Hi girls,
I live in Ireland and applying for dca is similar to DLA. I have a dd who has a complex impairment SLI, dyspraxia, SPD and autistic traits. She receives full time Special needs assistant in school and was assessed by an educational psychologist in school this year and found to have a low non verbal skills. She also has low process speed and working memory. She has been receiving therapy from the age of 18 months and is getting ongoing intervention. I am at home full time because of her needs. I applied for this allowance and was refused. I asked for a review and was refused. I provided lots of reports and a daily diary with lots of info. I appealed the decision and I was refused. I am stubborn and I really felt deserving of this allowance for the amount of care my dd needs and the amount of private therapy we need to provide ourselves. So I re-appealed and got called to an oral hearing which took place this week. I had to talk for an hour about the substantial extra care my dd needs above and beyond her peers. I went on my own and I had put tons of preparation in to argue my case. I found the whole experience horrific. I cried fo most of the hour to have to talk about our beautiful adored child in such negative terms. I was told at the end I had provided enough evidence and my appeal is allowed. I feel so upset to have had to go through this. I feel so emotionally drained and am so sad that I had to work so hard on providing negatives about my child. Over the years we would have received the different reports and it hit us hard but l have never felt as emotionally raw as l do this week. I suppose I also think about what I can do and think positively rather than looking to far into the future.