disability allowance payment - how long to be processed

Just wondering how long on average people are waiting on a disability allowance payment to be processed. The phone message says 16-17 weeks but at least the people in SW are more honest saying its more like 6mths at earliest. Illness happened suddenly in July 2012, applied with a late application in Aug 2012 and still waiting. We're finding it very hard with heating costs, travel costs etc and know if I had my payment through would have got some help wtih these costs as part of the allowance. Really frustrated as I didnt plan to suddenly have cancer and need surgery(within 2weeks), chemo, radiotherapy etc. all which is ongoing since July '12.

Worrying as well about eligibility as heard so many applications turned down. The criteria says -


To qualify for Disability Allowance (DA) you must:

• Have an injury, disease or physical or mental disability that has continued or may be expected to continue for at least one year
• As a result of this disability be substantially restricted in undertaking work that would otherwise be suitable for a person of your age, experience and qualifications

I know it will be at least a year of ongoing treatments which are not straight forward and it really does impact on taking up work as I am not well a lot of the time.

Owryan

My application took 7-8 months to be approved and i was a lucky one, i know people waiting a lot longer and many more who have been refused and have had to appeal .

I was able to recieve SWA through my CWO while waiting . Have you applied for that ? It is means tested however .

It does appear that a lot of people are being refused first time around, many of whom are successful second time. I was one of those. All in all it took about 10 months but was worth holding out for. I was cohabiting at the time so could not apply for payment through the CWO, but my flatmate has done and it's what he's lived on since applying first time last year.