How to claim Attendance Allowance

Attendance Allowance will only be awarded after you have satisfied the qualifying criteria for six months. This means that you must have needed the help for six months. If it hasn’t been six months yet, but you are likely to continue needing help for some time, put in a claim now so that you will be paid as soon as you are entitled.

To claim Attendance Allowance you have to get a claim pack. You can do this by:

• Calling the Disability Benefits Enquiry Line free on 0800 88 22 00 (textphone 0800 24 33 55). If you are in Northern Ireland call 0800 22 06 74. The claim pack will be date stamped. You should fill it in and return it within six weeks. If you are awarded AA, your benefit will be paid from the date on the form. If you don't return the completed form within six weeks, the start date of your benefit will be the day that the Department for Work and Pensions receives your completed form.
• If you prefer, you can have the form filled in for you over the phone and then posted to you to check and sign. If you are going to do this, it is a good idea to get some advice beforehand. Make sure you have had time to think about your condition and how it affects you and prepare what you are going to say. You may find it useful to keep a diary for a few days before filling in the form.
• Pick up leaflet AA A5DCS from local benefit offices, post offices and libraries. This leaflet includes a reply slip to send for a claim pack. You should complete and send off this reply slip as soon as possible, as the date that the Department for Work and Pensions receives the reply slip will normally be the start date for claiming AA – as long as you return the completed form within six weeks. 
• You can download a claim form from www.direct.gov.uk/disability 

Your doctor, social worker, occupational therapist or someone who knows about your health, may be asked to confirm your statements. It is useful to keep a copy of the form, in case you have a medical examination or if your claim is not successful and you ask for a revision.

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Things to think about before filling in the form:

• You can increase your chances of getting Attendance Allowance if you get some help filling in your claim form. Ask for help from your local Citizens Advice Bureau or an advice centre. Call SeniorLine on 0808 800 6565 (0808 808 7575 in Northern Ireland) if you need the address or phone number of a local advice agency.
  The Disability Alliance produces a self-help guide called Claiming Attendance Allowance. This guide takes you through the process of making a claim. It explains the qualifying conditions and looks at the claim form question by question giving help and suggestions. Ask your library if it has a copy, or to buy a copy, you need to send a cheque to: Publications, Disability Alliance, Universal House, 88–94 Wentworth Street, London E1 7SA Tel: 020 7247 8776. It costs £2.50.
• The Attendance Allowance form is more simple than it used to be, but make sure you allow yourself plenty of time to fill it in. What you say on the form is very important.
• You might find it useful to keep a diary for a couple of weeks, detailing all the instances throughout the day and night when you need attention or supervision. Make a note of the length of time it takes you to carry out particular tasks. Your carer may be able to help you with this, if you have one. Think about tasks that you manage to do but you struggle with: for example, it is quite reasonable to say that you need help with dressing if you manage to dress yourself in the mornings but it takes you an hour and you are exhausted at the end of it.
• Try to think about your bad days as well as your good days, as these are the times when you need the help most. Thinking positively is good to keep you motivated but it doesn’t necessarily reflect your whole situation if you play down the help that you need.
• Write down a list of the symptoms that you experience and how they affect your ability to carry out everyday activities. If there is an organisation linked to your particular condition they might be able to help with this. The Useful contacts section lists some organisations which might be useful for you to contact before filling in the form.
• Try to give as much detail as possible, however trivial you think it might be. The Department for Work and Pensions will only consider what you write on the form, so don’t assume that they will know that you need attention just because you have told them you have a particular disability. Not everybody with the same condition experiences the same symptoms and some may be caused by side-effects of medication or other treatment.
• You may have stopped doing things that you used to enjoy because of your disability. If so, it is important to mention this on the claim form. Part 7 of the claim pack gives you a chance to describe how your illness affects your day-to-day living. You can use this section to tell the Department for Work and Pensions about the attention you might require with social activities, particularly those activities which you may have stopped doing because of your disability. This might include going to clubs and taking part in religious activities.
• If you have sight problems or difficulties with hearing you can get advice from specialist organisations on how best to fill out the form. Action for Blind People produces a factsheet on Attendance Allowance and the RNIB produces a checklist to assist when filling out the form; it’s called Guide to claiming Disability Living Allowance or Attendance Allowance for adults. Recent court cases have established that seeing and hearing are ‘bodily functions’. So getting help or attention with these will count when claiming Attendance Allowance. RNID produces a factsheet called Attendance Allowance for deaf and hard of hearing people.  See the useful contacts section for contact details.

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Medical examinations

You may be asked to undergo a medical examination by a Department for Work and Pensions doctor. This is likely to be an appointment in your own home. If possible, have somebody with you such as a friend or relative. If you have any communication or language difficulties, tell the Department for Work and Pensions before the visit and it should make arrangements to allow you to participate fully in the examination.

The list, on the previous page, of things to think about before filling in the form can also be helpful if you are having a visit from a Department for Work and Pensions doctor. It may be particularly useful to keep a list of things that you want the doctor to know. If you are asked to demonstrate how you manage a particular task don’t try to do more than you would usually manage, as this will not give a true picture of the help you require.

Remember the doctor is not your own doctor and will not have an in-depth knowledge of your condition and how it affects you. The doctor will be relying on you to give them an insight into the help that you need as a result of your disability.