State pensioners are urged to check if they could qualify for a boost worth up to £5,644 a year from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
Attendance Allowance is targeted at people over the state pension age of 66 who need help with personal care or supervision due to illness or a disability.
The benefit has broad eligibility criteria, yet many people who qualify for the support are believed to be missing out.
Estimates from MoneySavingExpert and Policy in Practice indicate that up to 1.1 million individuals may be collectively missing out on as much as £5.2billion annually.
The extra money could come in particularly handy this year following the Chancellor’s controversial decision to slash eligibility for the one-off Winter Fuel Payment.
The payment is worth up to £300 towards heating bills and used to be available to all state pensioners in England, Wales or Northern Ireland.
However, only state pensioners on means-tested benefits such as Pension Credit can qualify from this year.
If eligible, Attendance Allowance could more than make up the loss, with payments at their highest monthly rate worth around £470.
Who is eligible for Attendance Allowance?
To be eligible for Attendance Allowance, people must be 66 years old or older and be habitually resident in the UK, Ireland, the Isle of Man, or the Channel Islands. This means one of these countries must be the claimants’ main home.
They must be in Great Britain (England, Scotland, or Wales) when making the claim and have resided there for the past two years.
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 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 won’t be able to claim Attendance Allowance if they already receive Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Adult Disability Payment (ADP), or the care component of Disability Living Allowance (DLA).
Attendance Allowance rates
For those eligible, 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 current lower and higher payment rates are:
- Lower rate: £72.65 per week
- Higher rate: £108.55 per week.
This means the highest payment amounts to around £470 a month, translating to £5,644 a year.
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.
How much will Attendance Allowance increase in April?
Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed that DWP benefits, which includes Attendance Allowance rates, will increase by 1.7% in April 2025. This means claimants could see payments rise to around £73.89 per week for the lower rate, and £110.40 per week for the higher.
How to claim Attendance Allowance
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.
