DLA appeals - help!

[Yummymum1]

Hi everyone.I'm hoping one of you experts out there has some experience of going to appeal after being turned down for dla.My ds1 has aspergers and the consultant feels very strongly that he is entitled to it and even wrote a letter herself to the dla but despite this we have not been awarded even the lowest rate.I feel fed up to day the least and rather jaded by the whole process of form filling and getting nowhere (not just dla)and feel like forgetting the whole thing rather than going thru this whole tribunal buisness.I wondered if anyone has done this and what was the outcome at the end? Sorry for going on....

Hi yummymum1, ds2's first DLA application was turned down, we never went to appeal, although I was geared up for a battle.
I telephoned & followed it up with a letter asking them to reconsider their decision. I also included additional evidence in the form of a day in the life of ds2, making comparisons throughout to an "average" child of the same age. I think the key is to convince them that your child requires significantly more care than a nt child of the same age.
I also re-copied all the original reports & re-submitted them.
They awarded high rate mobility & mid rate care.
Good luck!

could you get someone to help?

my ds has early years support teacher, who is coming to my house to help fill them in, knowing what is required, I looked through the form and it is pretty daunting.

better advice from mymatemax ... I hope you successfully appeal.

Wow thats fantastic!So you did all that with a phone call?What did yousay and did they just ask you to resubmit the papers?It is the thought of having to go through it all again justifying why ds is entitled to it. `its all such hard work...

Yes fondy,I have the number of the welfare and benefits lady who will help me with it all but as you can see the form is daunting and this is our second application. I only really want to do the appeal if I can be fairly sure of a good result.Good luck to you with your forms.

see www.mumsnet.com/Talk/1373/502039

It's a lottery - always worth appealing as they then look at the their decision again anyway and you have NOTHING to lose - appealing only involves filling in a very very short form. Go for it...

Thanks everyone.Will ring tomorrow and get started AGAIN!!!!!! Another thing,why do they always send the rejection letters to arrive saturday when you cant do anything but fume for a whole weekend?????

Ahh that is a well known fact - Bad news from the DWP always arrives on a Saturday.
It is so that you have time to calm down before phoning.

lol yummy - on MN that Saturday thing is called the rule of Davros (after a poster here) We definitely think they do it on purpose just to add to the stress.

I appealed for my dd's DLA - we went to a panel and got mid rate care. It was quite stressful TBH but worth it in the end.

I would stress the word autism in any appeal. Some people assume that aspergers is only a very mild problem whereas often this is far from the case. Say we cannot do x because of autism, we have to do y because of autism, z is impossible because of autism

This morning I rang the benefit people and they are sending me ANOTHER FORM !!!!! to fill in (although they did say it was a short one )which i send to the dla and take it from there.I am encouraged by all your experiences because I really feel pretty fed up with the whole thing already.What makes it worse is that a friend with a son the same age and same condition got mid rate straight away!!! The consultant even wrote to the dla supporting the claim and still nothing.But we willsee what happens now.Not helping matters is that my mother who lives next door has been round this morning complaining that ds has chopped all heads off her daffs yesterday and how that is unacceptable etc.I pointed out that a)he is a boy and b) he has asd so therefore these things are normal.It cut no ice and all i got was how my brother and i never did anything like that.Funny cos i only spoke to my bro about it last night and he told me he had great fun whipping the heads off flowers and could even do it so fast the stalks didnt move!!! So there!!!!!! Sorry about the rant,it hasnt been the best morning so far, first day of the hols so fingers crossed for the rest !!!!

I have never posted on sn before. I am quite new to mn. I came across it while searching for info on mirena coils on google!!

I have had many years dealing with attendance allowance (as it was called) and dla. My ds1 has Arthrogryposis and also had a cleft palate with associated speech and hearing problems. He was awarded dla at middle care rate when he was 2. Back then it wasn't possible to claim before 2. When we applied for renewal at 5 it went ahead with no problems. However the renewal at 9 was turned down. I went to appeal..it took a year from being turned down to it being reinstated. We actually had to go to an appeal hearing which turned out to be just a formality and was over in 10 mins. My point had always been that his condition was incurable and hadn't changed. If he qualified at 2 and 5 then he should still qualify. I was told unofficially that they are told to turn down a certain percentage on the hope that they won't appeal. How true this is I'm not sure.

hi there

this link here www.nas.org.uk/nas/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=1561&a=3330 is really good. I also had a chat with a legal advisor from the nas (free) as I appealed against their decision. That link really helped me.
Good luck!

i had my DS2's DLA refused and i was told i had no right to appeal!

Im still trying to get them to reconsider. Ishould keep a better eye on these threads in future, now i can shout at them and say that others have appealed so why not me!!