Eligible Britons with certain common medical conditions can get over £100 a week through the Department for Work and Pension’s (DWP) Attendance Allowance benefit.
Up to 56 conditions can qualify a person to receive the support – from arthritis to asthma – and people must be of or over the state pension age (currently 66) to claim.
As many as 1.6 million pensioners are claiming the benefit at present, but it’s thought that many more may be eligible but aren’t seeking support.
The payment rate increased by 10.1 percent this year, meaning a larger sum is on offer to support while living costs remain high. Attendance Allowance is paid at two rates, the lower rate and the higher rate.
Payment rates are based on how much help is needed, not any current help the person does or doesn’t get, so it could pay for people to check if they may qualify.
The full list of 56 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.
As well as being of state pension age, claimants must have “been in” Great Britain (England, Scotland, or Wales) for the last two years, as well as be habitually resident in the UK, Ireland, the Isle of Man, or the Channel Islands.
Claimants must have needed help for at least six months unless the person has less than 12 months to live. Then ‘special rules’ can apply and a person qualify much more quickly for the higher rate of payment.
According to the DWP, people also don’t need to have had a diagnosis for their condition to apply. However, Britons won’t be able to get 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 2023
The lower and higher payment rates are:
- Lower rate: £68.10 per week
- Higher rate: £101.75 per week.
People who need help during the day or at night could be eligible for the lower rate, whereas people who need help during both the day and at night or have a terminal illness, could be eligible for the higher rate.
To claim, people need to fill out an Attendance Allowance form, which can be accessed by either calling the helpline on 0800 731 0122 or downloading it from the Government website, here.
Millions of pounds worth of benefits go unclaimed every year. Christians Against Poverty (CAP), a UK debt and budgeting charity, helped people collectively recover a staggering £90million on unclaimed income through its free benefits calculator.
After using the benefits calculator Lisa found that, despite being employed, she was entitled to around £250 of benefits a month that she was previously missing out on. She said: “I am working, most of the time when you’re working you don’t get anything.” That is what I thought. But then I thought it was only going to take a couple of minutes so just out of curiosity I did it.
“Then I heard back and was told I would be entitled to around £250 extra a month. I went onto the government website and filled in all the forms online and they told me I would be entitled to Universal Credit. With the cost of living going up, it has made a huge difference. I can pay my bills. It has kept me out of debt. It has taken a lot of pressure off.”
Gareth McNab, director of external affairs at CAP said: “The benefits calculator on Christians Against Poverty’s website is an incredible, free tool that I’m very passionate about because it’s helping thousands of people to find millions of pounds of vital extra money at a time when prices are through the roof and many are struggling to cope with the ever-increasing cost of living.
“People in and out of work could be entitled to some form of benefits depending on their circumstances so it’s always worth checking.”
