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Confused with Attendance Allowance

Yadnad

The notes attached to the claim form and bits of research I have carried out into this benefit states quite clearly state that you must need help or supervision throughout the day or at regular times during the night.

Thankfully I am not in that position myself to need that level of care continually throughout the day.or at regular intervals throughout the night.

Consequently it would seem that I am not disabled enough to make a claim.

The confusion that I do have is that people say that it is exactly like the care element of DLA. No it isn't, I was receiving both, high care and high mobility under DLA since 1995 indefinitely and I certainly wasn't in need of day/night carers on a continual basis.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/sick-or-disabled-people-and-carers/attendance-allowance/before-you-claim-attendance-allowance/check-if-entitled-to-attendance-allowance/

How disabled would I need to be to qualify?

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Comments

Government_needs_reform

Oh dear bud, i really fell for you and I thought you'd given this all up over the benefits and I thought you wasen't going to bother as it was all to much at your age, I have advised you before if you feel you deserve either benefits then fight for it. Just be positive.

atlas46

Hi @Yadnad

Don't understand why you are self selecting, that you are not entitled to AA.

Surely a more positive approach would be to apply for AA and await the outcome.

What year and month were you born?

As this is an age related benefit?

As you state that you received DLA from 1995 for an indefinite period, what year did DLA stop and for what reason?

This means that you where paid DLA for over 18 years! As PIP was only introduced from June 2013, in pilot areas.

How did you have such a significant recovery?

I would suggest you speak to your local Age UK, for their support and guidance.

Definitely speak to age support or another local charity which can help you with this.

Get a form, answer the questions and see what happens.

atlas46

Hi @Yadnad

Just checking if you managed to contact Age UK, with reference to a possible claim for AA.

Best wishes

BenefitsTrainingCo

Hi Yadnad,

The conditions for AA are to meet either the daytime or nighttime condition. The day time condition applies if you need:

'frequent attention throughout the day or continual supervision throughout the day'

The nighttime condition is to require, at night 'prolonged or repeated attention' in connection with bodily functions, or for another person to be awake for a 'prolonged period' or 'frequent intervals' to prevent danger to the claimant or other people.

So as long as you need attention frequently, it doesn't have to be continual, for you to meet the daytime condition. The importance is the frequency of your need for attention over the day. It does not need to be continuous (unlike the supervision route, which would need to be continuous).

I can confirm that the day & night time conditions are the same as for the middle & high rate care component of DLA - but to get the highest rate of AA, you need to satisfy both day and night time conditions.

Just a word of warning - if you are still getting DLA high rate mobility, or indeed any award for mobility (including PIP, whether standard or enhanced), then you cannot get this in AA, and you may be better off staying on DLA/PIP. As I'm sure you know, there's no mobility component in AA.

I mention this because people over 65 can be tempted to apply for AA to get away from PIP, but that may not be the best approach - obviously it depends on how difficult you have found it to get the correct PIP award, & we all know that can be very difficult indeed. But the thing about mobility components (whether PIP or DLA) is that once you've got them, you can carry on getting them if you stay on PIP/DLA (& of course, you continue to have the same level of mobility). But you cannot get any help with mobility if you switch to AA.

Will

Yadnad

Governments_A_Joke said:

Oh dear bud, i really fell for you and I thought you'd given this all up over the benefits and I thought you wasen't going to bother as it was all to much at your age, I have advised you before if you feel you deserve either benefits then fight for it. Just be positive.

I have given up PIP that's a cert.
This AA thingy has me baffled. I'm not saying that I will claim it just seems to be for people who are in a far worse state than I am. There seems to be a cliff edge - in that the criteria for AA goes way beyond what the care element for DLA was and well beyond the care element for PIP. I just wondered how disabled I would have to be to qualify.

Yadnad

atlas46 said:

Hi @Yadnad

Don't understand why you are self selecting, that you are not entitled to AA.

Surely a more positive approach would be to apply for AA and await the outcome.

What year and month were you born?

As this is an age related benefit?

As you state that you received DLA from 1995 for an indefinite period, what year did DLA stop and for what reason?

This means that you where paid DLA for over 18 years! As PIP was only introduced from June 2013, in pilot areas.

How did you have such a significant recovery?

I would suggest you speak to your local Age UK, for their support and guidance.

Not at all, I was just reading the DWP notes - do you qualify and what the CAB website says.
I was born in April 1948.which puts me at 70 last April.

My DLA stopped in 2013 when I applied to go for PIP.

Yes my original DLA claim was made in December 1995 but due to a review when they sent me the two forms to fill in (Part A and Part

in early 2004, I failed to return them as I was in hospital from Feb to June 2004. It took another 7 years before I felt able to look at it again and reclaimed it in 2011.

I have not had a significant recovery, in fact I have gone downhill dramatically since 2011.

Thanks for that bit of advice. My AgeUK branch in town had closed down due to in the main the loss of funding. It re-opened last year but without any welfare advisors.

Yadnad

Pin said:

Definitely speak to age support or another local charity which can help you with this.

Get a form, answer the questions and see what happens.

I have the form - downloaded on the internet.

I don't want to waste my time and that of anybody else if, as it seems, I will not qualify. I only wondered if my reading of the notes and what the CAB says is factually correct.

I'm not that disabled that I need anybody to care for me throughout the day.

