Disables Living Allowance-amounts to the same annual outlay as the entire annual transport budget

[moondog]

Three times as many people claim it as when it was introduced 18 years ago. That's 3.2 million people at a cost of £12 billion a year.

Trying to find the link-Rosa Prince un yesterday's Telegraph.

Madness-but who can blame people for taking what is handed to them on a platter eh?
This includes 19,400 people with drug or alcvohol problems and 128,900 with 'back pain'.

Local GP checked his arthritis patients, found 75% underclaiming DLA.

Sample of 286 people, This,

Yep, the 75% was purely a local snapshot.

The government's own figures of 50% given in Hansard are not.

If you want to take that as your authority, maybe you sohuld read a little more carefully This.
I'll do a cut and paste for you.

' At the moment, about half those who claim are not entitled to DLA. We estimate that half those who may be entitled to DLA do not claim it. '

Where's that from moondog? That is seriously flawed. The government figures are 0.4 percent claiming fraudulently, as Thisisanicecage has said. 50% not being entitled can't be right. It is much too difficult to get for that to be the case.

It's not my link. It's This' link from 17:34. Hansard

"We estimate that half those who may be entitled to DLA do not claim it. "
ie underclaiming by eligible people is estimated by the govt at 50%.

"At the moment, about half those who claim are not entitled to DLA." ie 50% of those who fill in the forms are judged not eligible and are not awarded DLA. They therefore form no part of the approx 3 million receiving DLA.

Is there anything else I can help you with?

It's very difficult to get as they want medical evidence from consultants/GP's etc. Even then they don't believe people so they have to appeal and go for yet more medical assessments. I receive the lowest amount, £17 a week which I spend on taxi's when I'm too knackered to walk home. You can have it if you want it, I have it for life and don't need reasessing unless I become more disabled. You'll also have to put up with the MS I have as well of course.

Baroness Hollis goes on to say, "One explanation for the low take-up may be that disabled people find it difficult to gauge whether they qualify for DLA, whether they are entitled to claim it."

Which is what she is illustrating in her previous paragraph.

That's an.. interesting interpretation, This.

I look forward to more of your unique perspectives.

Pardon?

moondog - that's outrageously rude to TIANC - please consider what you just said

( My apologies for jumping in rudely myself - I haven't even contributed to the debate yet, as ironically feel too ropey atm)

The DLA my OH gets enables him to work. Without it he would be on Incapacity benefit. Of course he could claim both but he wants to keep working as long as his illness allows.

BTW re double amputees. Under the new rules they may well lose their DLA because once they have prosthetic legs they may no longer be considered disabled.

What is this crap with DLA? why are so many people jealous of it? Why does it bother so many people?

Easy to get? Hardly. My DD had a terminal illness and needed 24 hour care and she was considered in need of 'middle' rate care. Fuck knows how you manage to qualify for high rate then.

Can I just say thank you to THISIS - Your link was very useful as my friend's mum has just been diagnosed with terminal cancer, I have forwarded it to her in case she didn't know about being eligible for help.

Thank you

And as for Moondog saying this is an 'interesting interpretation':

"At the moment, about half those who claim are not entitled to DLA." ie 50% of those who fill in the forms are judged not eligible and are not awarded DLA. They therefore form no part of the approx 3 million receiving DLA.

it isn't, its the correct interpretation, otherwise it would say 'receive DLA' not claim

Moondog for somebody who is so compassionate, humorous and helpful a lot od the time you can be spectacularly unpleasant some of the time.

Ds receives dla, I'd much rather do without the money and see him walk, talk and behave the same as his peers.

Oh Fuppy, I'm so sorry about your mum's friend.

From what I've seen, Macmillan nurses and the other specialist support organisations are invaluable for this. There are so many different agencies and so many disability adaptations, she'll need signposting to work out what's helpful for her and where to get it.

Hope they can make things go more easily for her and her family.

Moondog
You are a puzzle. So helpful, informative and ready to offer insights on the education threads. Yet such a reactionary everywhere else on the boards. Recently I actually did a search on your name to check the two personalities were the same person. Apparently it is you.

Strange.

I prefer you on the education boards, tbh.

This's interpretation is correct: "Currently, over half (57 per cent) of all new claims for DLA are initially disallowed." (DWP research, 2008)

No doubt some proportion of those disallowed claimants will be attempting to claim fraudulently, but IME as a welfare benefits adviser disallowed claimants are far more likely to fall into other categories:

• those who have a disability but don't fit into the tight criteria for DLA (It's possible to have a significant disability with lots of disability-related costs, but still not qualify for DLA.)

• those who have difficulty explaining their needs on the claim form

• those who fit the criteria and have explained their needs well on the claim form, and should have been awarded DLA but have nevertheless been refused because the DWP has made an incorrect decision.

Just realised one of my links didn't work (citation in the Scottish media of Macmillan's 2010 press release).

Here's another link, to the original press release giving the figure for the whole UK: in 2010, 36% of people with terminal cancer didn't claim the DLA/AA to which they were entitled.

DS3's claim was disallowed on first applciation. We qrote and asked why, they awarded him HR: he ahs since become continent and gets MR, he also needs a palce at a specialist abse and has a very clear ASD dx years down the line.