Attendance Allowance pitfalls: why good claims get refused

Attendance Allowance pays £76.70 or £114.60 a week, tax free, with no means test. Yet a large number of people who plainly qualify are turned down, and most of those refusals come down to how the form was filled in rather than how much help the person actually needs.

The DWP decides Attendance Allowance almost entirely on the paperwork. There is rarely a face to face assessment. That makes the form the whole claim, and it makes these mistakes expensive.

1. Describing a good day

The form asks what you can do. Most people answer honestly about a typical or better day, because that is what comes to mind and because nobody enjoys cataloguing their worst moments.

The DWP is required to consider how your needs vary. If you have three bad days a week, that is the reality of your condition and it belongs on the form. Write the bad day, then say how often it happens.

2. Answering “do you get help?” instead of “do you need help?”

This is the single biggest one.

The legal test is whether you need frequent help or supervision, not whether anyone provides it. Someone living alone with nobody to help still qualifies if the need is there.

If you have stopped bathing because it is unsafe, you need help bathing. Writing “I don’t have baths” reads to a decision maker as “no need identified”.

3. Leaving out what happens without help

Decision makers award on risk and consequence. A form that says “I need help with my tablets” is weak. A form that says “if nobody reminds me I forget my evening dose, and I have twice ended up in hospital as a result” is very strong.

For each activity, finish the thought: what actually happens if nobody is there.

4. Using the word “sometimes”

“Sometimes”, “occasionally” and “now and then” cannot be assessed. Replace every one with a number.

• “I sometimes need help getting up” becomes “I need help getting out of bed four or five mornings a week”
• “Occasionally I fall” becomes “I have fallen three times in the last six months and I feel unsteady every day”

5. Skipping the night section

The night questions decide whether you get the lower rate or the higher rate. The gap between them is £76.70 versus £114.60 a week, which is more than £1,900 a year.

People skip it because they think night needs mean a carer sleeping over. They do not. Needing help to the toilet, help turning over, help with medication, or someone to check you are safe all count. So does a family member being woken by you.

6. Only listing the main condition

Attendance Allowance is assessed on the combined effect of everything. Arthritis on its own is one picture. Arthritis plus failing eyesight plus a heart condition plus the side effects of four medications is a completely different one.

List every condition and every relevant medication side effect: drowsiness, dizziness, urgency, confusion.

7. Assuming savings or a house disqualify you

They do not. Attendance Allowance is not means tested and is not taxable. Your income, savings, pension and property make no difference at all.

This belief probably costs more unclaimed money than any other. It is confused with the council care means test, which is a completely separate thing with its own capital limits.

8. Downloading the form instead of phoning for it

If you phone the DWP for the form, it is stamped with the date of your call, and returning it within six weeks backdates your claim to that date. Download the form instead and your claim starts when they receive it.

At the higher rate that difference is worth over £680.

9. Giving up after a refusal

A refusal is not the end. Ask for a mandatory reconsideration within one month of the decision date. It is free, it is quicker than starting again, and it keeps your original claim date.

Use the reconsideration to fill the gaps: the bad days, the frequency numbers, the consequences of no help, and the night time needs. Attach a supporting letter from a GP, district nurse or occupational therapist if you can get one.

If the reconsideration fails, you can appeal to an independent tribunal. Tribunals are less formal than people expect, and they overturn a meaningful share of DWP decisions.

Two things that are not pitfalls

Getting help to fill in the form. Age UK, Citizens Advice and Carers UK all do this free, and they know exactly what decision makers look for. Use them.

Writing too much. Nobody has been refused for detail. Use extra sheets, put your name and National Insurance number on each one, and tick the box saying you have added them.

Before you start

Our Attendance Allowance checker runs the same day and night tests the DWP applies, so you can see which rate your situation points to and where your strongest evidence lies. Then read our walkthrough of the form itself.