Domicillary grant oral hearing advice

loadz

Hi,
Our son has autism and needs continuos supervision. We applied for this grant a while back and we were refused so we appealed it.We received a letter saying we will be going for an oral hearing but no date yet. It says we can bring some specialist representatives to make a case for us if we wish. Can any of you guys who have been through this process give us some advice.
Is it necessary to bring someone with us and what kind of questions will we be asked. Any advice will be appreciated.

Keep on smiling

I was invited to attend an oral hearing too but at the time I was very ill so my GP wrote a letter advising that I wasn't in a position to attend. The Appeal's Officer sent me a letter asking me to detail exactly why my child's care needs were greater than another child of the same age.

I ended up preparing over 20 pages of evidence which included

Examples of extra work involved in caring for my child - outlined a typical day
List of appointments attended/ time taken off work/mileage (we were travelling 50 mile roundtrip to school)
Receipts for courses attended, special equipment, toys, medical/therapy appointments etc.

It is important to include reports from specialists too.


My appeal was successful but it appeal told over a year to be completed.

Joey the lips

Keep on smiling wrote: »

I was invited to attend an oral hearing too but at the time I was very ill so my GP wrote a letter advising that I wasn't in a position to attend. The Appeal's Officer sent me a letter asking me to detail exactly why my child's care needs were greater than another child of the same age.

I ended up preparing over 20 pages of evidence which included

Examples of extra work involved in caring for my child - outlined a typical day
List of appointments attended/ time taken off work/mileage (we were travelling 50 mile roundtrip to school)
Receipts for courses attended, special equipment, toys, medical/therapy appointments etc.

It is important to include reports from specialists too.


My appeal was successful but it appeal told over a year to be completed.

This is good advice. We were "blessed" not to have to go through this process. The physociological report produced on our child confirmed him as special needs which mean the social worker in temple street applied on our behalf.

I want to talk to you outside the box so to speak. Your not alone in this apeal process. The health service is doing this to everyone. I suspect its to save on paying out the grant. Get as much information, letters etc together on your child. have the information prepared around additional care required.

Bear in mind once you get domo you can then apply for the respite grant once a year and maybe the carers abenefit/allowence.

The only pce of advice i can give is constantly fight. Dont give up. Write letters to your local td asking for a meeting to review your child. wring letters to the minister for health. I honestly believe there is no harm in writing to michael noonan either as he cared for his wife for a long time so understands the difficulties.

If you have any questions ask me if you wish but bear in mind this apeal takes a year. If it were me i would phone them every month as a torn in the side is always felt.