DLA wait times 76

[HeartyGuide]

New Thread as previously one nearly full.

For that I apologise i did get you confused but your info on CE is wrong. My sister was in FTE and he asked and asked and got the same response over again you just need to be providing care for 35 hours and the person receives a disability benefit, at this time she was also getting legal advice (for a different benefit issue) AND advice from CAB and they all stated you can be in FTE and receive the element

I went down Both Vuw and Smi routes, for Hrm. Proved all 6Points on Smi with medical evidence, etc. He got declined. On Vuw also with Ot, school evidence etc. Awaiting them to reply to tribunal on 9th August. They didnt. Its all so unfair. Why put there pointers in to meet the criteria if you meet them all, prove in more than enough evidence and still decline.. so unfair xx

Thank you for your apology.

As I said, see the government’s document for the advice for decision makers (that also links to the legislation).

F6010 To qualify for an award of a carer element, the claimant must have regular and substantial caring responsibilities for a severely disabled person.

F6011 A UC claimant will have regular and substantial caring responsibilities for a severely disabled person where they

1. Satisfy the conditions of entitlement to CA (see F6013) or
2. would satisfy the conditions of entitlement to CA if their earning did not exceed the prescribed limit for CA. This means that a UC claimant will qualify for the carer element irrespective of their earnings, provided they satisfy the other conditions of entitlement for CA (see the Note to F6013).

F6012 The test at F6011 can be satisfied whether or not the claimant has made a claim for CA. Where no claim for CA has been made the UC DM will have to consider whether the claimant could satisfy the conditions for entitlement to CA.

Conditions of entitlement to CA
F6013 The conditions for entitlement to CA are that

1. the claimant is engaged in caring for a severely disabled person for any day (see DMG 60033 - 60042). A severely disabled person is a person to whom one of the benefits listed in DMG 60033 is payable and
2. the claimant is regularly and substantially engaged in caring for that person for at least 35 hours a week (see DMG 60035 - 60042)
3. the claimant is not gainfully employed (see DMG 60051 - 60052) - but see note below for the UC carer element and
4. the claimant is aged 16 or over (see DMG 60058) and
5. the claimant is not in FTE (see DMG 60068 - 60081) and
6. the claimant satisfies prescribed conditions of residence or presence in GB (see DMG Chapter 07 Part 2) and
7. no one else is already entitled to CA for that severely disabled person.

Note: The condition in 3. does not need to be satisfied for a claimant to qualify for the UC carer element. A UC claimant will qualify for the carer element if the conditions in 1. and 2. And 4. to 7. Are satisfied. UC DMs therefore do not need to consider the amount of the claimant’s earnings when considering the carer element (but see F6014).

But, as I also said, you are obviously free to believe what you want.

@LocoCoco13 I work in the bridge and you're absolutely correct. Although it is based on individual circumstances so it's not a one size fits all type thing.
Students can claim the carer element
You're correct about your explanation about your sister.. @Irongirl71 is also correct as she's a student herself claiming it

@flawlessflipper please stop...

Some mothers on this page don't know how to interpret the copy and pasted links you are commenting with.. Some mothers on this page have autism and adhd and learning disabilities themselves it causes anxiety to mother when they know they are right and you then comment with your facts that are wrong as I said please be mindful on this thread.. Mother are stressed out enough this is so supportive space just take a minute with how you're replying to people.. They can not understand your long copy and pasted legislation
Please note you're wrong!

There are certain groups of people who are exempt from the normal restrictions around carer element one of these exemptions is students who have a dependant child who's in receipt of dla.. In some circumstances..
There are also other exemptions.

These lady's who have commented to you are obviously exempt from normal restrictions. Please stop telling them they are wrong and you dont care if they believe you or not.

Chill 🤕

Yeah it's so long, I waited 26 weeks for the new claim and then renewal was ages, now the MR is ages aswell, gonna be all grown up and moved out by the time they make their minds up hahaha

@MrsKB16 Im really sorry that's happened to your child.. Honestly the smi route to HRM is ridiculous to prove and even when proven it's declined, even with evidence I've seen it time and time again.. But what I can tell you if you have all the evidence the first tier tribunal are very fair and they overturn decisions and award under smi all the time in well over 90 per cent of smi cases.. Have dla responded?

