Dla change of circumstances

Rubywoo18

GGood Evening all I hope all are well and keeping toasty. I'm abit disgruntled today. I had my sons decision letter back for the change of circumstances. I asked them to look at the decision again coz he got his autism diagnosis but more so they didn't take night time in to consideration. The letter stated today that they have decided to change the decision but when I checked it is still the same award as before. Im wondering what this means and if I should do an MR. As my son finds it very difficult to fall asleep he takes ages and becomes over stimulated and will wake up in gje early hours due to tummy ymtroubles or sleep issue ie night terrors anxiety provoke and I have to be awake to help him with personal and emotional care

Trevor_PIP

@Rubywoo18 I am wondering if there is an error within the decision letter. Might be worth a call. Then it would be a MR. This will look at the whole claim again, be aware of that.

OverlyAnxious

I agree with Trevor. Seems to be an error here. Where did you check to confirm the new award?

Rubywoo18

Thank you both for your input both Trevor and overly anxious. I received the letter yesterday. It stated that they have looked at the new evidence and change of circumstances and they have decided to change there decision. However, the award Is the same as before the new evidence and my night time personal and emotional care I give to my son. I phoned DLA and explained and the lady told me that the manager would phone me in 3 days to discuss. I told her that the evidence from gastroenterology and paediatrics even states that he has stomach troubles and needs me to sleep near at night every night. Im not sure what to do but anyways I hope you all have a restful peaceful weekend.

Trevor_PIP

@Rubywoo18 you did right making the call and explaining. See what happens after the manager looks at your claim and calls you. Please let us us know how you got on if you do not mind as it will help other claimants. Have a good weekend both of you.

Adrian_Scope

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/140518/dla-change-of-circumstances

Hello @Rubywoo18. I'm sorry to read about the confusion of your change of circumstances, did anything change at all? For example the duration of award?

For High Rate Care DLA, what counts as night-time isn't usually the initial difficulty in falling asleep, it’s the actual care or supervision you provide during the night once they’re asleep or awake in the night needing help. And when you say about waking in the early hours, this can be interpreted in many ways, so be clear if you mean through the night or just waking a little earlier than most people would expect (6am is early hours for example).

If you speak to them again or decide to MR, focus on:

• concrete examples of night-time care, for example times where you have had to physically help, comfort, supervise or intervene because he’s woken up due to his condition.
• explaining how often this happens, and what you actually do (not just how long he takes to fall asleep).
• any patterns, for example if happens every night, 3 times a week or once a fortnight, etc.