Reasons why your DLA for your asd child were turned down??

[mamadadawahwah]

I am appalled at the number of threaders in this forum who have had their dla turned down.

I am just about to submit the forms for my 2.6yr old son and think i have covered just about everything. I am writing a cover letter stating, "please forget anything you "thought" you knew about autism", because unless you have personal experience of this "condition" you can never really know how it affects a child on an individual basis." blah blah blah

I am enclosing with the application various and sundry articles downloaded about autism as well. No doubt they will bin them but there will be no chance for them to turn down my son's application. Or will there?????

I was told by someone from the dla that when you go through these forms they have a tick sheet and are on the look for certain words in each sections.
i.e i frequently change dd's nappy in the night

As wrong as it is - it seems to so far worked for us (second renweal awarded)
best of luck i know what a pain these letters are.

oh and remeber the people that go thruogh theese forms aren't medically trainned only office.

Ds1's first (and so far only) claim was successful but I'm still waiting to hear about ds2's claim which I sent off almost 2 months ago. I've heard a lot of stories about people being turned down and then being awarded higher rate when they've appealed. It seems to depend on what kind of mood the person reading your claim is in IMHO. As Fairydust says, these people aren't even medically trained so rarely have any insight into what life is really like with a child with SN.

I have to agree with fairydust. I have just had my dla renewed for the second year and I get my forms filled out with the help of my special needs HV and ahe also says that they are looking for the time amounts on certain "jobs" and certain words. I swear that you need a common sense bypass to work there.

I used to complete DLA's for work.

Children are commonly turned down, and i think this is due to peoples differing views between what is 'normal' supervision for a child and what isn't and of course the difficulty of pointing it out on paper.

Any of mine that failed, i just rang and asked for a review, posted in a letter of response to their reasons for turning down and they always passed them.

You have done exactly the right thing by sending in lots of extra evidence, i used to gather letters from every professional ever involved with the child.
I'm sure you will be fine!

Thanks people. Good ideas and tips. I dont want to patronise the DHSS by implying they are "ignorant" but from my experience, I know many of them are, at least of medical conditions.

My friend had to bring her seriously disabled child who had CP ( in his wheelchair) to a doctor to be assessed. The doctor (fair play to him) took one look at her son and phoned the DHSS right there and then, and howled down the phone at them. Needless to say she got her DLA.

what a nasty business.

my husband was turned down for DLA 3times. f*ing idiots.

I was told they count up the minutes that you put at the right hand side and it depends on them.

Yes, and the person hasn't really got a clue!

Hi, My daughter doesn't have asd, but for ages they would not give higher rate personal care( no idea why) but after appealing and asking to relook at her case they eventually did, but you really have to point out in simple vocab and indepth detail what care your child needs. My daughter cannot do anything herself, is still in nappies at 4 1/2, cannot speak, has only just started to walk,self harms, but has an extremely high pain threshold and no sense or understanding or danger( so cannot be left alone for a second) and wakes constantly at night, and they still didn't give higher rate for several months, and only then because I kicked up a fuss! So as the others said, its pot luck I think on who looks at your application.

Oh yes thats true annibear. I used to have a copy of their list of times things had to take in order to pass.

My advise is always pick the worst possible scenario. Eg child wets bed at night, Count from the moment you wake, to the moment you are back in bed as being the length of time taken to sort out the bed. So you clean up the child, change the sheets, comfort the child, soothe them back to bed and then take a good 20mins to get yourself back to sleep also. Could take well over an hour in all couldn't it.
If you think like that for all examples you will give a very realistic time. Include the time that you are interrupted also.

I also included a daily schedule for my son of times and what help and support i had to give him,or indeed others had to give him,i.e school teachers.we are now on his third award and just recently it was upped to higher rate of care from middle rate and also lower mobility.

DLA is a nightmare i have three kids with autism my twin girls are now 11 i applied when they were 4 and was turned down asked them to look again and given middle rate re applied when they were 8 and got high care low mobility for one of them for 4 years and the other one got top rate both for 8 years, i sent a ten page letter for each which were almost identical, i will have to reapply again soon for one of my girls, my sons on the other hand, applied at 4 and was given top rate both for TWELVE years, it relly does depend on who opend the envelope, but make sure you send it recorded delivery and always save a copy as we have had two lots go missing

I work with a deaf child and when his parents were applying for DLA they had a visit from a GP who shouted at him to check he was really deaf.
His mother sent an official complaint and the GP was in serious trouble for it.

never use the word "sometimes"...as that implies that the majority of the time 'all is ok'....

Better to put 'usually'....as though not as 'strong' as 'frequently'...it illustrates something that happens more ioften than 'sometimes'

Also ... if something happens 'hourly'...or 'daily'..then use that to describe it.... so say that 'daily i have to encourage him to......' or 'hourly i have to check that he......'.....as that adds up to 7 days....or 24 hous...whichever way you look at it.

I rang the DWP to ask if I could email them a copy of the letter they claimed they'd not yet received (10 days after it was posted first class) and the woman I spoke to not only couldn't understand what I meant by 'email the letter' but didn't know her department's email address. She then transferred me to the local office because "they must be dealing with it now because I can't find your letter", and I got through to a completely different department, nothing to do with DLA. Again, I suggested I email the letter and the woman misunderstood me completely, asking "So you want me to give you the email address, do you" even though I told her I already had it. It's no wonder that adults on IB and DLA are always being nagged to get back to work if that's the standard of mental acuity they expect from people to hold down a job.

hi everyone just here to give a heads up. I’m not sure if it actualy goes in date order as my scan date was 7th March and got told today I got awarded yesterday when phoned up and my friend was a scan date was 14th got awarded last week . Hope everyone is successful with there claims x

Got told yesterday sorry**