Everything I have posted is correct. As I said, believe it, don’t believe. It doesn’t bother me. I could not give a toss what you think.

I also have AuDHD. You are free to believe that or ignore that, too.

Anyone who doesn’t want to read the information from the government’s advice for decision makers is free to ignore.

Again, I don’t need to ‘chill’.

@Darkmiss i know the child will have 3 other things wrong by the time they make a decision and it will be change of circumstance time... New claim wait times are down considerably since Christmas but MR and COC are longer.. But they are cycling them from yesturday ( Friday) so all MR upto 10th March are apparently being allocated and pushed through for decisions but we will see... How many week are you on?

@flawlessflipper but you are posting a DM handbook which people on here can't interpret and is confusing to them.. What you're posting also doesn't take into account the Exemptions under the normal provisions..

So the DMs follow that in normal practice they don't need to refer to it for claims of carer element who are EXEMPT to the rules in the handbook..

So please stop stating that you are correct you aren't correct infact you're way off the mark.

The Handbook doesn't need to be followed for EXEMPT claimants..

If you understood what you're saying instead of copy and pasting you wouldn't understand exemptions...

Same way it says benefits can't be backdated more than 12 weeks that's in the DM handbook too that's the rule you have to give change of circumstance within 12 weeks else you lose benefit.. But if you have been waiting for a decision on a disability benefit from dla and the dla is backdated past 12 weeks you're exempt from the 12 week rule.. Exceptional circumstances apply and in comes another legislation to overrule the DM handbook called " a supersession"

Exemptions and special circumstances apply across the board especially when dependant children are involved and more specifically Disabled dependant children..

The fact you work for a charity and give advise is worrying.

As I said, believe it, don’t believe it, it doesn’t bother me what some random on the internet thinks. I could not give a toss.

You're just rude and this isn't the place for it so instead of engaging in conversation and saying oh really I didn't know that about exemptions for carer element thanks for letting me know you're just repeating you don't give a toss what some random on the Internet thinks and believe it or don't..

We don't believe it because it's NOT TRUE it's incorrect.. I'm not choosing not to believe you to be an idiot what you're saying is incorrect.

Two lady's on here have told you one is claiming carer element as a student for her child the other has explained her sister situation and that she's also claiming the carer element and you're still saying believe me or don't I don't give a toss..

You're stated you've been on these threads 10 years just under different names.. Why do you keep changing your name please? Is it because you're been banned from threads or had arguments because seems suspicious you've had to keep changing your user name...

You've been asked to chill out.. Some of the users on here rely on these threads to help and to alleviate their anxiety and stress and worry.. Stop arguing with people and telling them they are wrong it's unnecessary.

we've all tried to move on past this a few times now and continued conversations with others and you're just carrying on.
Are you okay hun? 🙄🤣

There must be another way around it, if people are still being awarded it especially when they know the person is in FTE because we all know they hardly like giving what your actually entitled too

I have not been banned from threads. If I was banned, I wouldn’t be able to name change within the same account. I regularly name change for privacy. As many, many posters on MN do now because MN used to be far smaller in the 2000s than it is now. It isn’t because I have had arguments either.

As I said, believe it, don’t believe it, it doesn’t bother me.

If others don’t want to reply, that is up to them. I will reply to posts aimed at me.

Im.waiting on nc 21/3

I'm just on week 25 I think, or will be next week, I can't keep track of the time anymore hahaha

so touchy subject I know… but can anybody tell me about the exemptions please. To claiming carers element as a full time student?

No, they didnt respond. They had until the Sat 9th August. Spoke with the courts monday 11th August and the clerk said they give dwp 2weeks grace. If still no respose the hearing process will start etc. He(the clerk) did say the courts get all whole file dwp has including all evidence etc, the whole file. The whole time the courts are doing their stuff the dwp are re looking at the Mr and can change their mind and award Mr then the court case will disolve and we get a letter of it closed. But he did say to expect it to go to Hearing so guess thats what will happen. Zebra something on here had a respose so guess she won her case, fantastic news 😀 x

This is my worry with my COC, all the evidence is there but it seems so hard to get HRM especially under the smi criteria. Good luck with your tribunal, I hope you here soon and get a positive outcome 🤞

