State pensioners with back pain could qualify for a DWP benefit offering up to £407 a month at its highest rate, equating to £4,884 a year.
Attendance Allowance is a benefit administered by the Department for Work and Pensions which helps with extra costs if someone has a disability severe enough that they need someone to help look after them.
The DWP benefit has broad eligibility criteria and a number of common health conditions can lead to a person qualifying for the support, including joint, muscle, and back pain, as well as arthritis.
Across Great Britain, there are more than 1.5 million people over state pension getting either £68.10 or £101.75 each week through the benefit.
Who is eligible to claim Attendance Allowance?
Britons can get Attendance Allowance if they’ve reached state pension age and they have a physical or mental disability severe enough they need help to care for themselves or they need someone to supervise them.
They must have also needed this help for six months.
Disabilities can include anything from sight or hearing loss and learning difficulties to mobility issues or mental health issues such as dementia or psychosis.
People may also be eligible if they have difficulties with smaller, personal tasks, experience pain or need physical help.
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.
How much you could get with Attendance Allowance?
Attendance Allowance is paid weekly at two different rates – the amount of help someone gets depends on the level of help they need.
Attendance Allowance is not means-tested – what someone earns or how much they have in savings will not affect what they get.
The lower rate of £68.10 is given if someone requires frequent help or constant supervision during the day, or supervision at night.
The higher rate of £101.75 is given if someone requires help or supervision throughout both day and night, or a medical professional has said they might have 12 months or less to live.
Claimants could get extra Pension Credit, Housing Benefit or Council Tax Reduction if they get Attendance Allowance.
They can check with the helpline or office dealing with their benefit for more information.
All benefits are paid into the individual’s bank, building society or credit union account.
For musculoskeletal conditions such as arthritis and back pain, examiners will ask the claimant about their symptoms, including deformities, pain severities, or if there have been other clinical findings.
They’ll ask about hospital treatments, medication, and if the person uses any aids.
To claim, people need to fill out a form clearly outlining the help they do need, as well as the help they don’t.
To pick up the form, claimants can either call the helpline on 0800 731 0122 or download it from the Government website.
