disability

bluboy

Newbie
Messages
3
can anyone tell me if diabetes is now classed as a disability under government guidelines, and if so , does this mean benefits can be claimed :?:
 

sugarless sue

Master
Messages
10,098
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Rude people! Not being able to do the things I want to do.
Diabetes is classed as a disability and I think you can claim Disability living allowance.It depends how bad it is.
 

gaynor

Active Member
Messages
37
As far as am aware you can only get disability living allowance for a child. My son is 4 and I get it for him but it will stop when he is 12 and is classed as being able to inject himself.
 

Katharine

Well-Known Member
Messages
819
Hi Gaynor,

The good news is that if your child still needs you to supervise him you will continue to get the allowance. Steven is now 16 and still gets it.

I don't know many 12 year old boys or girls who:

Do their own food shopping.
Do their own meal preparation.
Do all their own carb counting/ protein estimations/ insulin sensitivity calculations.
Organise all their diabetes supplies.
Organise all their own diabetes clinic appointments.
Test their own blood sugars without prompting about five times a day including 3am ones now and then.
Are confident to vary their insulin injections according to their results.
Are completely independent and self caring when they have hypos or dehydrating illnesses.

The main thing when you fill in the form is to take yourself through a typical day / month /year and remember how much you really do for your child with diabetes. Then you have to put it down.

I went on holiday last year with David my non diabetic son for a week. The most striking thing was that when we fancied going out or doing something we just did it. I was carrying a fraction of the stuff I carry about for Steven. None of the contingency items like diet drinks, sugary drinks, survival packs, phones, extra food and so forth. I think it can be easy to forget just how much you do for your diabetic child.
 
Messages
1
Dear all,
I am Umashankar Mukherjee from India.In India in general there is no disability
allowance,does it exist in developed countries like U.K and U.S.Can someone
let me know of some health insurance company who will like to work for the diabetes
Patient community in India.the name of my forum is free from diabetes foundation.
you can view the activities in http://www.kolkatadiabetes.org.
If you want to treat diabetes with aincent mind,body and spirit along with your
drugs,please contact me .I can take classes and help you free of cost.
Umashankar Mukherjee
 

fairplayuk

Member
Messages
7
Hi Type 1 diabetes is a disability under the DDA for employment purposes because it is established that without medication it would it fulfil the DDA requirements. The answer is usually yes!!!!

Unfortunately even if you comply with the DDA if you are in work, there is a much more stringent test to gain disability living allowance or disabillity related benefits per se. You definitely have to be unable to work through ill health for a considerable length of time. They do agree that if you are terminally ill (ie have 6 weeks or so to live you get it automatically!) BUT there is a test by an Examing medical officer employed by the Dept Work Pensions who ultimately gives a report. It is the adjudicator in Job Centre Plus who agrees or not.

I have appealed against this for someone with a disability who had benefits cut because she missed it by 1 point on the Personal Capacity Assessment in her case. It was successful and she was given back dated money.
 

Spiral

Well-Known Member
Messages
856
To get Disability Living Allowance you need some kind of care or supervision. Age has nothing to do with it so long as you are over 2 and under 65.

The basic test for DLA is can you make yourself a meal from scratch? If you strggle to do that it is worth applying - even if you don't actually recive this care. The key thing is that you need the care.

DLA is paid at 3 levels - low, medium and high. The high rate is for peole who require care during the night. There is also the mobility component - that is paid a low and high rates.

The form takes about 2 hours to complete and you have to be very careful about the wording. i always tell people to get somenoe from an organisation like Welfare Rights or teh CAB or a carers project or Age Concern (for people over 55) to help them fill it in. Unless, of course, you can fast track because of terminal illness :?

If you use the DWP form filling service they simply write down what you say and this can mean that you don't get the benefit if you are borderline. This service is okay if you have a very obvious physical disability.
 

oojimmyflip

Active Member
Messages
37
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
the smell of bacon boiling, sweaty feet, nose pickers and eaters. lol.
it looks like the care componant of disability living alowence and disability living allowence which are two different things to claim for are being mixed up here.

spiral I'm afraid if you are over 60 you cannot claim disability living allowence at all but having said that if you claimed it before you are 60 and have an award beyond the age of 60 you will continue to recieve it. ie a life award awarded at age 55.

