Attendance Allowance night rate for deafness

Freda45

Hello

Can anyone help me with this.

My father is profoundly deaf and he has been awarded the AA basic rate for needing help during the day but not for needing help at night.

 

On the form we explained that without his hearing aids in he would not hear a smoke alarm, the telephone, shouting or banging or someone entering the house so he needs someone with him in case there is a fire or other emergency because he won’t be awoken by noise.

 

I am thinking of a fire in  neighbouring property where someone would shout and bang on the door to let him know he needs to get out or the fire service banging on the door to evacuate the area and assuming that the house is empty when they get no response.

 

The problem is that is seems that to qualify for needing help at night he needs to need someone awake to watch over him and keep him safe but  that someone else wouldn’t need to stay awake because they would be awoken by the smoke alarm, banging etc.  

 

I came across a case (Moran?) where the husband of a woman with epilepsy was found to be providing supervision by being there in case she had a fit and the situation with my father seems similar -he needs someone with him in case there is a fire etc

 

He is reluctant to rock the boat and has said he doesn’t want to go to appeal if the mandatory reconsideration doesn’t work so I need to get this right.

 Has anyone had something similar? It is worth doing the mandatory consideration is it a case that he doesn’t fit the criteria?

Thank you

 

Biblioklept

I honestly don't know so this is just my opinion but a person with epilepsy having a seizure is possibly much more likely than a fire and most benefits are about the majority of the time so could that be the difference here? 
I don't know much about night time supervision or AA at all though so hopefully someone with some knowledge will have some advice

Freda45

Thanks Biblioklept. 
The more I read about it the more confused I get. There seems to be cases with PIP  where they say someone who can't hear a smoke alarm whilst showering needs supervision so it doesn't make much sense to me to say he doesn't need supervision for the whole night when he can't hear a smoke alarm.

calcotti

For PIP there would certainly be consequence of the risk due to deafness. However you can't apply the same test for AA because the rules are different.

Decision Maker's Guide includes https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1092571/dmgch61.pdf

61051 To satisfy the disability conditions for AA, a person must need 

1. attention from another person or
2. supervision from another person or
3. another person to watch over them.

61054 The night condition is satisfied if a person is so severely disabled physically or mentally that, at night they require

1. prolonged or repeated attention in connection with bodily functions from another person or

2. another person to be awake for a prolonged period or at frequent intervals for the purpose of watching over them in order to avoid substantial danger to themselves or others.

From what you have said the supervision is passive and the person supervising is going to be asleep so they are not going to meet this test.