Dla child/autism

rmcc

Hi, my son has been awarded DlA high care component back in October last year, he turned 3 the start of this year and we have applied for the mobility component for him, he was refused and I have in for a mandatory reconsideration, I have supporting documents from some of the health professionals that deal in his care, which I am going to send in, my son has autism and global development delay, he refuses to walk point blank when outdoors and has lots of meltdowns and severely bangs his head, he would bang his head daily softly and sometimes severely, but when outdoors he does this a lot, we are waiting for his disability pram and have gave all this evidence, he has no awareness of danger and is extremely hard to manage indoors let alone outdoors, why do they think this causes for no award? Has anyone been through this before and had any luck with this? It's such a fight to get their needs met without having to fight for what they should be entitled to 

poppy123456

Unless he has a physical disability then he won't qualify through "virtually unable to walk." You would need to look at the severe mental impairment part.

To qualify for the higher rate mobility component because of severe mental impairment, the child has to meet all the following criteria:

• be entitled to the higher rate care component of DLA
• suffer from a state of arrested development or incomplete physical development of the brain which results in severe mental impairment of intelligence or social functioning
• exhibit ‘disruptive behaviour’ which ‘is extreme’ and ‘regularly requires another person to intervene and physically restrain them to prevent them from causing injury to themselves or another, or damage to property’
• be so unpredictable that they require another person to watch over them whenever they are awake

https://www.carersuk.org/help-and-advice/financial-support/help-with-benefits/disability-living-allowance

Sue_Alumni

Good morning @rmcc and welcome to the online community and thank you for your post. 

Just to follow on from what poppy has said, the "virtually unable to walk test" considers the physical limitations on your son's limitations to put one foot in front of the other and continue to make  progress on foot. These physical limitations can include behavioural problems if they are a reaction to your son's physical disablement, eg brain damage. 

I appreciate that you have already submitted a lot of evidence.  What I think you could do is:-

·       highlight where in the evidence it is stated that the autism and the global developmental delay has a physical cause and is a result of “brain damage”.   It may not do and you will need the consultant to "join the dots up", so to speak and make this link.

·       Show that all the behaviours that your son exhibits which interrupt outdoor walking stem directly from that physical cause and,

·       There is no deliberate and self conscious choice not to walk and that the interruptions are the result of brain damage or genetic damage that caused the learning difficulties and the normal co-ordination of mind and body

·       Give a clear picture of your son's walking difficulties

If you'd like to have a look at the rest of the forum, you can find all the latest conversations in our recent discussions category, all the different topics in our categories page, and this link contains discussions  from carers of disabled children  and you can meet and chat with other members over in our virtual coffee lounge too.

You mentioned that you feel that it is a battle to try to get the benefits and help that you feel your child is entitled to. This will resound with many on our community and you will see that we are a friendly and supportive bunch of people and I am sure that many of our members will reply to your post.    We do also have information about emotional support for families with disabled children as supporting a disabled child is hard and can be extremely lonely. 

Let us know if you need a hand with anything, and I hope you enjoy spending time here.

Take care

Sue