Attendance Allowance rejected

[RememberDecember]

Found out today that mum’s application for AA has been rejected. She has early stage dementia. I was hoping to use it to pay for a carer to come in to help but will have to have a rethink. I’m not sure if there is any point trying to reapply at a later stage, unless things decline substantially. Have others reapplied successfully?

Go to citizens advice or age uk and get them to help you appeal. I used to appeal them regularly for people and I usually won often because the original form had been completed by families who didn’t really know what they should be saying (no reason they should, ppl are generally not experts in benefit forms!)

Did they say why. Can she manage day to day activities. Like cooking, cleaning, washing dressing shopping and so on. And does she have a diagnosis from the doctor. Surprised it's been rejected if she has dementia unless its very early stage and she is managing fine.

How appalling, appeal and get support of GP, specialist nurse, Dementia charity that could help with the application. Good luck.

Came on here to say exactly this - get help filling the form in, there is a definite approach that needs to be taken.

Isn't this free through the NHS?

Who filled the form in? It is long but the threshold to get it is really low.

Ask medical professionals for a letter to appeal it and explain why.

do appeal, people often underplay their needs.

How old is she? AA is almost always awarded.

Not in England

Yes. Is she over pension age.

What help does she currently need? Can she get herself up, toileted, washed and dressed? Shopping, cooking, cleaning, etc. If she has no current care needs, that's likely why it was turned down. Did you supply evidence of diagnosis?

Appeals process is very slow. You’re better to just re-apply and get citizens advice to fill in the form.
You can DM me if you like and I can guide you on how to fill it in.

I filled in the form and a dementia assistant from council looked it over but didn’t change anything. I’m beginning to second guess myself and wonder if she is truly eligible. I sent official diagnosis. She doesn’t require help dressing, have toileting or mobility issues. However she is increasingly forgetful of taking medication, and can get lost when out and has locked herself out several times. (2 locksmiths later we now have a safe key box).

I’ve only just seen the rejection letter under piles of stuff at her house and basically have tomorrow to contact them for ‘mandatory reconsideration’.

The letter says “ you are not entitled because to get attendance allowance you must have a disability which means that you need right through the day frequent attention with your bodily functions or continue supervision to avoid substantial danger to yourself or others”

Citizens advice are brilliant for helping get the right benefits.

Not sure if I can just reapply straight after doing it, presume there is some sort of waiting period? That is why I’m thinking I need to try to contact them tomorrow rather than reapply.

Agree with this. I work for a charity for elderly people and help fill out hundreds of these forms a year. They rarely get refused even when I am convinced they don't meet the criteria ! They do only look at what help a person needs with personals care though. They don't consider whether someone can do their shopping/ cleaning/ gardening. If they need supervision with things like paperwork, paying bills, getting to hospital appointments, remembering stuff, needing prompting etc it's good to put all that down. On the odd occasion we do get one turned down we usually ask the person to call up and ask for an MR and it usually gets awarded after someone from the dwp calls them and goes over the claim again. We are so crazily busy we don't really have time to do MR's ( not that we get many), but do sometimes as long as we've completed the initial form for the person. I also think a key thing to getting it awarded is sending in medical evidence. A memory clinic letter stating dementia diagnosis or evidence of them being on medication for dementia is good to send. They pretty much never do an assessment at all so if you can just show diagnosis or appropriate medications it helps. I can honestly say that myself and my colleagues are frequently amazed at how some people get awarded it, especially given that's it's not an insignificant amount of money and can potentially passport people to lots more money - Pension credit, council tax support etc. Good luck !

It sounds as if the emphasis in your answers should be on safety ie mum is not physically impaired but is a danger to herself unsupervised. It’s helpful to think step-wise through every activity of daily living and then think about what hazards there are to mum on a really bad day in each activity e.g. dressing - might she not wear appropriate clothing/not warm enough; bathing - could there be a hazard in leaving a tap running as she may forget to turn it off; cooking - leaving gas on: you get the picture. People often play down their challenges and older people may be very stoic).

This exactly. Are they in danger of taking the wrong medication or at the wrong times or forgetting altogether, can they hold a phone conversation and understand/ remember what has been said etc.

Sorry meant to quote crafycorvid rather than my own post !

So sorry, my elderly aunt had help filling out this form. At the age of 86, widowed and alone, she did get the full allowance. She now has a fortnightly home help.

Apparently needing 'personal care' is the key. Good luck with your appeal.

You also need to bear in mind things like how long it takes to do something and whether adjustments have to be made that a ‘normal’ person wouldn’t. So for example getting dressed - how long does it take to get dressed? Does she need to stop and rest? Can she bend down to pull on tights or socks? can she manage buttons and zips or does she no longer use clothes that have those? Does she need to be reminded to fasten clothes properly or wear clean ones? It’s about comparing her with ‘normal’. In my experience of doing these forms people have made changes gradually and don’t realise how far away they are from what they used to do

Definitely reapply, and get someone from Age UK or similar to help if you can. My DM doesn’t have a dementia diagnosis, but has another mental health diagnosis that means she has difficulty remembering medication/can get very muddled with it which can be quite dangerous for her condition, and also gets lost etc outside/loses keys etc if in a bad way with the condition (it varies)- I mention these as it sounds similar to your description above of your Mum’s needs currently. My DM was awarded the daytime rate which surprised me after someone told us to apply for it, but we received really good advice on how to complete the form and had to spell everything out. They phoned me when reviewing her application as I wrote a note to include in it, and they asked questions etc. You may need to complete the form with more info on her ‘worst day’ scenarios as to why she needs help.

From What you have said, I really don’t think your mum qualifies. The person attending should be helping with dressing, cooking, getting about in the home, meals and washing. Not necessarily all of those those it a good few. Just being forgetful with beds does not in AA eyes need a physical presence in the home.

If you wanted to use the AA to get a carer in, what did you want them to do? If she needs help, there must be some issues that you could highlight. If she is getting lost, then the dementia is progressing - does she need someone to do her shopping for her? I mean adults shouldn't get lost in their neighbourhood, that is quite a deterioration in capacity.