About Children Adults Current Page: Advice Get Involved Careers Donate Advice Team The Diverse Abilities Advice Team offers help and support to people that are struggling with claiming disability benefits or with challenging a DWP decision. The team can help with completion of forms, sourcing of evidence, drafting and submission of appeals and representation at tribunals. We help with Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), Carers Allowance (CA), Child Disability Living Allowance (DLA), Blue Badge and Personal Independence Payments (PIP). The Advice Team supports people with all types of disabilities and health conditions of all ages, including children, their families and carers. As well as benefit advice, the Advice Team provides a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) service to help families and individuals to decide whether an LPA is right for them. COVID-19 Service Update In these uncertain times, the Advice Team hope that all of their past and present clients and families are managing to stay as safe and as well as possible. We have a full team working from home and set up for telephone appointments to deal with benefit applications, appeals, reconsiderations and Lasting Power of Attorney. If you use Facebook, why not take a look at our Diverse Abilities Advice Team Group, where we can members can post DWP updates, ask questions, and keep in touch. For further information please call 0300 330 5514 on weekdays between 9am and 5.30pm. If we are unable to answer your call, please bear with us, leave a message and we will get back to you as soon as we can. Government face to face assessments for health and disability benefits will resume from May, and we are available for support and advice where needed. We also hope that the current online system will also continue due to many finding these easier to manage than face to face appointments. Click here for more details. Best wishes, Elaine, Advice Service Manager How we’ll help The aim of the service is to ensure a person has the assistance they need to secure the benefits to which they are entitled or the Lasting Power of Attorney document they require. The team will make your life a little easier by helping you to understand what is needed in order to complete benefit applications and submit appeals. They will guide and support you through the Lasting Power of Attorney process to ensure that your LPA documents are suited to your needs. The team is not-for-profit and does need to charge a small fee for the benefit services it provides as it has no government or council funding. However, you will find the team’s services for LPAs considerable cheaper than other professionals in the area. Click on each of the below topics to find out more or visit our Useful Resources. Benefit appeals & applications Lasting Power of Attorney Advance decisions The team has been successful in providing advice and representation for 15 years and can help you too. We also work with Rutters Solicitors, Blandford, to provide help and advice on Deputyships and Wills with Trusts for vulnerable persons. Click here to download our Advice Team brochure, or click play below to listen to an audio version. Diverse Abilities Advice Team Brochure Diverse Abilities Telephone appointments The Advice Team provides a telephone form filling service for PIP, ESA50, UC50, AA, CA, and Child DLA. We have electronic versions of application and review forms which we will complete with you over the phone. We complete the form by typing your answers as we work through the form together. Telephone appointments allow you to complete your form in the comfort of your own home with the option of having someone else with you for support. At the end of the appointment, we will post or email you the completed form. All completed forms are posted within 24 hours of the appointment. Mandatory reconsiderations and appeals The team can draft and submit mandatory reconsiderations and appeals on your behalf, just give us a call and we will go through the process with you. We will need you to post the relevant paperwork to us, which we will scan and return to you. Once we have looked over your paperwork, we will draft your submission or reconsideration and send this to you for reference before submitting it. We will not lodge a submission or send a reconsideration without you having read it first. We will remain in contact throughout this process and help you to collate further evidence if required. To book an appointment or for further information, email advice@diverseabilities.org.uk or call 0300 330 5514. Need to make a payment? Click here to go through to our secure Advice Team payment form. Please make sure you have your invoice at the ready. Contact us. To book an appointment or for further information, email advice@diverseabilities.org.uk or call 0300 330 5514. We are available on weekdays between 9am-5pm. If we are unable to answer your call, please bear with us, leave a message and we will get back to you as soon as we can. View our privacy policy View our cookies policy View our gender pay gap statement Remote System Logon HR Self Service COVID Test Reporting Career opportunities CONTACT US Diverse Abilities Central Office Langside School Langside Avenue Poole BH12 5BN 01202 718266 info@diverseabilities.org.uk | fundraising@diverseabilities.org.uk We do not store credit card details nor do we share customer details with any 3rd parties. 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