Living with Dyspraxia as a family

[Shipton]

I am a mother of two boys who are dyspraxic. My eldest is 34 and my youngest is 32. In addition my youngest has a moderate learning difficulty and is on Epilen for Epilepsy and Thyroxin for underactive thyroid. While my younger son is doing fine having been at WH Smith for about 12 years albeit on a 16 hour contract my eldest son has struggled more. He has had a variety of jobs and would like to be an IT Technician. However he has failed the Comp TIA exam several times and because of how the dyspraxia affected his learning he has Adult Literacy rather than a GCSE in English. He got a grade D in maths and retook it a couple of times still got a D. He can have low moods and the jobs he has had have been low paid. He fights against having difficulties and finds social/work situations difficult to deal with. He has decided to hand his notice in at John Lewis after getting through the probationary period so will be on Jobseekers again. With me and his dad being 64 we are really worried about what will happen when we are no longer here. As a parent I am wondering if any other parent has similar experiences to share. He refused PIP at 18. When I filled the forms in he got a telephone appointment but didn't get it. I would appeal it but he doesn't want to do it.

[Tom fod]

There are certainly dyspraxic/meurodivergent people out there in similar boats in what often feel like difficult even scary 'sea conditions.

Dyspraxia presents different challenges depending who you are and the path you've trodden.

Some have Dyspraxia to a degree of severity that would qualify them for PIP. However, the DWP generally say No but a Tribunal will decide otherwise in a lot of instances.The Tribunal scrutinises DWP's decision making with regard info provided by claimant , and not putting the claimant on trial for any claimed misrepresentation in detail of their claim.