You have to claim this benefit before your 65th birthday. It is actually called the 'mobility component' of the Disability Living Allowance welfare benefit. It is paid at one of two rates, depending on how severely affected your mobility outside the home is. There is also a 'care component' of the Disability Living Allowance, that is paid at one of three rates depending on how much help you need with personal care or how much supervision you need to prevent you coming to any harm. It is also possible to get the lowest rate of the care component if you cannot cook a main meal for yourself although you have the facilities to do so. If you receive this benefit before you reach 65 then it can continue after that date, but you could lose it if your condition improves.

If you are 65 or older when you need to apply for financial help because of a disability you will need to claim Attendance Allowance. This is only given to those needing help with personal care or supervision to prevent them coming to harm. It is not available to those who only need help with cooking or with mobility outside the home.

'Personal care' includes such things as: getting out of bed, washing yourself, getting dressed, moving around the house, going up and down stairs, getting into and out of chairs, eating meals, going to the toilet and getting into bed. Generally help with domestic tasks like gardening, shopping and cleaning is not taken into account. An exception to this would be if someone helps you with the cleaning because of sight difficulties, as this is recognised as needing help with seeing and so fits into the personal care remit.

Someone could qualify as needing supervision if they were prone to falling without warning. It is important to note that both the Disability Living Allowance and the Attendance Allowance are tax-free, can be saved or spent in any way, do not reduce entitlement to other benefits and may actually increase entitlement to other benefits.

For more information please see our advice leaflets on Claiming Disablity Benefits and Attendance Allowance, available to download from the financial advice page