Disability Living Allowance (DLA) claims are more likely to be successful if the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) are given more evidence to ensure that their decisions are accurate.


Only 55% of decisions made on DLA and Attendance Allowance (AA) claims are considered to be accurate, according the the DWP's auditing.


Many claimants are not getting the right decision on their claim the first time around. An occupational therapy report can help present an accurate picture to those people making the decisions.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) invite you to send an occupational therapy report with your Disability Living Allowance, or Attendance Allowance  application form.

DLA Claim Form - DWP

 

 

 

For an independent occupational therapy report to send with your DLA or Attendance Allowance application, an assessment home visit and follow up report can be arranged for a special price of just

£99 all inclusive

for people living in the east Kent districts of Thanet (Margate, Ramsgate, Broadstairs, Birchington, Westgate), Canterbury (Canterbury, Whitstable, Herne Bay and surrounding areas) and Dover (including Deal and Sandwich and surrounding areas). 

Other parts of Kent and the South East can also be covered - please contact James for an all inclusive, no hidden extras, fixed fee quotation. 

The Council on Tribunals (a statutory government body) have an article  available on their website, that was originally published in the June 2006 edition of the Journal of the Legal Action Group.  It goes on to say that:

"Only 55 per cent of DLA and AA decisions are considered by the DWP's auditing as accurate, and 54 per cent of DLA appeals succeed at tribunal.  According to DWP statistics in August 2004, 13 per cent of new DLA awards required an appeal.

Many claimants are not getting their correct entitlement immediately, some possibly never. Presumably some claimants are getting DLA when they are not entitled to it – but they do not appeal, so numbers are speculative."

"The DWP's performance is kept under review by the Controller and Auditor General, who has suggested several approaches which might improve accurate decision-making, including the following:

...obtain more evidence about customers' conditions from professionals involved in their treatment, such as consultants, occupational therapists, social workers and community psychiatric nurses, to help achieve better decisions, as well as reducing the need for medical examinations."

The report later detailed, on the subject of reducing unnecessary appeals:

"Soon into the discussion the focus changed unexpectedly. The doctors rejected the suggestion that they are competent to give advice about a patient's functional needs. They describe the patient's condition, symptoms, self-report and history, but not how this affects care or mobility, the key issue for DLA. They also identified an inherent conflict between this process and their relationship with patients, which is potentially undermined by any perception that they do not believe patients' versions of their problems. Medical expertise did not equip them to make functional assessments.

They advised that functional ability is the realm of an occupational therapist. However, in Blyth Primary Care Trust (PCT), there are 50 GPs and two occupational therapists. The likelihood of occupational therapists being able to help with assessments is remote. The doctors' suggestion was that the pilot should explore the potential for occupational therapists to supply the evidence that would support (or not) the claim to DLA entitlement."