DLA?

[Triggles]

I have read a number of threads from people who are claiming DLA for their children with SNs. We have a tentative diagnosis (ASD, dyspraxia, sensory problems, and possibly ADHD - although paed thinks that the sensory may be the cause of behaviour that appears on the surface to be ADHD) for DS2, and hopefully after he is seen by Ed Psych in January we will be on the road to a statement. When is the best or most appropriate time to apply for DLA for him? And would I then be able to apply for the carer's payments, as I am SAHM and his primary carer (as DH works). God knows I'm currently wading through school paperwork for multiagency meeting this week, but then hopefully I can look at the DLA stuff more closely.

Now! I applied without a diagnosis and got high rate DLA care (was too young for mobility). Cerebra guide is very useful for what you need to put in from ASD / sensory angle. You do need one person to back up what you put on the form but that could be HV or nursery, does not have to be medical person.

Agnesdipesto - thank you. I will go ahead and look into getting the forms, so I can start filling them out next week. I wasn't sure if we had to have the solid diagnosis first or not. DS2 is 4, so I believe too young for mobility as well. A couple choices available to us as the "one person to back up what you put on the form", so I will give that a think as well.

I'll have to get in a bottle of wine before I start the papers, as from what I've seen on this board, that's almost as important as having a pen to fill out the form.

Don't do it on the form, do it in Word. The boxes on the form are deliberately not big enough for you to provide enough information about specific difficulties - if you need six pages of A4 for one section, then that's what you provide. Plus, you'll have a full record of what you've sent both in hard copy and electronically for next time.

Use the Cerebra guide, it's excellent.

chipolatas - thank you - forgive me for being computer illiterate today (not enough sleep and fighting head cold) but would I just download the form and fill it out that way, then print it? Or is there a specific place to find it all in word form? Looking at website now and obviously not seeing something I should be.

Also wondering - as this money is to be used for DS2, do we have to put it in a separate account and run it like a business type of thing, keeping receipts and such? Just want to know from the outset so we don't end up having problems further down the road. What does everyone else do?

I applied before DS2 had a formal DX of autism. He received MRC, was too young for mobility, but he now receives LRM.

I have a seperate account in my name where the money goes to and gets used for things he needs. Your FTC gets increased as well once you receive higher or middlte rate care.

The money can go into whatever account you like and can be used for whatever you like so no need to keep receipts

I would phone them and ask them to send you a form. That way, it gets stamped with the date you asked for it and any award will be back dated to then (which could be hundreds so worth doing).

Also, I found that the forms avaialable on the internet were different from the forms they actuall sent me. They seem to be rolling out a trial of new forms. The new ones I received are actaully a bit clearer and easier to fill out so hopefully you might get them.

Good luck with it. It took me about 10 hours in total so lots of bottles of wine are needed! I posted mine about 2 weeks ago so fingers crossed...

Thanks so much. I've requested the claim pack sent to my home, and I'll compare the online forms to it. If they are the same, I'll do the word forms. If not, I'll do the ones they sent, as I would think they would be the most recent.

I dread starting this, but now have Cerebra bookmarked on my browser and am going to start organising information to use as evidence to send along (copies, I assume? hopefully they don't want the originals).

I am not certain if I want to put it directly into our account, as I'm worried it will get eaten with other things. I'm debating opening a separate account for it. So many decisions...

Sounds like a good plan Triggles, we're just going to set up a budget for DS each month and organise it that way (if we get it )

Hi Triggles.

There isn't a Word 'format' anywhere, what I meant was to type out your answers using the headings on the form so you just end up with a word-processed document that you can attach to your claim pack. If you PM me with an email address I can let you have a look at the format I use, which might be useful as my first claim was before ds was diagnosed. Might help you to phrase some of the trickier questions.

Definitely get the paper forms for the reason vixen has given. Even if it takes you months to get it completed your claim will be backdated to the date you asked for the forms, which isn't the case when you fill it out online.

oh, I don't have the pm thing... let me see if I can set it up... will get it set up later today (have to get going for school run soon), and post on here once I've set it up. Thank you!!

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