Carers Allowance and Attendance allowance- confused

[HaddockDiem]

My elderly Mum cares for Dad who has dementia. She ( along with me and my sister) does all the organising, gives him medication, prepares food, helps him dress , takes him to appointments etc. he can’t be left longer than an hour or two. She does receive carers allowance but rang me to say someone told her to claim Attendance allowance- I tried to find out what the difference is but still confused! Can anyone enlighten me 😂

You could claim attendance allowance for dad. It's a benefit for people too old to claim pip.

Carers allowance you don't get if over state pension age which is stupid as you don't stop being a carer but there we go. It's paid to the carer to help with the expenses of being a carer (it's a laughable amount but that's another story)

Attendance allowance is paid to the elderly disabled person (those under pension age receive pip. Those on pip as they reach pension age remain on pip and don't get attendance allowance as well it's either or) to try support things they might need through being disabled.

If your mum claims carers allowance for your father then wouldn't he already be in receipt of a disability benefit?

Who's told your mum to claim AA? That's a disability benefit so for your mum to qualify she would need to have health conditions herself

And in order for there to be a carers allowance payment, the person that is being looked after must have either pip or attendance allowance so if she really is receiving carers then the disabled person must already be receiving one of them.

Attendance allowance is relatively easy and straightforward to claim, you can do it online in about 20 minutes. This is paid to the person who needs care, and is over pension age. If you are caring for someone who gets AA, for at least 35 hours a week you can get carers allowance, providing you are under pension age, and don’t earn over £196 a week. Neither is means tested but if you’re on universal Credit it may be affected by the carers benefit

Attendance Allowance is paid to the person with the illness or disability. The name is confusing and it is being/has been changed to Pension Age Disability Payment.
It is not means tested.

How can she claim carers allowance? It stops when your pension age?

Just re read your post and I wonder if someone has suggested that mum apply for AA in her own right?

More likely, surely, that someone has recommended applying for Attendance Allowance for Dad, but as he has dementia it would have to be done on his behalf by someone else. I think there's an expedited process for people with a terminal diagnosis. My Mum's came through remarkably quickly. Social Services effectively did it for her with my help (she doesn't have dementia but at 92 and very frail and deaf needs a great deal of support with admin).

Thanks for all your replies - my Mum got confused between CA and AA bless her. It’s difficult trying navigate when you’re already struggling with caring. Thanks again 🙏

DLA/PIP (or ADP in Scotland) has a care component abd a mobility component.

If not already in receipt of mobility component at state retirement age, then you cannot go on to claim it.

But if you are in receipt of only the mobility element you can then claim the care element.

AA has only care component. This should be claimed if you are over state retirement age, are disabled but not in receipt of DLA/PIP/ADP.

(I know that these days DLA, applies only to children. However there are some very elderly elderly people who were given lifetime awards, and who are still on DLA)

My father cared for my mother who had dementia and received carer's allowance for a while. The social worker recommended he apply for attendance allowance and then they both received it.