@MrsKB16 They are terrible at responding, some they respond within the deadlines and some they don't.. I'm 100 per cent sure they just pick and choose at this point or it's just luck.. They still have time to respond the tribunal usually write to them reminding them to respond and they give a 30 day grace.. Maybe they've gave them 2 weeks in your case to try and gage a response.. I've just followed tribunal where it went all the way to the court case day it was an hour before and they called the claimant an hour before to say its been overturned and a substantial back payment... Its disgusting the claimant had to wait 8 months for the hearing day and they overturned an hour before but the claimant was just happy she didn't need to go to the hearing as it was an in person hearing.
And yes DLA have to hand over the whole file including internal documents between the DM and the DWP healthcare professionals also known as internal medical documents and all documents from school ( questions answered on phone between the DM and school or nursery or GP or consultants) its actually quite interesting to see what's said internally about the child and the claim but it really shouldn't have to go that far.. Yes you get a substantial back payment but what about what the child needs now 😩 and the stress on the parent trying to navigate the first tier process which is so confusing in itself.
Keep fighting.. Fingers crossed for you that DLA respond with a new award and overturn their decision.. Keep us updated on the thread of how it's going it will help others if they need to follow the same process..
Just to ask what is your child's diagnosis and what award are you fighting for and what kind of evidence did you send with original claim and MR?

Edit** I meant what award are you fighting for just HRM? does the child already get HRC

Do you know if this 10 week cycle is for just MRs or COC aswell?

Hi, each case is different as it depends on circumstances under UC rules.. Things like if it's a joint claim matter, if any claimant is on LCW, what full-time education the claimant is on, if its college or uni and if its free or student financed / student loan, if the claimant is on pip ect ect there's various factors

So there not a set exemption but basic rule ( which won't apply to all) a single mother on a full time course who has a disabled dependent child who is on the uc claim and the claimant is getting the disabled child element under middle or high rate dla will be exempt from the standard rules and will get a carer element under an exemption / The DM then doesn't apply basic rules on their handbook andd guides they follow the guide book for exceptional circumstances.

The reason for so many different factors and rule books and the need to apply exceptions is because they've had to combine rules for income support, employment and support allowance, job seekers allowance and child tax credit and combine legislation to take them all into account under a universal benefit system.. Its also because the set rules for carers allowance are totally different as that's a benefit that's classed as an income and doesn't fall into the universal benefit system.. So they enable people caring for someone to not have any work commitments under UC so even if you can't claim carers allowance they had to take into account you still have a child you provide 35 hours a week care therfore you can't go to work so they put exemptions in place and exceptional circumstances for single mothers with a disabled dependant child even when the mother is in education.
Sorry I can't give you a definitive answer as it's not one size fits all..
Hope that's helped somewhat with your question though 🫶

Ahh yes I understand. I think. Haha. So I’m going to uni full time in sept. I have a partner that works. So I won’t be entitled to carer element?

Hiya, the email I seen yesturday was just MR but I do know that DLA are being made to reduce the wait times for both MR and COC immediately as there are various local MPs from lots of cities across England and Wales involved and complaining on behalf of claimants who have contacted them.

COC are about 30 weeks aren't they?

For anyone who didn't know if you renew your claim or put in a change of circumstance and your rates are dropped down you can jump straight to the front of the queues you just have to call and request it under financial hardship.
Example if you get high rate care and the award to lowered to a different rate and you put in a MR you call up and request a queue jump under financial hardship.. Its the only circumstance for a queue jump 🫶

Depends on your exact circumstances obviously don't write what your partner earns on here or your exact payments from uc but if your partner works he can't care for your child, you have a disabled dependant child so you may fall into the exemption / exceptional circumstance category..
Just apply for it and see what happens or if you already get it and are doing a change of circumstance to let them know you're going to uni and the date ect.. Write a journal message under payment and ask for it to go to a DM for carer element stating your child is a disabled dependant and you will still be caring for the child obviously unless you are claiming child care expenses then that's different.. Like I say it's individual circumstances. But always query the elements after a change ie full time uni and ask the DM to make the decision if you don't ask they won't do it automatically 🫶

Thank you 😊, my childs renewal is due (claim ends in less than 2 weeks), i have been a bit stressed incase DLA gets dropped with seeing so many MR'S, so this is helpful to know. I have more evidence than previous and another diagnosis so really it shouldnt be dropped but you never know.