In have a good friend who has become an amputee and he is 70 he has been told that he cannot claim it because he is over sixty. (I hate my country sometimes). :evil:

Disability Living alowence or Mobility allowence is usually awarded on your ability to walk.
hence you can surrender all or part of it to obtain a contract hire car or wheelchair to get around in.

the care componant of disability living allowence is another componant which can be claimed seperately, this is based on your ability to look after yourself.

one sound piece of advise I would give is base every answer on your worst case senario, they do ask stupid questions like how many days a week do you need help for?the answer is always seven.

If you are an adult and currently unemployed you can claim incapacity benefit if your diabeties is so severe that you are unable to work. this would have to be claimed through your jobcentre not the disability living allowence department in Blackpool.

there are three different allowences for the care componant of disability living allowence the first is the lower rate which is around 17 pounds a week pretty pointles claimming this how many carers would work for that, the middle rate if you need attention through the night or help when you go out because you may get lost or confused would maybe suit someone with diabeties, this is around 47 a week allowence, the higher rate would mean that you can do literally nothing for yourself not even feed yourself I dont currently know what the amount is.


I hope this helps somewhat.

regards Nigel. :wink:
 

cugila

Master
Messages
10,272
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People who are touchy.......feign indignation at the slightest thing. Hypocrites, bullies and cowards.
Nigel.
Sorry, but some of the information you have posted is not correct. Here are links to the up to date information about DLA, Incapacity Benefit and it's replacement, Employment and Support Allowance.

Here are the links: From the Directgov website.

Disability Living Allowance.
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/DisabledPeo ... G_10011731

Incapacity Benefit is only being paid to existing claimants.
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/DisabledPeo ... G_10016082

The replacement for Incapacity Benefit is Employment and Support Allowance.
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/DisabledPeo ... /DG_171894
 

oojimmyflip

Active Member
Messages
37
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
the smell of bacon boiling, sweaty feet, nose pickers and eaters. lol.
That doesnt help unless you point out my mistakes "it was all pretty accurate when I claimed it 20 years ago" and I got a life award.

so help me out here a bit just posting links and not pointing out the amendments to the system doesnt help at all, my post was based much upon personal experiences, your link doesnt mention anything about age so that can't be it. what exactly is your point.

regards Nigel. :lol:
 

kegstore

Well-Known Member
Messages
771
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Unnecessary rudeness, and any PC
It does no harm at all to apply for DLA, which covers a vast array of different physical and mental conditions. If you're not entitled to anything then you will be informed of this, and the only thing you will have done is wasted a little time. But you may also be quite surprised at the outcome, I certainly was...

The form is not an easy one to complete, but if you answer candidly and truthfully (as you obviously should), then you have provided all the information required to assess your individual circumstances. Which is the key to it - your personal and individual circumstances.
 

sugarless sue

Master
Messages
10,098
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Nigel.
The links were posted for people who may want now to claim Disability Living Allowance and other benefits. Obviously your claim is for life but others still need the up to date info.

The first link to DLA clearly states it is available to people under 65 not as you stated 60.
Please have a read of the links.
 

candy1567

Well-Known Member
Messages
120
Hi all

One of my previous posts gives up todate information regarding DLA, will try to find the link but think am havin an off day!!!!

Basically you can only claim DLA not for diabetes itself but for the complications that go with it ie, the mobility component can be claimed if u suffer with nerve damage in ur feet which effects ur ability to walk. The care component can be claimed if u suffer with poor eyesight and making a meal becomes difficult, there are many options here so careful filling in of the form is needed. I would advise to go to a disability right centre or CAB to fill in the form as if ur not sucessful then they will represent u at a tribunal whereas if u use the advice workers in a solicitors they dont do this.

