Attendance Allowance

PennyForThem_2

diolch wrote: »

Your GP must know a lot about your abilities, needs etc to even consider suggesting that.

Maybe it is important then to make your GP aware of everything that is happening in your life.

Not like my Mrs - she is a closed book to everyone except me!

Yes, the GP does know him very well. OH has a number of morbidities and is very open with his GP. He does make certain he sees the same GP although the practice is a busy city one.

Recently he was hospitalised with an unknown condition which has since been diagnosed (add another to his list) and the GP tracked him via the hospital electronic medical record. So when he was discharged the GP came to visit him a couple of days later without being asked (ringing first).

I think it is very important to be as open as you can with your GP if you have health problems.

thorsoak

It may well depend upon which part of the country you live in, and to which part of the receiving dept your form goes to as to how long it takes to get a decision: my oh was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer in November and the application for AA was supposedly "fast-tracked" - we had notification that it was awarded some 9 weeks later - the day he died.

Yet another friend who ironically had been diagnosed with the same cancer three weeks earlier than my OH received the allowance within four weeks - and I'm glad to say that the additional amount of income is making a difference to their situation now.

diolch

thorsoak wrote: »

It may well depend upon which part of the country you live in, and to which part of the receiving dept your form goes to as to how long it takes to get a decision: my oh was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer in November and the application for AA was supposedly "fast-tracked" - we had notification that it was awarded some 9 weeks later - the day he died.

Yet another friend who ironically had been diagnosed with the same cancer three weeks earlier than my OH received the allowance within four weeks - and I'm glad to say that the additional amount of income is making a difference to their situation now.

Hi, I am sorry to hear that. I am in the early stages of PC (it was picked up very early as I have AP/CP and already had a benign growth which was removed in 08. It is a sh***y disease!!
I tried for DLA a while back but got nowhere just like the Mrs with her AA claim.

margaretclare

Just an update on this - DH has just been awarded the lower rate of Attendance Allowance backdated to 19th April, the day he went to see the benefits adviser at DIAL. He'll be getting £49.30 a week paid 4-weekly with the back-pay, when his next 4-weekly pension payment is due to be paid.

This is all good news. It will help us to keep the car on the road. Without it we'd go nowhere. He is also beginning to acknowledge that there are things he can't do, or can do them less easily than he used to.

He's very grateful for the help he received from the volunteer benefits adviser at DIAL. Without it, he's sure he'd never have been successful.

margaretclare

Biggles wrote: »

I thought they always contacted the doctors direct, rather than relying on an 'edited' selection provided by the applicant?

They did contact the GP although not the different consultants. Our GPs are all excellent and they would have 'told it as it is'.

From what I've been reading and hearing recently about the effects of Type II diabetes, it's a marvel that DH was diagnosed in 1981 - 30 years ago! - and hasn't got MORE complications than he has!! And then, the effects of the knee surgery, one knee replaced 4 times inside 6 years, will never be as good as the other one. And never being free of pain - the whole thing.

Newly_retired

Margaretclare, did the benefits advisor tell DH that if his AA claim was successful YOU might consider claiming Carer's Allowance?
It does affect other benefits,but overall you may be better off. You should also get a disability premium on Council Tax Benefit and Pension Credit if you qualify for those.

seven-day-weekend

Glad he's got it MC.

margaretclare

Newly_retired wrote: »

Margaretclare, did the benefits advisor tell DH that if his AA claim was successful YOU might consider claiming Carer's Allowance?
It does affect other benefits,but overall you may be better off. You should also get a disability premium on Council Tax Benefit and Pension Credit if you qualify for those.

I can't claim Carer's Allowance because I already get full SRP in my own right and you can't get both. We don't qualify for Pension Credit because our income(s) are already too high. We don't qualify for any means-tested benefits. I'm quite happy with that!

Newly_retired

Glad your OH got AA anyway.

margaretclare

Newly_retired wrote: »

Glad your OH got AA anyway.

Thank you.

DH thinks the first thing he will do is to pay off the car loan. He borrowed £2K from the bank last autumn when we changed the car and only owes approx £600 on it now, but it has already cost him £100 in interest. Paying it off will leave him free of all debt and free from paying any more interest.

The car did us proud recently on our trip to Shetland. We'd have seen more scenery, wildlife and archaeology if we'd been able to walk, but we saw a lot more than we'd have done by relying on the free bus pass! Apart from the 200-mile sea crossing from Aberdeen to Lerwick, it was driving all the way. We saw things we never expected to see and will probably never see again.