Attendance Allowance

samwich1979

Just looking into this for my 69 year old MIL.

She has had arthritis in her spine and knees for years now and also takes medication for depression and to help her sleep every evening.

With the above she cannot use the upstairs of her house, her knees give way and are too painful even with painkillers to get up them. She only has a downstairs toilet and sink so only get a wash daily and cannot bathe at all.
She also sleeps downstairs for this reason.
Her medication makes her that sedated of an evening that she is at an even more increased danger of falls on the stairs so myself and my husband are glad she doesnt use them.

I presume she would get AA? Both myself, my husband and MIL knew nothing about this until today after seeing programme on bbc1 and we think she more than fits the criteria as she would definitely need help/supervision from us to wash and sleep upstairs.
Would this qualifiy for the day or night rate or both?

Also she gets full Housing Benefit and CTB, would this be affected or will she still get these in full?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Horseunderwater

http://www.ageuk.org.uk/documents/en-gb/factsheets/fs34_attendance_allowance_fcs.pdf?dtrk=true This may help you with a bit more info. My understanding is that you fill out the form detailing how the claimant cannot do x y z for them selves or needs someone to help them do that activity. Do they need help to be bathed/washed, get dressed, feed themselves or cook a meal. Very similar to DLA which is for younger people in the main. You details the medicines and what effect they have on the claimant to do other things. are they incontinent for example because they take a certain tablet. Also AA should not be taken into consideration for HB and CTB as it does not count as income as such, but they do need to be told that it has been applied for and hopefully gotten.

xylophone

http://pensions-service.direct.gov.uk/en/information-points/home.asp
your MIL might be best advised to try one of these - presumably you could accompany her?

Dunroamin

Could she bathe or shower unaided if she had downstairs facilities?

sleepless_saver

samwich1979 wrote: »

Also she gets full Housing Benefit and CTB, would this be affected or will she still get these in full?

Thanks in advance for any help.

If she is getting full HB and CTB because she gets guarantee pension credit, then her HB and the CTB will be unaffected by AA and the guarantee pension credit will increase.

She has nothing to lose by applying .