its me again

[jenk1]

sorry to mither you all but i have a question about DS,s DLA.

He has been awarded middle rate care and low mobility.

I was so excited i didnt read all the letter when it came but dh did.

Dh said, "what about all the times you have to get up to him in the middle of the night when he,s soiled/wet himself and he is having panic attacks about the house burning down/bombs etc?"

"what about when if he goes to your mums around the corner that he just runs into the middle of the road and nearly got killed a couple of months ago and the fact that i have to pick him up from school in the car which is only at the end of our street?"

In the letter is says DS can have lower rate mobility because he is a danger to himself in "unfamiliar" areas but this is not true, i cant send him up to my sisters house who lives 10 doors up from me without me watching him or my sister standing outside her house so that the other kids dont pick on him on the street, we dont go ANYWHERE without the car, he at the moment is at my brothers who lives 300 yards away from me but we have to take him and pick him up in the car, the GP who came to see him asked DS about his road sense and DS said "i can beat any car on the road, i can outrun them" so i dont understand why they have awarded lower rate when in my and DH,s opinion he should get higher or do you think we are clutching at straws and should just be happy with what we have got, i dont know what to think, could really do with some advice.

TIA

sorry jenk but your ds is still mobile, he can walk unaided but under supervision

I think i could be wrong but to get higher they have to have limited mobilty (i.e walking)

right-oh, thanks for clearing it up for me as i dont understand how the DLA words its conditions!

i'd say the best thing to do is to ring them - that way you know for sure

Yes, Ellie can walk but has no sense of danger (and various other things). We are getting higher rate Mobility now but I'm sure that will end when we re apply next Summer. She just hadn't quite started walking when we applied last time which is why we got higher.

Complex SN team said the other week that we should get lower when this runs out

NO, that's wrong. Its not based on mobility only. People who have behavioural problems DO qualify for higher rate mobility. There's lots of posts about it in the archive if you can bear to search. I've posted several times the criteria from DWP literature. Don't have time to find it now but see if you can find it and, if not, post again and I'll look. APPEAL!!!

Davros, DS has AS/ASD would they still class that as "severe behavioural problems".

I checked on the NAS website and thats what it said for higher rate mobility, also DS IS awake during the night for a number of different reasons which results in me having to get up and attend to him and this is what made DH think that we should have been given the higher rate of care.

Davros is right and I think your DS definitely sounds as if he may qualify.

AS/ASD definitely can qualify for higher rate mobility. We get it for DS although I had to work at it and lots of other MNers do too. Have you tried the archive or, what I find works better, switch Sn to alphabetical and look for DLA under "D". I'll see if I can dig out that bit from the DWP brochures.

i phoned the DLa and spoke to a really nice lady-FOR ONCE!

She went through everything with me and at the end i said i wouldnt be appealing as DS doesnt have all the conditions to meet higher rate care or mobility, ie - its not every night we are up with him and he can walk unaided, anyway i am very happy with the amount we have been awarded so thats that.

Thanks for all your replies and advice i really appreciate it

But she's wrong though! Being able to walk unaided doesn't mean you can't qualify for higher rate mobility. See below cut & pasted from prevoius thread:

Have posted this before, but here it is again in case its useful, it covers getting DLA mobility component for someone who as no physical disability:

There is a leaflet to do with DLA that is printed by Social Security and The Benefits Agency, it is leaflet no DS706. To quote:

A child aged 3 or over may be able to get help with getting around if they:

• are severely mentally impaired with severe behavioural problems and qualify for the highest rate care component (the empty dashes are other points relating to physical disability I can?t be bothered to type out)

A Child aged 5 or over may be able to get help with getting around if they:

• can walk but need someone with them when they are walking outdoors

I'm sure Coppertop won't mind me mentioning that her Ds2 has just been awarded higher rate (see other thread) and he can walk.

Oh no, im confused now and dont know what to do, lady at DLA said in order to qualify for higher rate then DS has to be getting me up every night, and he doesnt have me up every night, she said higher rate mobility is for those who cannot walk, i told her that ds is a danger to himself because he has no road sense and just runds into the road or he will sit down and refuse to walk when he is in one of his "moods", thing is now she asked me did I think that ds behavioural problems were severe and i said if you put it like that then i suppose not so i probably have ruined my chance of appeal now anyway.

On the letter I received about ds2 it says:

"Help with personal care:
You are entitled to the higher rate because you need attention with bodily functions several times at short intervals right through the day and you also need attention with bodily functions more than once a night or once for a prolonged period."

I don't know if that makes it any clearer? I didn't apply for mobility for him though but the letter states that they will write to me when he is 3 to see if I want to apply. I doubt he would get anything until he's 5 though.

By "you" I presume they mean ds2.

she's wrong. I was told that as well by the DLA "helpline". There is a court case on this which I quoted in my application (I think the NAS mentions it). Ds1 is as fast as the wind but we get higher rate mobility (and care). ds1 has to be attached to someone the whole time we are out and about- he cannot be let go of- not even for a second. We were awarded higher rate mobility on 1st application.