Hi everyone,
I’m just wondering if anyone who has recently applied for DLA for a child could share how long they waited for a decision.
I filled in the DLA forms for my 5-year-old daughter on 15th September and posted them the same day. On 21st September I received a text saying:
“We have received your DLA Child claim. We aim to tell you our decision within 25 weeks. You only need to contact us if your circumstances change.”
Since sending the original form, I’ve also sent in some additional supporting evidence. This included a supporting statement from myself and one from my cousin, who lived with us from when my daughter was around 6 months old until she was 3, and has continued to be actively involved in her life since then.
I also sent school/nursery reports. She is generally very well behaved at school and was the same at nursery, but she can become very emotional/overwhelmed quite quickly. I actually work at the school she attends, so previously quite a few incidents where she had become upset or overwhelmed were mentioned to me informally by colleagues rather than formally recorded. I’ve since asked for a meeting with the SENCO and headteacher and explained that I’d prefer incidents (or periods where there are no incidents) to be properly logged going forward, so that there is a clearer picture of how she is managing.
On 29th September I received two letters from DLA. One basically confirmed what the text had said, and the other asked me to send my daughter’s birth certificate. I posted that to them the same day.
So I suppose my main question is: does it actually tend to take the full 25 weeks, or have people been receiving decisions much sooner than that? If you’ve applied recently, I’d really appreciate hearing your timeline.
For a bit of background, I spoke to our GP on 10th September after waiting around three weeks for the appointment, and the GP agreed that a referral could definitely be made.
A lot of the behaviours my daughter struggles with have actually been present since she was very young. I initially started trying to get help/referrals before she was even 2, but her dad (my partner at the time) made me feel like I was being silly for pursuing it, so unfortunately I didn’t engage with it any further at that point.
This year I decided to pursue things again because some of the behaviours have become more noticeable, particularly around transition times at school.
I know DLA is supposed to be based on the extra care/supervision a child needs rather than simply having a diagnosis, so I’m not expecting anyone to guess what the decision will be. I’m mainly interested in other parents’ experiences of the process and how long it took from the “we have received your claim” text to actually getting a decision.
Thanks 😊