DLA advise pls

My father in law has disabling arthritis in his knees, and has had to give up work after 40 yrs hard grafting. The nhs refuse to give him knee replacement as he is *too young* (55 yrs) and overweight partly as he can no longer effectively excercise. My inlaws then lost their house and had to move in with their daughter as their business was falling apart due to recession, an unsympathetic bank and of course his illness. They went to welfare rights who helped fill in DLA form, they were trying for DLA mobility and care along with ESA. Mother in law has to put his socks on, help bath him etc so was hoping for carers allowance. HRM was awarded for 1 year (at the time he thought he was in for knee replacements with the optimism that he would be out of action temporarily )but no care was awarded. They had been so skint for so long and in so much debt that they were glad for what they could get at the time and didnt really question it.

Due to other additional probs they later went along to CAB, who said they were badly advised , they should have appealed the DLA award,but they got the impression it was too late to do anything about it. So, im hoping that someone can advise to what can be done - can he ask for them to look at the decision again - is an appeal out of the question? The award was made in september of last yr.
Hope someone can advise,
Linda

Hi Linda,

The time limit for appeals is one month. There are circumstances in which this can be extended, but bad advice would not normally be one of them. This is an issue a claimant would need to raise with the agency that gave the original advice.

It is possible to ask for an award to be looked at again if there has been a change of circumstances, such as a claimant's condition having got worse. However, there is always a risk that the award could be reduced rather than increased when it is looked at again.

The other alternative is to wait for a new claim pack to be sent out prior to the current award running out.

Good luck,

Steve

I think the DLA runs out in September so we will try and insure he gets all he needs on renewal

Many thanks