Yadnad

BenefitsTrainingCo said:

Hi Yadnad,

The conditions for AA are to meet either the daytime or night-time condition. The day time condition applies if you need:

'frequent attention throughout the day or continual supervision throughout the day'

The night-time condition is to require, at night 'prolonged or repeated attention' in connection with bodily functions, or for another person to be awake for a 'prolonged period' or 'frequent intervals' to prevent danger to the claimant or other people.

So as long as you need attention frequently, it doesn't have to be continual, for you to meet the daytime condition. The importance is the frequency of your need for attention over the day. It does not need to be continuous (unlike the supervision route, which would need to be continuous).

I can confirm that the day & night time conditions are the same as for the middle & high rate care component of DLA - but to get the highest rate of AA, you need to satisfy both day and night time conditions.

Just a word of warning - if you are still getting DLA high rate mobility, or indeed any award for mobility (including PIP, whether standard or enhanced), then you cannot get this in AA, and you may be better off staying on DLA/PIP. As I'm sure you know, there's no mobility component in AA.

I mention this because people over 65 can be tempted to apply for AA to get away from PIP, but that may not be the best approach - obviously it depends on how difficult you have found it to get the correct PIP award, & we all know that can be very difficult indeed. But the thing about mobility components (whether PIP or DLA) is that once you've got them, you can carry on getting them if you stay on PIP/DLA (& of course, you continue to have the same level of mobility). But you cannot get any help with mobility if you switch to AA.

Thanks for that. I am still no wiser. As you have pointed out the criteria for the daytime award is frequent.....throughout the day. To me throughout the day would mean between the time I get up and the time I go to bed. So throughout that period, which for me is 14 hours I have to need frequent attention. I do understand the difference between continual and frequent. Does that mean say for every hour at least 75% (45 minutes) I need attention or help?

If so then I am not that disabled. As for continual supervision I presume that means without ceasing for those 14 hours?

To me you have to be very seriously disabled to need either or both for the daytime.

For the night, I sleep quite soundly given the medication I am on so don't need any help.

To be honest with you I don't recall any of those stipulations being in DLA. From memory it was all down to help with moving about, management of medication, etc.
I don't get any other disability based benefit - My DLA ceased when I went onto PIP and they refused to award PIP earlier this year and I gave up with it.

I do thank you for your help but AA does not appear to be for me at the moment.

Yadnad

One last throw of the dice I contacted the AA - DWP help line and asked the question - what does 'frequent throughout the day' actually mean.

Well I have been given the answer from what appears to be the horses mouth.

"help needed or given many times at short intervals throughout the day"
So in my case it has to be consistent, numerous and intermittently throughout the day.

How hard can it be to try to understand what the DWP mean when trying to assess if I am eligible.

Finally I don't believe that it is right to 'just put a claim in and see how it goes'. Doing that on a whim is only likely to create a backlog of claims that the DWP have to wade through - much like as it is with PIP today.

Government_needs_reform

@Yadnad i doubt anyone can understand the DWP language I certainly can't.
I think there just making everything a whole lot worse for us less mortals.

As I've said before I won't keep going through this torture I'm already planning being homeless because life is so uncertain now, like I've said before even though my PIP is ongoing for now I doubt in the future I will have a whole load of hassle again. Well I'm not going to put myself through none of it again I also still don't believe my PIP is even safe though ongoing.

I've been awaiting my ESA decision as Maximus have had all my paperwork for over 8 weeks now and heard nothing about an assessment or anything it's just pure torture.

If you don't feel right for you in putting in a claim for AA then only you know and can make that decision.

Yadnad

Governments_A_Joke said:

@Yadnad i doubt anyone can understand the DWP language I certainly can't.
I think there just making everything a whole lot worse for us less mortals.

As I've said before I won't keep going through this torture I'm already planning being homeless because life is so uncertain now, like I've said before even though my PIP is ongoing for now I doubt in the future I will have a whole load of hassle again. Well I'm not going to put myself through none of it again I also still don't believe my PIP is even safe though ongoing.

I've been awaiting my ESA decision as Maximus have had all my paperwork for over 8 weeks now and heard nothing about an assessment or anything it's just pure torture.

If you don't feel right for you in putting in a claim for AA then only you know and can make that decision.

Must agree with you. I was in that trap - PIP re-assessments every 2 years then having to fight to get the decision changed from 0 points to Enhanced Care & Mobility. After the 3rd one I gave up as I could not face doing all of that for the rest of my natural days. Grief at 70 I did expect some consideration and understanding from them.

I do worry about just putting in an AA claim on the only basis of a hope and a prayer. Too many claimants are putting PIP claims in only on the basis of 'if you don't ask you don't get'. Hence why we have massive backlogs. I certainly don't want to be one to add to this.

Government_needs_reform

@Yadnad Iam afraid consideration and respect at your age or any age for that matter has well and truly gone my friend, and will only get worse to many selfish people this day and age.

If I had my way I would live on an island on my own and live of the land, that's another reason I won't go through this again either re-assessment after re-assessment and with clowns that haven't even got a clue in our well-being.

Again you've gotta do what you feel is right? Why on earth people want to go through claiming is beyond me I had no I had know choice but too.

Yadnad

Governments_A_Joke said:
If I had my way I would live on an island on my own and live of the land, that's another reason I won't go through this again either re-assessment

My sentiments too. I once saw a picture of this small island - about 20 acres in the middle of a lake. On the Island there was a long low stone built white cottage with smoke drifting out of the chimney. It seemed so idyllic.