I'm looking for some advice that may be able to assist me in representing my client who has a significant speech issue. He is a young man living on his own in a rurally isolated part of Cornwall. He is trying to claim DLA because he finds it impossible to use public transport, due to his speech problems. Obviously this is also an issue in everyday life, such as shopping, meeting new people, and communicating his needs to others. This has led him to become very withdrawn, and he now tends to avoid situations in unfamiliar surroundings; this is also a siginificant barrier to his self development.
He has been refused both components of DLA, and I am particularly interested if anyone can give advice concerning "guidance or supervision" for his mobility component. I will be representing him shortly and would welcome any advice.

The following is notes on "guidance" from the CPAG handbook.



Guidance

‘Guidance’ can take a number of different forms. It can mean physically leading or directing you, giving oral suggestion or persuasion, helping you avoid obstacles or places which upset you, or leading or persuading you when you become disorientated or have a panic attack.
If you are visually impaired and use a guide dog or a long cane you may still need guidance to follow directions, avoid obstacles or to help you cross roads. A profoundly deaf person, whose primary method of communication is sign language, may require guidance in unfamiliar places if s/he is unable to ask for or follow directions. Even though the deaf person’s companion may only intervene occasionally, s/he will still be guiding or supervising ‘most of the time’, because otherwise the deaf person would not know when to change direction. However, deaf people may not qualify if they are ‘capable of studying maps, reading street signs or communicating with passers by, either in writing or by speaking or lip reading’.

It sounds as if anxiety about having to communicate is the real disability, not the speech impairment itself. I can't speak French but that would not stop me going out and about if anyone wanted to offer me a holiday in France.

Fear or anxiety can be grounds for an award of low rate mobility, but only if it is a symptom of a mental disability or a mental disability itself. (Although I think that a mental health problem is a mental disability for this regulation, he doesn't have to have a learning disability). If he has been diagnoed with anxiety or depression then you should have a good case.

Regardless of the comments on mobility, I think you could usefully look at whether an award for care on the grounds of attention can be made:


If your client's difficulties with speech mean that people communicating with him are required to put extra effort into facilitating the speech then this can be attention in connection with the bodily function of speaking. For example, do people have to take a longer time whilst he makes an utterance? Do people have to listen more closely to decipher what is said? Do people have to ask him to repeat himself? Can a person who knows him well dispense with this extra effort ast they are used to the problem?

The issue is then: how much communication is it reasonable for your client to do during the day? The standard is as normal a life as possible. If he would like to be able to go out, meet people etc then it is reasonable for him to do so. If the amount of attention reasonably required is frequent and over the course of a whole day then a middle rate award is appropriate.

LASA had a successful case relatively recently with someone with a stutter where the above was the case. Middle rate care component was awarded.

All of the caselaw relating to deaf people (extra effort/extra time) is potentially relevant.


Good luck.

Martin.

Thanks guys...got some reading up to do now.

Think of this as "attention" rather than "guidance"

See R (A) 2/98 (Secy of State for Social Security v. Fairey) which states "the operation of the senses is a bodilty function ... and ... the provision of an interpreter ... is capable of providing "attention" and ... there is no requirement that the "attention" must be essential or necessary for life ..."

We got a decision revised last year for a client who had lost the power of speech through motor neurone disease and used this argument. (However, there were other attention issues which may have clinched it.)

Thanks guys...client was awarded LRM for three years, a result which has left him ecstatic.

Hi there

I regularly represent appellant cases where hearing and speech are the main disabling conditions, we have a catalogue of examples that can be used to provide information relating to eligibility for both care and mobility, depending on individual circumstance, we can be contacted on caseworkteam@rnid.org.uk