Attendance Allowance - Any Experiences?

[Limth]

Is the form for attendance allowance an absolute horror show? Are there assessments that need to be done alongside the form itself?

If someone who applies for attendance allowance doesn't currently have carers and lives alone, will this go against them?

Any experiences or insights at all that you have are very gratefully received.

The form isn’t a horror but it might take a bit of time to complete. You’ll need to list all medications, any relevant addresses such as GP surgery, so helps to have those to hand.
Then it’s really just asking about all health conditions and how they effect day-to-day life, it’s essential that this isn’t just about what happens on a “good” day. Some elderly people really do try and play it down I suspect because they’re not wanting to be seen as infirm, or a nuisance, and they’re perhaps worried they’ll be sent away! So it’s crucial to be honest and nothing is too trivial to list eg if they wear hearing aids.

Sometimes there are assessments carried out but not always, I’ve known a benefits advisor go to the elderly person’s house to go through everything, not a medical assessment though, more chat based. Then other times no assessment at all.

If the person qualifies due to their conditions but can live alone with no carers they would still be awarded AA.

Oh, and if someone is considering applying then phone and ask for a form to be sent out. I think you get six weeks to complete it and send it back.
This means if they are awarded it then the claim will be backdated to the date of the phone call.
I would also advise to photocopy the form before sending it back.

The form is OK, but long. Be careful as it differentiates between difficulty, and needing help. Note helo can be aids as well as people.
On paper or electronic is easier than the interactive version.

Elderly Parents board can also advise.

I've just done this with my parents. It wasn't difficult but make sure you respond to the questions as if it was a "bad day" - people like to minimise the problems they are having which doesn't help build an accurate picture. If you have POA then you have to send the original copy but they send it back quickly. Unfortunately you can't send it registered post because it's just a PO Box type address.

I helped my relative fill in the AA forms as they couldn’t physically have written all the information themselves. Forms are long and repetitive (also annoying in that they keep asking for every difficulty - how many times a day/night/week does this occur?)
There are no assessments and it doesn’t matter if the person is living alone and doesn’t have a carer.
My relative was awarded, it took a couple of months waiting to hear.

It varies.

The first time that we applied for my mother, a doctor was sent out to assess her. She was turned down because she was able to climb stairs on the day that he visited.

Her own GP was astonished that she was turned down, given her disabilities. She was awarded it on a subsequent attempt.

There was no assessment for my dad or my husband. In Dh's case, his hospital ward contacted the Stroke Association and they sent out someone to fill up the form, though I had to reapply for him a year later.

I'll add that some people get help for the form filling from their local Citizens' Advice Bureau.

As others have said, the advice is to fill up the form addressing difficulties that the person has on their worst day.

Think of it as a point scoring system, if you achieve enough points you will qualify. The person assessing the form isn’t there to judge, they’re not going to be phoning Social Services and the elderly person isn’t going to be admitted to a care home on their say so.

One of the questions might be about getting washed and dressed, maybe the applicant can do that themselves with absolutely no issues, in which case no points.
However maybe the applicant needs prompting to get washed and if they weren’t prompted they wouldn’t bother so often meaning hygiene is at risk.
Getting dressed might take them a long time because they’re struggling to fasten zips or buttons, or they avoid clothes with buttons altogether because they have arthritis or dexterity problems.
Maybe they don’t notice their clothes have food stains on because their eyesight isn’t sharp enough so relatives have to help with laundry.
Anything where the person is having to make adjustments that another person wouldn’t have to.

You can’t give too much information and it might mean that one extra point added makes the difference.

@Limth If your parent has any regular contact with a health care professional, they might help with it. Dad's District Nurse helped with it, without my knowledge. But she obviously knew the right words to write on the form as he got it no problem.

I got someone from the Local Authority welfare department to fill it the forms for my DM. She lived alone in her own home and only had temporary carers at the time as she'd had a broken hip and had been discharged after surgery. She got the full rate for day & night.

Did FIL very recently but he has SR1 (special rules as he doesn’t have long to live) so in this case you hardly have to fill any of the questions in. So very easy and he started getting payments about a week after it was submitted.

i did MIL and sent last week, and had to complete the full form
for her, she has Alzheimer’s so I filled it in and then got her to sign it. It was 32 pages and it was hard work getting all the information from her Admiral dementia nurse to be honest. I can’t imagine that she enwill find out if hers has been awarded for a while though.

There is a guide online from CAB

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

We sent a letter from the hospital about elderly parents eye problem / loss of vision which they used

My mum found AgeUK were very helpful and they guided her successfully through it.

My parents and parents in law all have attendence allowance. All of them contacted Age Concern or similar in their area to help with the long forms. Both had someone come to their homes and help them complete it. My MIL in London had to pay for help with hers. My parents in Lincolnshire got the help for free.

It's not about the conditions that they have, it's about what they can and can't do.

My dad was told to apply by his heart consultant and his GP, but he was turned down. He appealed it and they turned it down again. They said that because he can go up the stairs, and doesn't need any help dressing, eating, bathing etc, that he doesn't qualify for it.

They said that if he gets worse and needs help and carers, then he can apply again.

Applied successfully recently on behalf of my dad, and found advice on Age Uk website very helpful. They explain what criteria are used to make a decision to award AA, and practical advice about how to fill in the form: describe the most needy days, in detail.

I've done it a few times, it is long winded but not a horror show.

The key is to answer the question being asked as completely as possible. The CAB and Age UK example answers are very good.

Don't let the person just say what they can do on a good day when they haven't actually had that good a day since 2010. 'Oh I can walk into town' - no mum, you can't. And don't chuck in extra stuff that isn't going to win any points. They don't care that it makes you sad, they just care how many metres you can or can't walk.

Also it doesn't go on diagnosis, it goes on disability. So PP's example of saying you have a heart condition doesn't score any points. Saying you need surpervision because of falls caused by a heart condition wins points - even if you live alone and nobody is actually supervising.

We talked about risk e.g. elderly relative has a combination of osteoporosis and falls and sight loss, has fallen and broken a bone in the past. That sort of thing.

In fact having filled in these forms several times, they aren’t concerned about how far people can or can’t walk. It’s more to do with difficulties in walking, ie can you get up and down the stairs easily, do you fall or trip getting in and out of shower, bath etc. And they are not concerned at all about activities someone can or can’t do outside the house - it’s all within the home. A lot of personal care questions but not concerned with whether someone has trouble gardening or cleaning.

Thank you so much for all these insights. I'm applying for my mum who lives alone and can do things but with great difficulty.

Will she need things like doctors notes, test results etc for the form? Or will they just believe what we say in the form.

Thank you!

We sent in a letter from the hospital about sight loss and when we had the letter back it did mention it, as evidence so I would say yes to sending in evidence.

I complete AA forms for people as part of my work role. The new online form is so much quicker to complete. You need to know about health conditions, any aids/adaptations, medication, health care professionals etc. but you now only have to send clinic letters if requested, and only include extra information if you select sometimes, instead of yes/no, and you have a character limit, so are not able to go into too much detail.

The date of the claim only starts from when you submit the form, so you might lose £ as you aren’t starting the claim from when you call DWP, but it’s hopefully not as overwhelming to complete - for you or your mum, and you can’t save the form as you go along, so needs to be done in one session, but takes an hour or so. Would recommend doing the online one, if this is an option for you.

I tried the interactive online one. I found it too prescriptive in eg medical conditions, and it is definitely a form we needed to come back to and revise.
So we did the electronic pdf one.

Might be different if you do them regularly I suppose.

A physician associate at my family member's GP surgery helped fill in their form - successfully.