DLA Advice needed Please

[Frustrated2003]

My DS has been awarded DLA at the lower rate and I believe him to be entitled to more than that, however does anyone know what information I should send in to support my views. My son is autistic and deaf, and requires constant supervision to ensure his safety and that of others and he is unpredictable and places himself in dangerous situations all the time if he is without supervision, which I hasten to add never happens.

Anyway advice of examples of what to write would be greatly appreciated

How old is your son?

This matters, as DLA tends to be based on the difference between the level of supervision most children require at a given age, and that required by your son.

So on this basis quite severely disabled toddlers might be awarded lower rate (or nothing at all) because it is adjudged that most toddlers require constant watching anyway.

My AS son is nearly 14, and I didn't even apply for DLA until last year; however we get middle rate as his needs are now quite different from an average 14 year old.

So. You need to think about how best to demonstrate the needs that your child has over and beyond those of typical child of his age.

Have you read the guide by Cerebra?
You can download it from here
www.cerebra.org.uk/parent_support/DLA_guide

There may be some helpful tips as to what the dla perople are looking for.

Though to be honest, you might be able to make a case for higher rate to include night time care just on the deafness. At night he won't be wearing hearing aids (even if hearing aids are appropriate) and so his needs will obviously be more than an average child. Does he wake at night?

A friend's child is deaf but otherwise NT and she got middle rate care from age 3.

the cerebra guide is good, there is also the guide that the ndcs do which is useful, you need to sign in to view it, just put dla into the search box. The ndcs helpline will send you a copy in the post if you prefer, they may also be able to arrange for one of their family officers to contact you to help. You need to give very specific emaples of why he needs extra care compared to a child his age, so if he's not safe near a road, you want to explain step by step why and what he would do in that situation and how long it takes to deal with that incident and the time it takes after to calm down etc.

Well, one thing that is in the assessor's guide (ie the instructions for the DLA people) is that though they tend to put caps on awards for single conditions unless you show how your child's case is unusual, the effect of two conditions combined can be greater than the individual ones. So I would be stressing (in all the places he needs additional supervision) that "because he has ASD and he is deaf, then..." because that should automatically trigger them setting the defaults to one side and considering the case on its merits. Agree with Ninj, you will have to give specific examples; it's completely obvious to me that he'd be extremely risky in traffic - ASD meaning probable running behaviour and being deaf meaning he can't hear cars and he can't hear your warnings. But the assessment clerks need it all spelled out. Unfortunately, a "good" DLA form is a very long document with a lot of attachments. Mine tends to get submitted in a ring binder.

The NAS site has some more tips on what might go in your DLA form.