I have a complicated DLA case, family claimed DLA for their son, this was turned down they went through the process of revision, and the claim is now at appeal.

meanwhile they started a 2nd DLA claim which was also turned down, however the family did not dispute this decision in the time period.

should I suggest they start another DLA claim (3rd claim)to pick up benefit now.

my understanding is that the Tribunal will only look at the 1st claim from point of claim to point of 2nd claim. and that 2nd claim decision cannot be overturned at Tribunal.

any help gratefully recieved.

I would suggest they bung in a late appeal against the second decision and ask for both appeals to be heard together.

I had considered a late appeal , but in all honesty there are no grounds for one, the family just decided not to dispute it. we had informed them at the time they should have done so.

Surely you could make a simple enough case, if they want DLA to continue if awarded on the original claim. They could say they didn't realise they had to appeal the second decision, since they were already waiting for an appeal hearing on the first. This is, after all, a pretty technical point for a layman to have grasped!

Jim

You can do a late appeal on the sole ground that the substantive appeal has a resonable chance of success

Your understanding is correct- 2nd claim effectively shoots first claim in the foot. But are they really out of time for the 2nd decision? If you could find a compelling argument for a late claim, eg other pressures in the family, unavailability of help at the time, you could get away with a late appeal (I've managed up to 6 months late using this). The longer the delay, the trickier this becomes. If you go down this avenue then any third claim would have the same effect on the second as the second on the first.

thanks for the advice re second claim, not sure if this is an availble route, family had full information from us at the time about need to dispute second decision, but chose not to dispite the effect not disputing would have, they seemed to want to "wait and see" regardless!

so do not feel so comfy suggesting they say they doid not get help at the time. otherwise I have used late appeals in the past to good effect.

If you do not feel comfy suggestign they did not get help on time why not just go for the "reasonable chance of success" route with a late appeal.

I have manged to do this several times

Thanks, will probably give this a go.

I fully agree with Stainsby. You only need to show that the case has reasonable prospects of success. After outlining the details of the substantive issue I use the following standard paragraph. Not had a problem so far.

Thus, it remains arguable at least, that Mrs …… is still virtually unable to walk/needs help with……. If that is so then only a full hearing of all the facts and evidence, including the verbal evidence of Mrs ……, can form the basis of a truly accurate decision in this case. If the case is arguable then it is entirely reasonable to conclude that it could go either way. In other words it could reasonably succeed or reasonably fail.

Hope this helps

Regards
Paul