DLA WAIT TIMES THREAD 63

[zoeybrooks45]

Please feel free to add your scan date and whether it's a new claim/mandatory reconsideration/change of circumstances or renewal.
New claims (NC) - people are being told the wait time has increased to 25 weeks! I would say most are done before this though around the 20 week mark?
Mandatory reconsideration (MC) and Change of circumstances (COC) is around 20-25 weeks.
Renewals tend to be between 15-20 weeks.
If you disagree with the outcome of an MR you can appeal and go to court (tribunal)
Scan date is the date DLA scan your application forms on to their system, if you downloaded your application forms then this will be from when your award will be backdated from. If you called up for forms then the date on those is the date yours will be backdated from.
If successful and claiming universal credit (UC) please update them as this will entitle you to disabled child element adding extra to your award.

Any update fingers crossed for you

@UmElise I'm almost certain you are correct, you can send new evidence right up to hearing date to support what you've already said in your original claim and mandatory reconsideration which in this case @zoeybrooks45 was asking them to reconsider her MRC for HRC and HRM the HRM she was asking them to consider was for unable to walk or VUW of which they decided her child did not qualify so she can send all new supporting evidence to back up the unable to walk or VUW but as far as she i can see she's said she is now going the Smi route but I'm pretty sure she can't send new evidence to tribunal for that as DLA didn't consider that as there was no diagnosis of Autism so they couldn't consider it as there was no evidence of arrested development of the brain and if asking for smi under autism there needs to be evidence of how the child's condition that which can only be proven with diagnosis.
So as far as i know if the child now has a diagnosis it would be a COC to ask dla to consider HRM under smi because diagnosis, HRC and the other 4 markets are proven in evidence already?
Or the diagnosis of autism could have been submitted as evidence during the 4 week late evidence window and asked them to consider smi route.
Would dla not say at tribunal there was no evidence of diagnosis so we didn't and couldn't consider it so how can that now be disputed and only unable to walk or UVW can be disputed?
Maybe I'm wrong but i thought that's how it works.
@zoeybrooks45 does dla have your evidence of diagnosis and has it been considered for smi route on original claim or MR? If not are you disputing VUW only at tribunal?
Also when you submit new evidence to the tribunal do they let you know if it's been accepted before the hearing or do you have to wait for the actual hearing?

i don’t the know the facts about what you can send. But when you fill out appeal it states a few options to expand on why you disagree and the reason etc. then it also states to upload evidence. The diagnosis was recieved prior and the DM used it as evidence. On the MR notice it states all the evidence they used. They still stick to no award for mobility. As of now I haven’t submitted new medical statements just statements from myself using the points the DM made. I’ve spoken to the appeals team they stated I can send further evidence via email or post, they did not state you can’t submit anything that was new.

sorry I should of been clear the MR noticed stated both SMI and VUW and points why we don’t meet it. The diagnosis was recieved as late evidence and DM still stuck to original award.

Aha ok makes sense now. Did they tell you why they refused ? Statement of reasons

can anyone help me?
last week I was told the claim was assigned to case manager…
Monday was told no decision had been made yet…
just got told it is in the holding queue 🤔
this is so frustrating

@zoeybrooks45 If the DM at dla had the diagnosis of autism letter during the MR and considered it in evidence then yes absolutely you can take that to tribunal for an appeal against the decision not to award on the smi route.

Because you stated above you only got diagnosis for Autism two weeks ago i thought that meant that the DM at dla didn't have that evidence so my mistake.

So if the DM looked at unable to walk, VUW and Smi at MR and declined with Diagnosis letter in evidence then yes you can appeal all three with new supporting evidence.

If the DM didn't have the diagnosis letter during the MR then you could only appeal unable to walk and VUW.

Sorry for the confusion 🤦🏻‍♀️

Nc sd 30th September with DM

A case manager is different from a decision maker.

Case managers check the forms / numbers / ensure its completed in full for a decision maker.

It then goes back into the queue for a decision maker.

But also the call handlers seem to say whatever they fancy so take it with a pinch of salt.

Thank you for your reply

Two NC
but I’ve got extra evidence for second one SD 17/10 (a peadatricion report and it has the referrals in she’s made) would it be worth sending off still

Hi everyone, I’ve been following this thread for ages. Had a COC sd 20/8/24, daughter was already adhd diagnosed but received an autism diagnosis. Was receiving lr care and lr mobility, 3/2/25 it has now been reduced to lr care only. She’s 13 but has very little road sense and cannot go out by herself, she wakes loads during the night as she’s anxious about school is prescribed melatonin and medikenet. The change of award was she’s in a mainstream school and they don’t agree she wakes in the night or is a danger out of the house by herself and her school reports are at expected, so frustrated as I have a neurotypical older son and her daily care needs are no where near that when they was the same age she’s more like half her age in needs plus the struggles of anxiety and sleep issues, I’m doing a mr but any advice i would be so grateful of.

I think mine will be a decline tbh i didnt send mich evidence in 😫

Send everything when you get it. Just put a little note stating more information and all of your details and they will scan it on to their file. That's what I have been doing.

Just seen on Facebook awards 16/10 so looks like moving fast through October 🤞

I've sent off an extra piece of evidence today recorded delivery . Post office said they will receive it tomorrow . How long does it take to get on their system usually please? Hoping I've got enough time before it's looked at NC 29/10

@Frankadoodle
when I have sent evidence over recorded it has been scanned on system within 24hrs

@Danielle822 thank you that's really helpful ! Couldn't believe how much it cost to send recorded . But I wanted to make sure they received it

@Frankadoodle
oh I know £9 last week it cost me but at least u can track with your reciept
🤞 not too long now

That makes me nervous and I'm early November lol!

Sorry to jump in, can I ask what address you used? I was told by a call handler to send it to the freepost address, post office said I couldn’t use special or recorded or any of those services due to no postcode now I’m worried I’ve sent additional info off to the wrong place 😫

I always send to the same I sent claim form off 2 think Wolverhampton

Nc revived 04/12
I never got a scan date as I collected it from the job center when would my scan date be the day they received the forms ?

@QuirkyCat212 I got told over the phone to send it to the Wolverhampton address . Handling centre B . I can't remember the address sorry . And I've misplaced the piece of paper I had it written down on.

Im still waiting too be looked at 😫😫 im giving up at this point