To Be Peeved with the guy from the CAB ??

[michymama]

Ok longish story, please bear with me.
DS,5, has recently been diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy so I applied for Disability Benefit. I had a letter the other day saying he had been awarded Mobility but not the Care. I called the local CAB (citizens advice bureau) for some advice and they told me to call in to the local branch.
The guy who interviewed me didn't even look at me, whilst I was telling him the story he kept looking round and even when he was talking to me didn't look at me. Have to say this immediatly annoyed me as eye contact is important, especailly when your supposed to be giving someone advice.
He was very abrupt and judgemental. I neede advice as I don't want to appeal if they really believe he is not intiiled to it. When I said this to him he just said "no, what you mean is you don't want to lose all your beenfits !".
Of course I don't want to lose any benefits that my son is entitiled to but I certainly am not trying to get freebies !!!
This happened on Friday and its still niggling me. How did he not know I am of unstable mind and his flippant and nasty attitude could push me over the edge ???
Its rattled me even more as I have just read through the booklet sent to me by the wonderfully helpful guy at the disability benfits and seen my son meets all the criteria !! I have just called and spoke to another increadibly helpful lady who has given me all the info I need.
I know CAB is run by volunteers but surely if you can't be helpful and nice then you should not be doing that job.

eek. sounds like he's not doing much in the way of 'helpful' advice... where are you? i'd take it up with the local voluntary body if i was you - you don't wnat him offering too much more 'help' to anyone more vulnerable...

are you all sorted with the DLA now? not sure if you've posted on sn, but lots of people able to offer advice. not had to appeal here (dd2 is 5 with cp) but had to reapply recently after the award ran out lol...

you should probably make sure though that the volunteer guy doesn't have his own sn lol!

OK firstly i would justmention the eye contact- the disbaility advicevollie here is doing it becase he has AS and tehrefore doesn'tmae eye contact; consider this,is it a possibility?

DLA often refure or mess up first applications- amssively high percentage rate.DS3 for examplewasrefused then awarded HRC on the basis of one letter, tbh I usually warnpeopletoexpect it.

the cerebra website has a fabulous guide toDLA

Sorry Peachy you mean maybe he has AS (not sure what it is) so that was the reason he didn't make eye contact ?? I never actually considered that. His whole attitude was wrong though. It was the DLA who actually advised me to go there.
Thanks for the info about the website, will have a look now.

good luck with the appeal. could be worth mentioning the incident to the branch manager so the chap can be trained or redeployed.

My mum works for CAB and has the empathy of a brick - I think she managed to not say 'how stupid are you' to people whose partners had screwed them over, but her thoughts were still pretty obvious. So CAB keep her in the back room and get her to phone up evil loan and HP companies and give them a right earful until they start being reasonable. So CAB should still be able to make use of this chap.

Although could you have misunderstood - many people worry that if they appeal a DLA decision they may lose the amount originally awarded, so end up worse off - that could be what he meant?

That is what he meant but he said it in a real snidey, nasty way. Implying I am more interested in the money that in getting what my son needs.
Even thoughb he was rude I feel bad about complaining about him. I always try to see the best in people, maybe he was having a bad day ?

Sorry, AS form of Autism- Aspergers Syndrome. I did wonder about AS as also the comment about benefit might be something my DS1 would say but could well be you just got a rude person or someone on a bad day.

Regardless, worth mentioning to CAB manager.

You know tehre aremany of us in the SN section with DLA experience, always worth asking on there I think (I myself have 2kids with sn so am wellused to the forms..... arrrrggghhhhhh- just ahd to completely redo as DLA didnta ssign obviousloy entitled tomobility first time (he's on reins at 5))

Hi michymama, I used to be a CAB adviser and one of the main things we are told is not to be judgemental or biased and not at all sure that this guy followed those guidelines. So I think you should write a letter to the Manager of that bureau just stating very briefly what you have told us and how you have found helpful advice elsewhere. If the Manager is any good at all then he/she should consider if this guy needs re-training!
Hope you get all the benefits sorted.

I think it is always worth appealing: the way it works is that they knock you back first just to see if you can be added, it seems to me!! If you need to be up at night with your child especially, and there are toileting issues etc, it is very definitely worth persisting.

I went to see the CAB once to see what rights and financial recourse I had after my ex was making life a nightmare for me...the man I saw had real pearls of wisdom for me: "Be strong. Be strong for your children." End of appointment. Honestly. That was really worth queueing over an hour for