Can anyone explain how DLA renewal works, please?

kyte

Hi, my youngest has a degenerative eye condition (currently partially sighted and will get worse with time) and autism. He was granted DLA in January, and thankfully doesn't have a renewal date until 2021.

I have no idea what to expect for the renewal form. What will I need to provide for the renewal?....all the same supporting documents etc and fill  out the form all over again? It took months to get all the information together first time round and I'm dreading having to do this every 18 months.

Plus now he's been diagnosed, he doesn't really get new letters from the hospital or CAMHS, so do I just copy the original ones from last year, or ask them to send me new ones, dated more recently?

Any help or advice would be really appreciated.

poppy123456

HI,

The renewal is the same process and the same form as you had the first time. The process is exactly the same for each renewal. Yes, you will need to send the supporting evidence. If you don't have more recent evidence to send then i wouldn't worry too much. Just send what you have.

kyte

Thank you. Aah it's so stressful. And he's not going to get "better". Why can't they just ask if there have been any changes?....I'm probably not the only one to feel like this though. 

OK, so I can keep asking the school, specialist and council disability support officer for letters each time?

janer1967

Hi and welcome to the community I see you have had your query answered,
It may be worth having few copies of any evidence you send and I would always copy anything I send off to them and keep it all together in a folder, you can then add to this as new evidence is received.

It is good to start to prepare but try and relax 

poppy123456

kyte said:

Thank you. Aah it's so stressful. And he's not going to get "better". Why can't they just ask if there have been any changes?....I'm probably not the only one to feel like this though. 

OK, so I can keep asking the school, specialist and council disability support officer for letters each time?

Nope, you're not the only one. You can ask them yes but i wouldn't worry too much about new evidence, if you don't have anything new just use what you did for the existing claim.

kyte

Oh that's such a relief if I can reuse what I already have. Thank you!

Yes, I will try to relax now 

ross2503

Best of luck with your renewal claim when the time comes  

It is a shame that they can't just do a continuous claim given that your son's condition won't get better. I know it's something that PIP do in certain circumstances, not sure if DLA offer continuous claims though 

mikehughescq

Children don’t tend to get long awards because DLA, like PIP, is awarded on the functional consequences of a condition rather than because of the condition itself. The view is that children are still adapting to their condition and what they need help with at 5 might not be what they need help with at 10 for example. The other side of this is that the requirement for care substantially in excess of the norm changes over time. What is substantially in excess at 5 might not even exist as a need by 10.

Add in one extra complication. Parents of sight-impaired children are generally (understandably) terrible at assessing what’s a consequence of the sight impairment and what is personality with far too much being attributed to the latter than the former. Children get labelled clumsy or careless rather than sight-impaired. They get labelled grumpy rather than tired as a direct consequence of the effort of seeing. Worse still medics concentrate on the clinical rather than the functional so the adults don’t know what they’re looking for and the child doesn’t yet have the language to describe it. Adding autism into that is quite a heady mix. Effectively there are so many variables and so many things could change that a king award doesn’t really usually make sense.