What happens if I don't return DLA form by the return date stamped on it?

[zen1]

Have had it up to here with this form now. Spent more than 15 hours in the last 2 days and still not finished it. It has to be in by Thursday, but I still feel as if it's going to take me several more evenings to complete. What happens if I miss the return date? Will I lose out on anything?
Thanks

The DLA can only backdate money for 3 months, so the "deadline" is when your 3 months are up. I wouldn;t worry too much about the date on it. Just means you won't get the money from when you requested the form (although sometimes they do).

If you are late returning it you will probably not have your claim backdated to when you first requested it by phone. However, if you have a good reason for the delay - eg illness, you could send it in late with a covering letter. Otherwise do your best to get it sent in on time and if you need to send more info later eg back up documents just note on the form that they are to follow. Also worth bearing in mind that if you are cutting it very fine for posting back, you can ring up and ask for a fax number in order to fax a copy through on the day it is due back with a covering note saying that a hard copy will follow by post. Hope that helps.

Thanks. I really don't think I'm going to get it in on time - just so tired. DH thinks I should scale down my answers, but I'm a bit of a perfectionist so I don't want to send in something that I think I could have filled in better. I guess I'll just have to resign myself to losing some money (that's if they decide to award me any in the first place!)

Have you looked on the Cerebra site? There is a very handy guide on there.

Yes, I have a hard copy of the cerebra guide. It's very helpful, but making me extra careful to justify all of my answers in a watertight way (I hope!)

I am a coward, I had someone come and fill the forms out for me. I filled them out the first time myself, and it was hard work.

Good luck!

Wish someone would fill out the form for me! DH offered but I don't trust him to do as thorough a job. Serves me right for being a control freak

We just sent a letter along explaining the reason it was late (I think it was 2 weeks late) as DH had surgery and I was quite ill. That was what they advised me to do by phone when I asked them. And they backdated it with no problem.