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Attendance Allowance

In order to qualify for Attendance Allowance, you must need help with your personal care or need someone to supervise or watch over you.

There are two rates of Attendance Allowance:

1. Higher rate – £67.00 per week
To qualify for the higher rate, you need to fulfil certain conditions for help during the day and during the night. These conditions are explained over the next two pages.

2. Lower rate – £44.85 per week
To qualify for the lower rate, you need to fulfil the conditions for help either during the day or during the night. These conditions are explained over the next two pages.

Help during the day

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) says that to qualify for Attendance Allowance by day you must: need frequent attention throughout the day in connection with your bodily functions; or need continual supervision throughout the day to avoid substantial danger to yourself or others.

When you send off your claim form, a DWP decision-maker will look at it and decide whether you meet either of these conditions. You must fully meet one of them to get your benefit – it is not enough to partly fulfil both. The words used by the DWP in these conditions mean quite specific things to the decision-maker. These meanings are given below.

For the first condition:

• 'Frequent' usually means several times a day - not just once or twice, for example, you may need help to go to the toilet several times in the day or need supervision to preapre your main meals, or you may need someone to remind you that you need to take your medication. 
• 'Attention' is usually hands-on help. But it can also mean encouraging or prompting from someone who is actually there to guide you. For example, if you have dementia, you might need prompting to dress or take your medication, even though you're physically capable of carrying out these tasks. You should mention this on your claim form.
• 'Bodily functions' are things such as eating, drinking, hearing, seeing, using the toilet, getting up, washing and dressing or taking medication. It also means walking and other physical activities that allow you to carry out a reasonable level of social, recreational or leisure activity. But it does not usually include general household tasks such as cooking, cleaning and shopping.

For the second condition:

• 'Continual' does not mean non-stop; it usually means regular or ongoing but with breaks.
• 'Supervision' is when someone oversees or watches over you. You must need this supervision to avoid the risk of 'substantial danger' to you or another person and you need to say what this danger might be. For example, you may have dementia and be at risk of leaving your cooker on and starting a fire.

Even if you only occasionally find yourself in a dangerous situation, you may still need continual supervision. For example, if you have epilepsy you could be likely to have a seizure at any time, even though there are long periods when you are fine.You need not have ever caused danger to yourself or others as long as there is a real risk of this happening and the danger is not too remote a possibility.

In both cases:

• 'Throughout the day' means in the middle of the day as well as in the morning and evening. But you do not have to need attention or supervision all day or every day. It is the pattern of care needed over a period of time which is important.

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Help during the night

You must fully meet one of these conditions to get your benefits. Again the words here have specific meanings:

• For the first condition, 'prolonged' usually means periods of 20 minutes or more and 'repeated' is usually two times or more.
• For the second condition 'frequent intervals' usually means at least three times.

You do not have to need attention or supervision every night. It is the pattern of care needed over a period of time which is important.

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People who are terminally ill

There are special rules for people who are terminally ill. Once a doctor has certified that the person could be reasonably expected to die within six months, Attendance Allowance can be claimed at once at the highest rate.   Attendance Allowance will be awarded for a fixed term of three years.

If you are already claiming Attendance Allowance at the lower rate, you do not need to fill in a separate claim form; you need to ask for your award to be superseded on the basis that you are now terminally ill.

The claim can be made by a relative or friend without the terminally ill person knowing. The benefit will still be paid to the terminally ill person, but they don’t necessarily have to know what has been put on the form. As with all AA claims, the Department for Work and Pensions can review entitlement at any time. When filling in the form check the notes for people claiming under the ‘special rules’, as not all sections of the form have to be completed.

People on renal dialysis

Special rules apply if you are undergoing renal dialysis on a kidney machine. You can claim lower rate Attendance Allowance if:

• you are having regular treatment of two or more sessions a week; and
• your dialysis is a type that requires the attendance or supervision of another person, or you yourself require attendance or supervision while dialysing.

If you dialyse in hospital and have no help from a hospital staff member these rules also apply.

Other conditions for Attendance Allowance

The other conditions you must meet in order to claim Attendance Allowance are:

• You must have needed help for six months. However, there are special rules for people who are terminally ill.
• You must have passed the UK residence and presence tests (this means you normally live in the UK and you have lived here for 26 weeks in the last 12 months). 
• You must not be living in hospital.
• If you live in a care home you must be paying your own fees and not getting help from the local council
• You can be living in sheltered housing.

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