Scottish Child Disability Benefit

[Doneinmamma]

Hi everyone, newbie here 👋

I came across what looks like an old thread on waiting times for the ‘New’ Child Disability Benefit in Scotland which seems to have stopped in July. I just wondered if anyone had applied recently and what the waiting times were?

I know it say 6-8 weeks BUT I also know when a teenager says they will do there room later, that could be later that day or later that year so wondering if I should take the 6-8 weeks with a pinch of salt.

My son is Autistic and was urged to apply for it.

Thank you everyone

Doneinmamma xx

@BluebellsareBlue i just wanted to give a wee update and thank you very much for popping on here with your advice! After uploading the appointment letters last week my application has been picked up today, the case manager contacted me this morning to ask about nights with my son and said a decision will be made very soon 😀

That's fantastic. So glad I could help x

That’s brill! Hoping mine is picked up soon too fingers crossed you get a good decision

We got our award last week once it’s hit case manager it seems to be quicker. Also received a change of circumstances award notice today for my other DS as we notified them in January his physio had stopped and again in March to say he had diagnosis of autism. We only got a letter last week saying that was them reviewing his award and letter saying his award will continue as is and review mobility when 3 then Care when 5.

Thank you, I hope so too @Karleyxo🤞 hopefully you’ll not have too long to wait! Definitely upload as much info as you can as that’s what seems to have bumped mine on. @Oneandonly22 how long between being picked up by case manager and award was it for you? That’s brilliant regarding your change of Circs award for your other son, seemed pretty straight forward, I bet you’re so relieved!

Mines took a couple of weeks but I was awaiting an extra support letter from his school with recent changes so the case manager agreed to wait until I had this. If I had that already uploaded it would probably have been done the day the case manager picked up his case. My other DS had the care element until he was 5 already but because his physio stopped I informed them as he wasn’t walking or sitting up when we first applied but can now. I wanted to make sure they knew the changes.

Hi all, glad to have found this thread.

Been waiting since the very start of February and spoke on the webchat service today and was told it’s not been allocated to a case manager yet. Very frustrating as we are desperately needing a blue badge but our local authority won’t entertain us unless our DD is in receipt of a disability payment. They kept going on about DLA until I corrected them!

Im glad to see that it’s just not us having to wait as long as we have but isn’t it frustrating how long it takes? To not even have a case manager allocated 4 months after submission is ridiculous and I do appreciate others have waited even longer. Something not right with the process

@BluebellsareBlue - can you retrospectively add more information/supporting evidence to the claim? I’m just trying to eliminate anything which will hold this up once a case manager is allocated. We’ve had more appointments since February when the claim went in.

Hi @CTDS! I submitted my application on 10/1 and it was picked up by case manager on Tuesday. Decision has been made with letter posted yesterday so hopefully you won’t be much further behind! In terms of supporting information you can upload this to your application at any time on the website. Although, please be wary as I submitted 4 lots of evidence between April & June and when I checked to see if it had been added to my application last week, they had only attached one. Keep a note of your reference number once uploaded as this helped them trace all of my other evidence and attach it to my application straight away. Once the supporting information was with the application it’s only taken a few days for it to be picked up by case manager - Good luck 🤞

@CTDS yes you can!! Upload EVERYTHING!! And just for info there are about 24 new client advisors who will be going live in a couple of weeks. Doesn't sound a lot but will hopefully make a wee difference in getting cases through. You can even add another supporting statement regarding an urgent need for the mobility element. Can you ask your GP for a letter explaining the need for this? (Or anyone else that can support your need) and get it uploaded. Referral letters, letters from family etc. get it all in!! Let me know how you get on x

Just to update anyone still waiting, we had a letter this morning awarding highest rate care component for my 21 month old son with backdated payment due on 20/6! Wishing everyone else the best of luck who are still awaiting their decisions! Also thanks so much to @BluebellsareBlue for coming on and encouraging the supporting information as I don’t think ours would’ve been picked up when it was if I hadn’t added appointment letters! Happy Saturday 😁 xx

That's great news!!! @Mum2thr33 I'm happy to help in any way x

Thanks so much!

