Hi all!
I know I should just wait for the award letter in the post but it's near Christmas and the postal service near us has a massive backlog and delay; phoning DWP will also take the better part of an afternoon so I am asking here to see if anyone has any experience and can maybe answer my questions.
Background on DS: turns 3 in January; diagnosed ASD September this year; has significant inturning of right foot causing trips and falls pretty much every time he tries to walk; and elopes, no recall to name, absolutely zero sense of danger so requires restraint to keep him safe, nonverbal; I could go on but you get the gist.
I submitted my DS's DLA forms, acknowleged by DWP 10th November. Filled in all the form as I figured it would take at least 16 weeks for it to process making him well over 3 years old and therefore eligible for high rate mobility if they deem it. To my surprise, I woke up today to a DLA payment in my account for £451.06! Just 4 weeks and 2 days after the acknowledgement of receipt of forms!
My questions are:
Mobility Rate, he turns 3 in literally less than 4 weeks, do you think they have decided if he would be eligible for the mobility once he is 3 while they were deciding about the Care Component; or will I have to submit the form again next month to get them to do the whole "change of circumstances" thing they expect you to do if you receive DLA before they turn 3? From what I can tell researching online if you are in recipient of DLA before the child turns 3, 6 months before their birthday they send you the form to fill in and send back for them to make the decision but DS is already well within that 6 months and I already filled in the form detailing his mobility issues and provided evidence from the doctors about his mobility issues. It seems silly to have to fill in everything again and submit all the same stuff again just because they got around to his paperwork WAY sooner than I anticipated (not that I am moaning, very very very grateful. Especially since I have seen people waiting 6 months for their response!!)
And less importantly: What rate do we think it is? As far as I can tell they only backdate to the date they acknowledge receipt of the forms so using 4 weeks that would be Higher Rate Care Component as he is not legally able to be paid the Mobility Rate to bump up the other two rates for it to add up to near the amount recieved today.
Has anyone been awarded DLA just before their child's 3rd birthday so maybe has experience in this?
Thanks in advance ☺️