DLA/Social worker rant

[smugtandemfeeder]

Argh, just need to rant. No need to reply.

I applied for DLA a few months ago. No where on the form does it ask if you have a social worker. I did not mention my social worker.

Have just received letter of explaination from DLA stating why I was turned down and it says that they received a phone call from my social worker.

My f*ing social worker must have chosen to call DLA specifically to tell them I should not get DLA.

FFS.

That means she actually thinks I am fraudulently trying to claim benefits.

FFS

very

Rant over and out.

I think as they have stated it then you have good ammo for when you get DX,

If there were mistakes then 6 weeks is far too long to amend them... IMO.

you were saying that report says none of the professionals have witnessed behaviors, is this true? do you have people who have witnessed them that she didn't involve?

sign - the health visitor has witnessed the behaviour and is in fact quoted in the report as saying that she saw my DS shutting our cat in a drawer in the kitchen . Health Visitor very offended not to be considered a professional.

The private report that the SW saw stated that DS has autistic traits but not enough for a diagnosis and required further assessment.

The NHS pead report says that DS avoided eye contact, was very anxious, clearly complex and needed to be referred to nursery assessment. (In the appointment with the paed she said she thought he had autism but she did not write this explicitly in her report.) NHS reports are very cagey about what is wrong with DS, I guess they dont want to stick their necks out in writing. BUT they have referred him to the nursery assessment.

Our CAMHS psychologist saw us for two years and witnessed all the behaviours but would not entertain him requiring a diagnosis and refused all contact with the social worker anyway.

Since then I have gone all out to get evidence so that no one can say DSs problems have not been seen by others. I have a very big folder of evidence now, as well as new reports from SALT and from our private psychiatrist who now says DS probably has autism.

SW took almost all of her evidence from crap preschool who met him for about 4 hours max and who gave two different accounts of his visit to the school. Both conflicting accounts are quoted in the report but as yet no sign of a redrafted report.

Smug, you know you can get a copy of the camhs file on request. I think it would be a good idea, cos then you can show it to NHS paediatrician and private psychiatrist. The advantage is then that their opinions then incorporate the evidence from the original camhs assessments, which means the psychologist not entertaining a diagnosis can't be used against you.

Maria, I have indeed requested a copy of my notes as a data protection act request 4 months ago. It's unbelievable isn't it. 6 weeks ago I chased them and they said they would be with me in two weeks time....data protection act request 4 months ago. It's unbelievable isn't it. 6 weeks ago I chased them and they said they would be with me in two weeks time....

Section 7 ? Data Protection Act 1998 Dear Sir/ Madam ACCOUNT NUMBER: You have failed to comply with my Data Protection Act Subject access request dated (insert date ) If you do not comply within the next 7 days I shall seek a Court order obliging you to do so together with damages at the discretion of the Court and without further notice to you. Yours faithfully

Hilarious. DH last night got rather pissed off when I told him DSs notes still weren't here. He called the woman responsible at 11.30 and left the funniest voicemail ever instructing them that if he did not hear from them the following day he was going to call on the hour every hour until the notes arrive. I love it when DH gets involved in all this. It made me realise quite how much I do myself without help. Nice to have his support last night.

OK it gets worse. The NHS Trust have just emailed to say they are "not sure" where my notes are. FFS.

Im not one for conspiracy theories but this is making me feel very paranoid!

I have emailed the local PALS and ICO.

sorry to post again but I finally have solved the mystery.

Spoke to Disablility office today. They said that they Pre-school wrote to them with the name and contact details of the social worker.

Disability Office then called my social worker.

Disability team have agreed to remove the evidence from the social worker and ring me before speaking to anyone else to get my explicit permission.

They said the consent form does give them a right to contact anyone - a warning to the rest of us I guess.

They will reassess DSs case immediately.

However, the Pre-School and the Social Worker have both breached the Data Protection Act as far as I am concerned. I have filled in the online Ombudsmun complaint form.

I am pretty annoyed that the DWP can contact anyone if I sign the consent form. Do we have a clear answer on whether or not this is right. They were very apologetic and quick to say they would disregard the SW info so that tells me they know they were in the wrong somewhere.

Sorry for posting so many times. I must sound rather erratic but its moved quite quickly in the last 24 hours and I need to check I have done the right things.

well done for contacting the ombmbardsman, for my experience of helping friends with mh probs and sn kids with dla forms and my own experience with me and dd , you will get some rate of dla at appeal, as your dd is too young to give evidence (as dd is 15 she had a long chat with the ombardman), maby vidio some of little smugs behavior to use as evidence . if feel confident you are going to at least get dla , maybe the ombardman will find discrepancies in your file (they have told me they have the right to get the ss to give them any file they demand). look at some of the cases and you will see some rulings in similar cases will give you hope. why do the sevices think that we make up sn for our kids , having asd myself i would quite literal give my right arm for dd not to have the same difficulties,

while the reases little smugs case you can still add any new evidence so send as much as you can , to me the mere involvment of the other agencys suggest smug has additional needs for his age

Thanks, DLA have phoned and said they have reassesed the evidence and are going to request a report from private psychiatrist as they can see things have moved very quickly recently.

I'll have to wait and see what his report says. Im not sure what he can add to what he has written in his 8 reports he has written for us but perhaps they will ask him specifically if he thinks DSs problems are disabling. Interesting to see the response.

DLA people are also going to send written confirmation of everything they said this morning so this will help with complaint about Local Council.

i spoke personaly to dd decicion maker and they do belive parents