[senco-forum] Disability Living Allowance

I wonder how/why some parents apply.

> I wonder how/why some parents apply.

Parents apply because it's a legal entitlement and because they need
the money -- bringing up a child with special needs serious enough to
qualify for DLA is a very expensive business!

> I know it's a self assessment form

Pardon? No it's not!!!

Yes the parent has to fill out a very detailed form that runs to tens
of pages, but what they write has also got to be backed by reports
from medical professionals plus they might also be subjected to a
health assessment by a DWP doctor, most of whom have very limited
knowledge of disabilities and asses the client on the basis of only
what they see for less than half an hour on the day of the interview.

As for the assessment criteria, these are based on questions something
on the lines of; "Is the client able to prepare a conventional meal --
not simply heat up a microwave ready-meal". Now these are not easily
translatable into a realistic assessment of actual disability or the
additional cost of care or transport needed to support this. It's all
a bit of a lottery really and those who really deserve and would
benefit most from DLA very often get turned down because they haven't
used the right trigger words of key phrases in their application.

Incidentally I'm told the majority of appeals against being turned
down for DLA succeed at Tribunal.

> and there are 3 levels of funding.

Yes that's right in regard to the 'care' component. You have to be
pretty severely disabled to qualify for the medium level of care and
very severely disabled to qualify for the highest level. There is also a
'mobility' component that can be awarded as well.

Make no mistake applying for DLA is a huge hurdle for anyone who's
literacy is not well above average, and especial so for parents who
have any form of learning disability. It's extremely time consuming
and you have to jump through lots of hoops. Then after a year when
it's reviewed you have to go through the whole process all over again!
Definitely not a doddle nor for the feint hearted who are liable to
easily give up in the face of bureaucracy.

David Bowles