DLA Wait Times Part 9 (2023)

[Lostatsea10]

Thought it was time for a new thread :)

Same here I’m beginning to think it’s a decline now :/

Anybody know how mandatory reconsideration works? I've had no contact from DLA about my daughter's claim, but can see a payment has arrived in my bank which by calculating it equates to lower rate care. It's very clear from all of the evidence submitted with the claim that she should have middle rate care. She should also get lower rate mobility but she is just under 5. I want to ensure this is added from her 5th birthday. But obviously the lower rate care now needs to be challenged. Yet more work for me. I am surprised given the multiple reports from professionals that we submitted, that they've done this.

Also expected at least someone to contact me to inform me of the outcome. No letter, no call. What an absolute shambles.

I have to hire private nannies to care for her while I work. £25 per week will cover less than two hours of her care. What a laugh they are having!!! Even the middle rate care would have been a joke in terms of the real cost but this is just taking the absolute piss tbh. Childcare bills of thousands per month due her disability, me as a lone parent working full time and having barely any sleep ever and their answer is... here's £25 per week? 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Has anyone had any luck today?! I'm week 11... feels like week 111 😅

@SleepingRedSnowBootsAndThePea I don't know how it works but I know you could risk losing your claim. But with the amount of evidence you say you have I can't see why they would take it off you

Oh ok. Tbh for £25 a week if we lose it, it would not make any difference. It's an insult frankly. They've had reports from a clinical psychologist, two paediatricians, two professional nannies and a bunch of other evidence. I'm just so tired of having to fight idiots at school and CAMHS and DLA etc to do their jobs. Exhausting and such a waste of my time. I am on hold waiting to talk to the muppets now and they'll be getting a piece of my mind.

@SleepingRedSnowBootsAndThePea did you write any extra information about how your child is at home and the extra care they need?

I’m currently waiting been on phone 40 minutes…😳😳 claim ends less than 2 weeks

@Boymom10 let me know what they say

Will do 😊

@Snickerdoodles19 still waiting on phone but by any chance if you do get carers? Have you received a letter saying it will stop due to DLA ending?

@Boymom10 no I don’t get it, I have seen post before on here though with same letter and that apparently it’s an automatic letter that gets sent out and you just have to phone and update them to what’s happening

@Snickerdoodles19 just got off the phone scan date was 24/11 and stops in two weeks and it’s not with a dm she said it should be Done a couple of days before it ends

@Boymom10 yeah that’s what she said to me, hopefully by the end of this week it should be done

Yep. They had a weekly diary from me talking about her needs, her emotional disregulation, her anxiety, her violence to me and her brother, her lack of ability to assess risks (we spent all weekend in A&E because she ate a magnet...). Her night terrors and nightmares 2-3 times per night and sometimes hours to get back to sleep. Me surviving on 1-3 hours of sleep per night while working full time in a professional job. The OT reports about adjustments at nursery, SS involvement in transition arrangements for school, paediatrician's reports and her being prescribed melatonin for the sleep issues, her psychologist's report about the extreme anxiety.

We get no help, because I work. Not even child benefit. I pay for everything. I had to pay for her diagnosis myself. I paid for her therapist myself as CAMHS will do nothing. I pay for the nannies she needs. I am disabled myself btw. It's beyond ridiculous.

Have just spoken to them. They are putting through a mandatory reconsideration and told me it will be another 5-6 weeks before we hear. Like we're supposed to be grateful if they award the pittance she's entitled to finally that will cover nothing near the costs.

What an absolute joke it is. All of it.

The diary made it clear how she will try to run in front of cars or off train platforms, launch herself off furniture. All the evidence was there. Reports from registered nannies. Whoever looked at this claim has some serious comprehension issues. Or, didn't actually read the evidence submitted.

Apparently as well they claim they sent me a decision letter on 1 March. There is no Royal Mail strike now. We have no issues with our post. So where is it? I suggested they email it. They can't apparently. 🙄🤣 But will send it again. So maybe sometime around Christmas we might receive that.

@SleepingRedSnowBootsAndThePea yes it most definitely sounds like it’s gone to the wrong decision maker to look at based off of all the information you have sent in most definitely should be aiming for at least mid/high rate care.

@SleepingRedSnowBootsAndThePea im guessing you don’t get a massive amount of help from school/hospital ?

@SleepingRedSnowBootsAndThePea
This fills me with little hope for my sons claim. All that evidence you had and it's only lower rate

Thanks. My assessment from the criteria was that it should be middle rate care at least, and lower rate mobility from when she turns 5. I have told them that whomever does the "reassessment" needs to at least read the evidence and have some basic understanding of her medical conditions.

Just such a joke that even this pittance of a tiny contribution towards the actual cost of looking after her has to be fought for and argued about even with me having gone to the effort of sending a huge dossier with all of the professionals' reports. If I'd just submitted the form alone I could understand it but this is absolutely absurd. Very basic incompetence. Like every other public service we've encountered in the last few years from NHS to schools to social services. It's pathetic tbh. If I did my own job this incompetently I'd be hauled up in court, at best struck off and at worst imprisoned. Causing this much unnecessary stress and hassle to parents over such a pathetic contribution anyway is mind boggling.

Nope. All public services have been utterly useless. I actually had a social worker say to me that "you have a job, why can't you just fund therapy yourself?". As a lone parent and disabled myself. Oh and that my kids can't be autistic because they make eye contact and didn't have a meltdown during her one hour visit when they were masking. 🤣🤣🤣 I pointed out to her that I am autistic too, and I made eye contact and didn't have a meltdown during her visit either (much as I felt like it) so perhaps my diagnosis is also wrong?!?

These fucking people. Most of them really should not be in the jobs they have.

@SleepingRedSnowBootsAndThePea i know it’s hard going especially when the school or hospital goes against you and says something completely different that’s where the issues start, yea I agree you’d have thought that decision makers would have basic knowledge about most conditions and too looks for the triggers.

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make anybody feel worse. The man I spoke to today said that the assessors who deal with the mandatory reconsiderations are "more experienced" so perhaps they just have idiots doing the initial assessments who cannot/ cannot be bothered to read/ are so ignorant they do not understand what they are reading, and maybe it will be reconsidered by somebody competent. I hope.

So if you get a stupid outcome first time do what I did and call up and explain in detail why they are wrong and the criteria are met and I hope if you are unlucky enough to also get a fool making the original decision you can challenge it and with kuck somebody vaguely competent might then correct it.

What is worrying is if you get another idiot for the mandatory reconsideration. Then apparently, I was told today, the remedy is a tribunal. I do not have the capacity to deal with all of the extra admin that will cause me, atm.