Should my wife and I spend all our savings?

fred246

You can get Attendance Allowance even if no-one, actually, cares for you

http://www.welfarerights.net/benefits-guides/Attendance-Allowance

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/sick-or-disabled-people-and-carers/attendance-allowance/claiming-attendance-allowance/help-with-attendance-allowance-form/


It is also possible for someone to get a disability benefit and Carers Allowance at the same time.

Form the government website:
Attendance Allowance helps with extra costs if you have a disability severe enough that you need someone to help look after you. You do not have to have someone caring for you in order to claim.
It is clearly completely bonkers. If someone needs help then agree to pay for it. Giving money out to people that have absolutely no need for it is just a waste of taxpayers money. It could be spent on the NHS.

elsien

There can be extra costs associated with disability, even where the person does not have someone paid to care for them at that point. I am thinking of a relative who   has extra costs around continence needs, laundry, and disability aids, having to have meals on wheels because of being unable to cook proper meals. I have no issue with people claiming attendance allowance in those circumstances. 

NeilCr

fred246 said:

Citizens Advice tell people to tell the truth on benefit claims forms

Citizens Advice was obviously handing out claims forms to people. When the citizen asked for advice on how to fill it in she was obviously told. If someone asks "How do I get benefits?" then you need to give them a form and tell them what answers are needed to receive the benefit.

Clients get the forms themselves. CAB do not hand them out now. And they ask for help with completing them. Clients do not tend to say "How do I get benefits?" They ask about what benefits they may be entitled to

Citizens Advice and other agencies do not complete forms with the answers needed to get benefits. What they do is to assist with completion honestly but making sure that the whole story is told. Quite often clients omit a lot of relevant information



 
 

fred246

There's no point submitting a claim for benefits if your answers aren't going to get the benefits you want. Nowadays you Google it or go on this forum. In those days citizens advice advised them what to put. It reminds me of my friend that went to claim unemployment benefits. "Are you looking for work?" "No" he replied. "Well you won't get benefits saying that. You have to say you are to get any. "OK I am looking for work". "That's more like it. Fill this form out."

NeilCr

fred246 said:

There's no point submitting a claim for benefits if your answers aren't going to get the benefits you want. Nowadays you Google it or go on this forum. In those days citizens advice advised them what to put. It reminds me of my friend that went to claim unemployment benefits. "Are you looking for work?" "No" he replied. "Well you won't get benefits saying that. You have to say you are to get any. "OK I am looking for work". "That's more like it. Fill this form out."

There's a point in applying for benefits if you might get them. Plus medicals are nearly always needed these days  for PIP and UC (farce that some of them are) so making up answers to fit the criteria isn't likely to work

I've volunteered for CA for 11 years now - part of which time has been helping with DLA/PIP/AA forms and I've never told anyone what to put - nor has anyone else in my branch. My partner worked for CA for longer than that - and nor has she. 

The one thing we all hammer in is that you do not lie on claim forms

onwards&upwards

fred246 said:

There's no point submitting a claim for benefits if your answers aren't going to get the benefits you want. Nowadays you Google it or go on this forum. In those days citizens advice advised them what to put. It reminds me of my friend that went to claim unemployment benefits. "Are you looking for work?" "No" he replied. "Well you won't get benefits saying that. You have to say you are to get any. "OK I am looking for work". "That's more like it. Fill this form out."

Nigel, is that you?

thorsoak

onwards&upwards said:

fred246 said:

There's no point submitting a claim for benefits if your answers aren't going to get the benefits you want. Nowadays you Google it or go on this forum. In those days citizens advice advised them what to put. It reminds me of my friend that went to claim unemployment benefits. "Are you looking for work?" "No" he replied. "Well you won't get benefits saying that. You have to say you are to get any. "OK I am looking for work". "That's more like it. Fill this form out."

Nigel, is that you?

Oh dear, poor old Fred!   He obviously "knows" which forms to fill in - but his answers must be too pat - and nobody believes him ....just like his tale on here!

fred246

I have never applied for any benefits except unemployment benefit as a student. I just said I would do any job anywhere, anytime for any pay. It seemed to work in those days. I would think the story that someone knows every conversation that's ever happened in a CAB over many years not very believable unless there was only one person who worked there. What aspect of what I have said do you not believe?

NeilCr

fred246 said:

I have never applied for any benefits except unemployment benefit as a student. I just said I would do any job anywhere, anytime for any pay. It seemed to work in those days. I would think the story that someone knows every conversation that's ever happened in a CAB over many years not very believable unless there was only one person who worked there. What aspect of what I have said do you not believe?

Because only a few of us do/did the forms and we work to a strict protocol. Plus I know my fellow volunteers (small branch) well and they don't break the rules. And, to be honest, it won't work, these days,  if you lie, with the medicals. Think your knowledge is a bit out of date. 

fred246

I took over power of attorney for an elderly couple. They had kept every item of paperwork since they were born. They both had distinctive writing. In the paperwork was an envelope from the citizens advice bureau with a disability claim form that someone had written on. The writing was not in either of their handwriting. There is nothing illegal about it. Obviously if someone signs for statements that aren't true then that is. I have never seen the form that was sent in. These days the criteria will be all over the internet.