Please can anyone advise help with attendance allowance

cumbrianpip

Get help! Age concern are usually excellent with AA forms, Other organisations can also be very good, also consider your local council's welfare rights unit or ring the local Pension service and ask for a visiting officer, this is also a useful possibility
If you decide to complete the forms yourself, do put as much information as possible... A lot of elderley claimants proudly deny problems and get turned down... many think they have no care needs cos their spouse/daughter etc does it all for them (so if that is the case then they obviously do have needs)
If you want to say something that you can't pigeon hole into one of the answer boxes, it is quite acceptable to send in an extra sheet with further info... or keep a diary of all the things you do for the claimant, just for a few days and send that in with the claim (or even after the claim has been posted)
If someone claims and says that they need help with the housework/shopping/gardening etc... this is irrelevant as they are domestic chores and can not be taken into consideration... they are lookin for you to demonstrate that you need help with personal care eg, washing/dressing/hygiene/communication etc etc

cumbrianpip

krisskross wrote: »

Just be aware that there is no mobility element with Attendance Allowance, most unfair I feel, so any application has to be solely on care needs.

This is because decreasing mobility is a natural part of the natural ageing process and so the cut off point is 65

As someone else stated, if you were on the mobility component of DLA prior to 65 then yes, it may well stay in place.

jojofrg

Thank you all very much,
We have made an appointment with a local agency, to give us help/advice. But as someone on this thread has said, one of the big problems, is people getting past pride and embarrassment, and talk about the difficulties they are having.
A lot of older people are of 'The old school', and don't like complaining, try to struggle on, and find it hard to discuss more personal aspects, of how there condition effects them, especially to strangers.
Thanks again you've all been wonderfully helpful.
Best wishes you to all.

soolin

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The_walrus

OK guys, as a Welfare Rights/CAB advisor for twenty years I feel able to give you the definative answer. AA is for >65's and does not include any element which covers mobility problems out of doors, although if you "were not safely mobile in the home" you may qualify. Normal qualifying conditions are that you would need help from another person with personal care. Personal care is getting out of bed, dressing, bathing, eating etc. It is not shopping, cleaning, laundry etc.

Disability Living Allowance (DLA) is for under 65's and includes the mobility component. It is possible to claim DLA after the age of 65 if you can show that your mobility problems were present before your 65th birthday. Once awarded you can keep it indefinately in many cases.

In either case filling in the form well is key to an award, so seek help.

Hope this helps

margaretclare

krisskross wrote: »

Just be aware that there is no mobility element with Attendance Allowance, most unfair I feel, so any application has to be solely on care needs.

Yes, you're right, and I agree, most unfair. I keep getting this kind of argument: 'well, you get free bus passes, don't you, so you don't need help to run a car'.

Neither DH nor I can walk as far as the bus stop at the top of the road, stand and wait around for buses etc, but this is never taken into account.

DLA also takes into account things like 'difficulty in cooking yourself a meal' e.g. if you have a back injury and can't bend to get a casserole out of the oven. AA doesn't even mention cooking your own meals. I had all this explained to me by a Benefits Adviser at CAB and she said 'it is assumed that you could have a carer come in to get you a meal, or you could have meals-on-wheels'.

You're right, the criteria are different in that, with DLA it's assumed you have a life and want to live as independently as possible, with AA you just need 'care' and can do little or nothing for yourself at all - at 65 they assume we're past all that and don't want a life of our own!

margaretclare

poppy_f1 wrote: »

if they do get AA then check out the possibility of council tax benefit as well if they don't already qualify

But AA is not means-tested and is non-taxable, so AA may be paid when a person's income is above the means-tested limits. Some things can be paid though - the £10 Christmas bonus plus £60 extra this winter, the WarmFront heating and insulation grant.

margaretclare

cumbrianpip wrote: »

This is because decreasing mobility is a natural part of the natural ageing process and so the cut off point is 65.

My mobility problems are no age-related - I had a first hip replacement when I wasn't even 50. My daughter had both hips replaced age 35, and she gets DLA + mobility component.

As someone else stated, if you were on the mobility component of DLA prior to 65 then yes, it may well stay in place.

Sad, sad! Me being too independent - I did get MA for a while, as it was then, back in the 1980s but after surgery I 'thought I'd got better'. Why didn't I apply again when I had a revision of hip replacement (the 3rd hip surgery) when I was 62? Idiot that I was. Now I need my car more than ever, and no help with car costs because 'you get free bus passes, don't you'.

krisskross

I know the cut off point to differentiate between AA and DLA has to come somewhere but no one is really 'old' at 65 these days. Retirement age is going up so perhaps the age when the government think we are incapable will as well.

Oldernotwiser

margaretclare wrote: »

I had all this explained to me by a Benefits Adviser at CAB and she said 'it is assumed that you could have a carer come in to get you a meal,

But this is the madness of the situation, isn't it? You claim AA for care needs but you can't get it for something like meal preparation, because the carer does it! (Carers obviously coming in out of the goodness of their hearts rather than hard cash!)