Attendance Allowance is among the many benefits set to receive a payment rate increase in April, resulting in some claimants receiving hundreds more a year.
The benefit is distributed by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for people over state pension age (currently 66) who need help with personal care or supervision due to illness or a disability.
While approximately 1.6 million people currently receive support through Attendance Allowance, new research indicates that an additional 1.1 million individuals who meet the qualifying criteria are missing out on this assistance.
Policy in Practice, which conducted the research in collaboration with Money Saving Expert, found that this leads to a total of £5.2billion in unclaimed Attendance Allowance each year.
At present, the benefit can be worth up to £441 a month at its highest rate, equating to £5,291 per year.
But from April, the rate will be worth even more as many benefits will rise in line with September 2023’s 6.7 percent inflation rate.
This will bring the highest payment up to around £470 a month and a much more significant £5,644 a year.
Who is eligible to claim Attendance Allowance?
To claim Attendance Allowance, a person must be of or over the state pension age of 66 and be in Great Britain (England, Scotland, or Wales).
They must have also been in Great Britain for the last two years – although this doesn’t count for refugees or those with humanitarian protection status.
Claimants must also habitually reside in the UK, Ireland, the Isle of Man, or the Channel Islands.
If all of this applies, the person must have a type of disability or illness severe enough to need help with personal care. The full list of conditions that can qualify a person for Attendance Allowance include:
- Arthritis
- Spondylosis
- Back Pain – other/precise diagnosis not specified
- Disease of the muscles, bones or joints
- Trauma to limbs
- Blindness
- Deafness
- Heart disease
- Chest disease
- Asthma
- Cystic fibrosis
- Cerebrovascular disease
- Peripheral vascular disease
- Epilepsy
- Neurological diseases
- Multiple sclerosis
- Parkinson’s disease
- Motor neurone disease
- Chronic pain syndromes
- Diabetes mellitus
- Metabolic disease
- Traumatic paraplegia/tetraplegia
- Major trauma other than traumatic paraplegia/tetraplegia
- Learning difficulties
- Psychosis
- Psychoneurosis
- Personality disorder
- Dementia
- Behavioural disorder
- Alcohol and drug abuse
- Hyperkinetic syndrome
- Renal disorders
- Inflammatory bowel disease
- Bowel and stomach disease
- Blood disorders
- Haemophilia
- Multi-system disorders
- Multiple allergy syndrome
- Skin disease
- Malignant disease
- Severely mentally impaired
- Double amputee
- Deaf/blind
- Haemodialysis
- Frailty
- Total parenteral autrition
- AIDS
- Infectious diseases: Viral disease – coronavirus Covid-19
- Infectious diseases: Viral disease – precise diagnosis not specified
- Infectious diseases: Bacterial disease – tuberculosis
- Infectious diseases: Bacterial disease – precise diagnosis not specified
- Infectious diseases: Protozoal disease – malaria
- Infectious diseases: Protozoal disease – other/precise diagnosis not specified
- Infectious diseases – other/precise diagnosis not specified
- Cognitive disorder – other/precise diagnosis not specified
- Terminally ill.
People must have needed help for the past six months unless they have less than 12 months to live.
However, people won’t be able to claim Attendance Allowance if they already claim Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Adult Disability Payment (ADP), or the care component of Disability Living Allowance (DLA).
Attendance Allowance rates 2024
Attendance Allowance is paid at two rates, the lower rate and the higher rate. The amount eligible claimants receive is calculated based on how much help is needed, not any current help the person does or doesn’t get.
The new lower and higher payment rates that are proposed to come into effect in April are:
- Lower rate: £72.65 per week (up from £68.10)
- Higher rate: £108.55 per week (up from £101.75).
Those requiring assistance during the day or night may qualify for the lower rate, while those needing help both day and night or facing a terminal illness may be eligible for the higher rate.
To claim, people need to fill out an Attendance Allowance form and clearly outline the help they do need, as well as the help they don’t.
People can get access to a form by either calling the helpline on 0800 731 0122 or downloading it from the Government website, here.
