DLA appeal and tax credit

Mammajana

Hello everyone, just joined the community and hope to find some answers from those who have more experience than me. 
I am a mum to two children, boy 6 abd girl 2. Our daughter has had uncontrolled general seizures since 7 months of age and last year been diagnosed with epilepsy. She has then been put on DLA middle rate for the daytime care component. Now after I sent the renewal application, we have received a surprising decision, that her DLA is going to be stopped together because according to DWP she doesn't require any special care compared to any other child of her age. Because we consider it a big mistake as her condition hasn't changed since last year and she still has uncontrolled general seizures, we have asked for mandatory reconsideration and when that did not change the decision, we made an appeal. Just received the letter saying they registered our appeal and that we should wait to be given a hearing date. Now this could apparently take months, so I want to prepare and would like to hear any advice from those who have been to r hearing with regards to how many people were there, what was the atmosphere and whether you manage to win your case or not. That is my first question and my second one is whether I need to call the Tax credit office to tell them about this change as I think the child tax credit is going to be affected or they communicate between themselves and the deduction is going to be made automatically without me having to tell them.
Many thanks to you all there for your kind help and good luck to everyone xx

poppy123456

Hi,

To answer your second question, yes you'll need to ring HMRC to report the changes because you won't be entitled to the disabled element of child tax credits anymore. Changes should have been reported when the decision was made. You could have an overpayment now which will need to be repaid. Of course if she's awarded by the Tribunal then you can reclaim and it will all be backdated but the Tribunal could take at least a year because backlogs are huge.

I'm sure others will be able to answer your question about the DLA appeal because my knowledge on this isn't great.

Good luck.

Antonia_Alumni

Hello @Mammajana thank you for sharing this with us. I am sorry to hear about the outcome of the decision. There's some information on and guide to the tribunal hearing, from the Citizen Advice website. Some of our members like @melissahicking2019 and other members who have shared their experiences.

According to Carers UK: DLA is not means tested so your financial circumstances will not be taken into account. DLA is also not taxable and does not reduce other benefits. In fact, it may even increase the amount of benefit you get, or help you to qualify for other benefits (such as Carer’s Allowance) and/ or tax credits. 

I'll tag in @poppy123456 if she offer some advice on this also. 

poppy123456

@Antonia_Scope hi,

Yes, you're right DLA isn't taxable but as i previously explained in my other comment because the DLA award would have increased the child tax credits then because they are no longer receiving the DLA then they won't be entitled to the disabled element of child tax credits.

Adrian_Scope

Hello @Mammajana and welcome to the community.

I'm very sorry to read your daughter's DLA has stopped. What did the statement of reasons say? If you haven't requested one, make sure you do. 
As Poppy said, you will need to update Tax Credits, they won't do this automatically. 

Please keep in touch and let us know how this progresses.