I am trying to upload more evidence but keep getting errors. Can you advise or send the link where to upload more information retrospectively?

I think it’s finally worked! The website is atrocious

I’m just off the online chat about my claim….

Originally submitted on 03/02/2023 and still no outcome. As I mentioned earlier, we need this outcome (hopefully positive) in order to get a blue badge from our Local Authority (their rules are strict)

Was told the following today….

“the case is currently at stage 2 waiting on pick up by a case manager for assessment. the estimated time for stage 2 to be completed is 12- 16 weeks depending on what needs to be done to come to a decision, as you case was moved to stage 2 on 08/06/2022, it should be around another 9-13 weeks for a decision to be made”

So, they are saying it could take around 33 weeks for this outcome which is nearly 3 quarters of a year!

This process is seriously flawed and is failing many of us. I could get into the current political landscape in Scotland and how it’s spiralling out of control and change is needed after continual failures but no point derailing the thread. Very frustrated here.

I applied last Nov and only got a decision recently- took around 7 months in total. Hope you get your decision soon

Still waiting here too, form submitted February.

Hiya @CTDS just wanted to say in terms of blue badge without a DLA decision my son got his (I meant to update the group, sorry team, been a stressful time)

He was awarded under the ‘Risk and Traffic’ criteria. This is a slightly different process where you do the normal Blue Badge Forms and then another Risk and Traffic form that needs to be partially completed by a health professional to support your application. For me it was my health visitor who told me about this form. After submission it goes to a Occupational Health Team and in my LA it was 6 month back log but we heard back with 4.

The difference with having it under conditions of Risk and Traffic is you don’t have a disabled bay at home but that was ok for us because your given it for being out and about.

You should be able to find more information on your local authority web site about it and see if helps.

I now have a change of circumstances booked in to advise them of this and that he has a mobility buggy from WestMARC as he was not awarded any mobility component so we will see.

Its all very frustrating but for just now there is nothing you can do expect look into risk and traffic lol. Enjoy the summer holidays and just keep positive it will all turn out just fine promise xx

I called up today as I found the website tricky to upload documents. Turns out I had done it wrong and all the extra supporting information was not attached to DD application. I stupidly put in my national insurance no on the online form so it attached the letters to my profile. The advisor was lovely and transferred it over with a note.

I submitted DD's application on 03/04. Was told today it's not even reached stage 1 yet as there's a huge backlog and they're currently at Mid Feb submission dates.

@CTDS What local authority are you? You should be able to apply for a BB by asking for an assessment. It is usually done by a physio/ OT and takes 5 mins.
You don’t have to be in receipt of a disability benefit to get a BB but if you are you don’t need the assessment.

Does anyone who has applied and gets child tax credits know how long it takes for that part to come through. I sent copies of the ss cdp payment letter soon as I could after receiving it 22may ish) as they want to know within the month, but nothing has changed except my child tax payments have gone down. So confusing! Want to call them but am at work. It took me from November to get cdp so been a while.

So we finally got our award letter today and have been able to apply for the much needed blue badge which will make the world of difference to us.

We applied in the first week of February for CDP and decision was made on 17th July. So it took approx 25 weeks.

I hope everyone else who is waiting hears soon and thanks to everyone for advice/help

Submitted application 23rd March. Finally got a letter today awarding DD HRC till 2026. So chuffed the wait is over

I missed a call earlier this week so I called back and a message was left on file to say it was just a currtosay call to advise me that the application is now in queue for a case manager I originally completed the forms at the beginning of April so it’s been 5 months wait to even get into a queue for a case manager, when I called they said they also can’t give a timescale for how long things will take now. Very slow and draining procedure.

Has anyone who gets CDP been able to get a council tax reduction too? I’ve only just been made aware of it.

Hi just wondering if you have heard anything about your application they phoned me last week and said it was in a queue for a case manager only applied in July so know it might be some time but did read in this new advisors went live in June so was hoping for a quick turn around. Thanks