DLA WAIT TIME THREAD 60

[zoeybrooks45]

Hello everybody, I have made a new thread please put in your scan date, hopefully we hear some good news this month. please be kind and feel free to share scan date, entitlement award and what child is diagnosed with as others in similar position can feel uplifted in these stressful times. 💐
New claims (NC) are taking ‘around’ 20 weeks.
Mandatory Reconsideration (MR) & Change Of Circumstances (COC) between 20-25 weeks approx.
Renewals between 15-20 weeks approx
tribunals: when you disagree with MR and are considered by a court
scan date (SD) date form was scanned on the system and counting weeks for decision
original claim date: date you called up for the forms and you will be backdated
UC : universal credit
DWP: department of work and pensions
DM: decision maker; the person who assesses each claim and awards/decline a case
number for an update 121-4600 0800 121-4600
currently we are in July/August for decisions! xx

I’m confused by this. If you called up on 24/06, it took them until 04/10 to scan it? I would’ve said your date is 24/06..

Hope there is lots of decisions this coming week. Good luck to July and August dates 🤞

Yes so am I it’s all very confusing-I received a letter back a couple of weeks ago saying they hadn’t forgotten my claim…..so who knows

@SKB12 Thank you, that's reassuring! The last time I was hanging on the phone to a government department was in 2022 when there was a terrible delay with processing passports (last holiday I think we'll ever be able to take 😔) and that was very stressful for very little impact.

Not at all. I think calling is actually counter productive as it then causes as surge in calls and workloads. If the staff were not spending time dealing with calls, staff resource could be used elsewhere, such as processing claims. We all know the wait times and that the form has been received, plus we know it’ll be backdated so unless there’s a significant delay past 25 weeks there’s no need to call. Just be patient.

UC can be very slow. Just gotta keep at them. I made a complaint after waiting a week or so, they then sorted it out the following day x

I think majority in here have started contacting as it gets closer to the end of the wait times🤷🏽‍♀️ it’s literally a call to find out if it’s been passed over to a decision maker or if a decision is made.
I seen someone over on Facebook calling up every day and demanding it be escalated when they wasn’t working on her dates. The decision maker ended up being very dismissive and not listening to the woman, and it ended in a decline🤦🏽‍♀️ so my advice is if anything call up ask for an update on the claim and leave it there x good luck hope you have a decision soon x

It’s not always counterproductive, for example I wouldn’t have known that a piece of additional evidence hadn’t been received and would end up needing to resend or that my scan date was registered as 14/08 instead of the correct date 06/08. Also if you receive evidence much later than you made your claim, it is worth calling so that they can make a note on your claim to allow time to send it.

DLA are experiencing severe delays too. Wait times have jumped from 11 to 25 weeks. I would perhaps make a call to check they have the additional evidence. For new claims I believe they were even on to September those have been done consistently quicker than MRs and COCs. Good luck I hope your child is awarded.

And they actually advise to call up before sending any additional evidence so that it can be noted

If they were going by June then you absolutely should have had a decision so my guess would be they are using the October date.

Totally agree, there are reasons and genuine calls - such as yours. But the vast majority is impatience or a call to see what the award is once the text has been received. When it clearly states if you haven’t received a letter in 2 weeks then call. It just clogs the system up

Yes they do, I asked why we then need to send paper evidence too they said in case it went to a decision maker so they know to await the evidence before making a decision.

Exactly what they said to me also!

well I’m one of those that called to see what my child’s outcome was. My anxiety was not waiting till after the Christmas period. I waited nearly a year for an answer of course I’m calling to see what my next steps were.

The staff that deal with the phone calls are not the one processing the claims. So calling for an update does not affect processing times. Everybody is able to check for an update if DLA is in breach of the time frame sent out. You are more than welcome to wait and others are more than welcome to call. I think the main issue is that letters do not state 25 weeks.

I have a SD of 28/08. 20 weeks would bring me to 10th Jan but judging by what I've read I've got much longer to wait.

I've not received a single correspondence since submitting my claim, no text or letter.

the application is just for mobility as my son has turned 5. He already has HRC. I rang in September and had verbal confirmation over the phone that it had been accepted and the lady said they don't always send out letters but in the claim for care I always received letters to say they were still waiting to assess. Has anyone else had this?

I know they’re not the same people, the point was if calls were reduced, they could redeploy staff/budget to deal with backlogs - or where ever it is needed. I’m not saying do not call, for whatever reason whether it’s missed deadlines or checking additional information, I’m saying in general, just be patient, we all know it’s frustrating but if we all adopted the same attitude and called every 5 minutes, the DWP would get nothing else done. Or they’d employ more staff , our taxes would go up to pay for it and then we’d all moan about that - it’s just applying some common sense. We all know timescales and what dates they’re working on from these posts.

The wait had been horrendous and then to have someone tell you that a decision has been made but they can’t tell you what, I don’t get that. The call handler I got was quite blunt so I was convinced it was a decline.

I found that the call handlers on the mr line was dreadful, so rude and blunt🤦🏽‍♀️ except Graham he was great😂 the general enquiries line, absolutely amazing! They are creating their own back log by saying they can’t say when in fact they can

And the reason that we know timescales and dates from these threads is because people have called to find out🤷🏽‍♀️😂

You should have received a letter or text to confirm receipt. I am aware that some claimants were not receiving these within the 2 week timeframe since wait times increased massively. We received a letter to acknowledge our claim.

I was referring to the people who have posted their SD and when they were awarded. That’s useful information

Honestly, this has been a lifeline. When I started reading here I was still under the assumption that it was an 11 week until I read 25 weeks here. I’ve been thankful daily that our wait is over. Funnily enough, I don’t feel the same stress over my PIP MR they’ve stated 15 weeks from the offset and I’m fine with that. I have called to send in additional evidence, I was told that they have an option to text when evidence is received. DLA could really benefit from this.

Graham for worker of the year! I’ve always treated them with the kindness and respect that they ask for, but I can’t say the same for them. Overall it’s a dated system that’s in need of an overhaul but of course that takes money and time. I have had call handlers tell me that they have made repeated requests for the decision time on the letters to be updated but it’s been ignored