The form is very long and repetative but u must fill it in describing ur worst day, U dont need to hav anyone physically looking after u, its to give u the cash to have the same quality of life as someone who doesn't hav ur condition.

Any yes i am qualified to give this info as i was a disability advisor with the CAB before becoming a social worker.
 

candy1567

Well-Known Member
Messages
120
sorry dont know how to add the links to a post but here is the disability thread i mentioned in the previous post

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6537

hope this helps, DLA is a very complicated benefit and i think that it is calculated on a scoring system this i might add is MY own personal opinion. This is due to the fact it is very patchy in the way it is awarded as i hav known someone with severe disabilites to be turned down yet someone with mild asthma awarded the care component.

juliexx
 

sugarless sue

Master
Messages
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Sorry Julie but this link does not work,can you repost it please.

The links to all the benefit sites are ,however already posted in this thread.
 

candy1567

Well-Known Member
Messages
120
Hi

sorry sue havn't a clue how to put it as a hyper link in a post can u advise.

Its not a link to the government benefit sites but to an earlier post i replied to about DLA, it has some point as what to include when your filling in the DLA form

thanks

julie
 

oojimmyflip

Active Member
Messages
37
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
the smell of bacon boiling, sweaty feet, nose pickers and eaters. lol.
My amputee friend was told the stop limit was over 60 but he had not made enough national insurance contributions because he had been out of the country, not something covered by the . gov websites. Apolagies for the confused state and if I got it wrong :oops:

But as you say Jo no harm in attempting a claim anyway, if successful and they decide only to give you a miniscule awared or no award you can always appeal within six weeks in writing send it in special delivery then they can't say they havent recieved it. They are always loosing documents.

I had to attend five appeal tribunals before their doctors examined me and agreed my condition was worse than they had orriginally thought, ten years of stressful claimming it will take around eight hours to fill out the forms and they have to be signed by someone that knows you well and preferably a GP, some good advice is don't rely on hospital consultants for filling out parts of the form they take a very long time (months) in my experience because they recieve no pay for form filling wheras your GP can claim for it. and should take about a week.

if the Hospital consultant contridicts the GP you can argue that your GP knows you better because you are likely to see the GP more often than your consultant (ie once a year).

For some it is simple and straight forward for others it is a long road.

a good friend of mine had a life award he was advised to claim again to increase the care componant by his GP he tried and they reduced his life award to two years.
the general opinion is that they must find ways to cut costs sometimes.
he succeded in his appeal and his life award was reinstated with a higher award of the care componant.

if you think you should get DLA or care componant of DLA and they say no dont give up on the first attempt appeal and do it quickly digging up all the medical evidence you can.
Ask DLA for a full print out of your claim papers there may be unabstantiated evidence against you that they are hiding not everyone that makes a report always gets everything correct there may be mistakes, you have right to a copy insist you get one, besides like me you might wish to speak for yourself at a tribunal and give your own evidence for your case, instead of employing a carrer or social assistant to speak for you. I printed out ten coppies of my case notes and handed them out to everyone at the tribunal and insisted they took time to read them before making any judgments, and they did at the start of the Tribunal.

I'm not saying it should be so rough for anyone but expect a fight if they say no first time and as your condition progresses dont be afraid to claim again when the initial award runs out, you should be claimming again three months before your claim runs out, if the papers don't arrive automatically (in fact dont leave this to chance) phone them up and ask for new claim forms.
they tend to award in one two or three year increments, a life award may take time after several claims, or it may be given straight away according to an individuals circumstances,

I wish you the very best of Luck. :wink:


regards Nigel.
 

copepod

Well-Known Member
Messages
735
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
People aged over 65 years cannot make new claims for Disability Living Allowance, although they can continue to receive what they got before turning 65. People over 65 years can claim Attendence Allowance, although this comes in only 2 parts, Higher, which corresponds to DLA Higher Rate Care, and Lower, which corresponds to DLA Middle Rate Care. AA does not have any Mobility components, nor an equivalent of DLA Lower Rate Care. www.youreable.com is a good website for advice on disability related benefits.