DLA and AA safe for one parliament
Thanks to the enormous outcry led by various charities including FMA UK, disability living allowance and attendance allowance are safe – for the course of one parliament. You may remember our article about the threat to these benefit.
Following the publication of the National Care Service white paper in March the government now say
We have long said that we would protect everyone currently getting DLA and AA in cash terms in any reform of the social care system. We continue to believe that this is essential.
The Tribunal's Decision. What happens next?
You need to keep in mind that you are not a liar, and that even though your illness cannot be seen it has an all to real impact on your life.
If you have a Tribunal Representative they will be guiding you at this time to ensure they give you the best advice possible so that you can make the best choice for your situation. If you do not have a Tribunal Representative it may be a good idea to get some advice to help you through this process.
Useful info when completing a DLA claim
Step one
Write out a pain diary that tracks what your care and mobility needs are, levels of pain, types of meds used, symptoms of your conditions that effect you etc. also include the time of day you need help and for how long each time.
Step two
Take diary to your GP so they can be aware of what problems you actually have as they can not guess when they're completing the claim forms and can only report what they have either seen or you've reported to them.
Incapacity Benefit Applications
There are some things you can do to help yourself with completing an Incapacity Benefit claim and getting medical evidence to back it up. With an application for Incapacity Benefit(referred to as IB in this document) the Department will be trying to assess whether or not you’re capable of doing your job(called the own occupation assessment), and later on they will be considering whether or not you might be capable of any form of a job(called the all works test).
Incapacity Benefit has now been replaced with a new benefit called 'Employment Support Allowance' which began on the 27th of October 2008. We will be preparing a hints and tips guide for this soon. For those who are currently receiving IB or Income Support (IS) for ill health as long as you continue to meet the entitlement criteria your benefit will continue for the time being, eventually though all IB and IS for ill health will move over to the new benefit.
Tribunal Hints and Tips
Now that you've been turned down for benefit, you are probably wondering ‘Now what do I do?’ This document is aimed at helping you on the steps that you may have to take in order to take your decision to appeal. While this may seem a daunting prospect, there is a lot of help that you can take advantage of. Many people have already been down this route and succeeded.
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