DLA WAITING TIMES THREAD 64

[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.

Is it a new claim?

@UmElise yes my little boys claim is a new one . He's waiting on an autism diagnosis and is non verbal with high care needs.

Even though decision was changed length of award remained the same

Ok can I ask why only a year? My son was awarded for 3 years and he is non verbal also

@UmElise You can challenge award length if you disagree with it as it was a MR this would be tribunal as far as i am aware but it does state on your letter that it's been awarded under refusal to walk and it also states the award length is 3 years and is limited because it's in line with the current medical guidelines for the child's age and catagory ie refusal to walk ( medical guidelines are higher than DM guidelines) so I'm unsure what chance you would have at tribunal but you're within your rights to challenge it if you disagree.

Ok thank you I was unsure. I’ll just leave it as it is. Over the phone they seemed clueless when I asked them about the award length giving me different answers.

Same here with me my son also awarded only until 26

How old is your son? Yeah my son got awarded at the age of 3 for 3 years

My son is 4 he is gonna be 5 in june

Ok my son is turning 5 in March x

Hello everyone hope it's okay I join!
NC SD 24/10 for child awaiting ASD assessment
No decision made yet but evidence I sent was SALT report, CAMHS report, sleep diary, statement from school SENCO, OT sensory diet, IEP from school, and a statement from his therapist
Hoping we hear back soon as the wait is feeling so long and he's recently started eating part of his bedroom wall and I need to pay for it to be repaired and made safe for him

@gezelligheid have you looked into Disabled Facilities Grants (DFG) if your home needs to be modified to keep him safe? Contact a Family charity have good advice on these

PS I love your user name @gezelligheid. always good to keep things gezellig 😍

@UmElise your award length is correct. Vuw is a shorter amount of time as during that time they hope/expect that your child improves and you'll reduce down to lower mobility or no mobility needs, which if your child does improve it would again be the correct award level.

For award lengths there are no set time scales, the decision maker looks at the evidence and makes an overall judgement on how likely the child is going to improve based on what they have read.

@UmElise when you did your MR, did you apply under VUW? or just high rate mobility in general?

I think she mentioned previously she applied via smi but was awarded under VUW. It seems common way to award families a smaller length award. I have read a few families in this thread being awarded under VUW instead of SMI, it might just be a coincidence though..

my daughter is 8 and been under “assessment” since she was 18 months old. Currently get HRC LRM for her without a formal diagnosis only GDD.

December we finally got her diagnosis of ADHD AUTISM and moderate learning difficulties, her DLA claim was due renewal December this year anyway so requested a COC form and sent it back along with the CAHMs report her EHCP and education psychologist report.

received a letter to say they have received the form on 23/01/2025 and will take 11 weeks for a decision.

any guesses to what could get awarded lol I will add she’s received DLA since she was 4 and gone from LRC to MRC to HRC LRM as she’s got older and I hadn’t sent any “evidence” to back anything up in back then 👀

Thank you so much I will definitely look into this! We do have occupational health coming out to assess the house for adaptions in the next few weeks as well so that will be really handy to know about if there are any suggestions from them

From experience I would probably say they will keep you on HRC LRM unless there is something substantial in reports or ECHP that supports HRM. Is this something you were hoping for and if so, have you applied and made it clear?

Yes that’s correct I asked for them to look under smi however my son was awarded under vuw which was surprising. I thought they were going to decline since I know how hard it is to receive higher rate mobility and my son is only 4

I requested a late mandatory reconsideration 8 months after my son was awarded for the first time and they accepted it so this was in August 2024 my son was awarded higher rate mobility under vuw last Friday x not smi. I received letters from dla yesterday confirming the rates and the length of the award

Yeah it makes sense am not even sure how the evidence I sent supports vuw to be honest I asked them to look under smi. However I’m grateful 🙏🏼 an award is an award regardless of length

Here are the dates @Justanotherlove

Are the officies open tomoz people or shut cos of half term

@UmElise i have a feeling you didn't meet the entire criteria for smi hun which is why they gave you an award which they could confirm the child meets and that's vuw x