severe impairment of intelligence and social functioning.

(6) A person falls within subsection (3)(b) of of the Act (severe behavioural problems) if he exhibits disruptive behaviour which–

(a)is extreme,
(b)regularly requires another person to intervene and physically restrain him in order to prevent him causing physical injury to himself or another, or damage to property, and
(c)is so unpredictable that he requires another person to be present and watching over him whenever he is awake.

No, autism and GDD do meet the arrested development or incomplete development of the brain test. That doesn’t mean everyone with ASD and GDD will meet the SMI criteria because that is just one part of the criteria and to meet the SMI criteria every test needs to be met.

I do know what the criteria is and wrote a fantastic appeal

But I let myself down on the day, getting nervous and rambling and describing ds as docile and sweet

Foolishly

Please stop, I am here for support in trying to take my appeal to the judge.

Also work in this area.

The SMI criteria require the child to be severely mentally impaired as defined in law, which is not the same as having autism or being non‑verbal.

The Decision Makers Guide (DMG) makes this explicit: HRM under SMI requires highest rate care, severe mental impairment, and severe behavioural problems — all three must be met together.

Autism alone does not prove “severe mental impairment” in the DLA sense.

You need to reapply and address the flowchart point by point. Doesn’t matter what medical conditions they have. Depends on how it impacts them.