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.

Take copies of any hospital letters with diagnosis and any results. List all medication. I prefered the paper version just printed it off made notes then filled it in easier if you have missed anything off.

Get someone who knows what they are doing and have filled them out before, to do it for you . They also need to know the very worst day you experience, not how you are on your good days .
Good luck @Limth

Just thought I'd say that the application was started last August and the payment finally came through early May!

Ah, that’s interesting. The people I complete them for have the same main health condition, so I haven’t noticed the other health conditions.

There is a bit about someone who knows them- I got a letter from my dad's sheltered housing warden and also got hold of a copy of his referral to social services and we included those- think it helped as he got awarded.

I enclosed an official repeat prescription with my husband's when I did his second application. (He had to reapply after the first year, in case his health improved.) I recall that you can just write it all in by yourself, but I figured that the printout would add weight to the application?

I help complete many of these forms. Most are awarded without any problem. I usually try to send as much medical evidence as possible - prescription list, hospital discharge letters, GP summary report. They rarely do any kind of assessment, sometimes they ring the person or carer up if they are struggling to decide between awarding them lower or higher rate. I help with all sorts of benefits and compared to disability benefits for younger people I honestly think AA is very easy to get awarded and all my colleagues agree. There is no mobility component to AA as there is with PIP but they do look at how the person gets around the house/ manages stairs and whilst it doesn't actually look at mobility outside of the home it does ask about what help the person needs when doing activities outside of the home so if they always need someone to drive them to appointments etc or take them to the shop or need help getting in and out of the car I tend to include things like that. There are blank sheets at the back where you can explain anything else that you think is relevant that is not covered by the questions.

You do not base the form just on a worst day though, there are places where you say how many times a day you have difficulty with each activity and how many days a week that applies to you. A worst day could happen once a month in which case that would not be accurate to fill it out based just on a worst day. There is plenty of space at the back of the form to explain what a worst day looks like if you need to or if things are variable. And as with any disability benefit the medical evidence has to back up what you are saying. If someone says they are breathless all the time then they would expect to see medical evidence of why that is eg heart failure, copd.

My mum has dementia and her Community Psychiatric Nurse filled the form out for her at the GP surgery and I filled in relevant parts. Not sure if this happens everywhere, we are in Wales. We got the AA without any difficulty.

Form is long but fine. My late DM got full amount despite having no carer and living in sheltered housing. She was completely honest during the application. Answer the questions according to their worst day, not their best. For example they might ask if the applicant can peel and slice a carrot. Answer according to the worst day when arthritis was flaring up. There are no prizes in being proud or brave and the money really helps to cover extra costs.

@Limth the form isn't a horror

It is long and boring and requires you to repeat yourself

It took six months for mum's money to come through, so I would advise ringing the DWP and asking for the paper version because as you know, they will backdate it.

In terms of evidence, they actually spoke to mum's GP, the hospital where Mum had been admitted (that's what prompted me to apply because there was a big obvious decline coming) and I presume they would have checked everything that we wrote on there. I didn't enclose anything with the form. I also asked for the form in large print so mum could look at it properly.

They rang both me and Mum before they spoke to the GP and the hospital to confirm that they were doing that. They also wanted to know if anything had changed because this call came about five months after we filled in the form.

There is space on the form to say that you're filling it in for someone else - I think we wrote that I had handwritten it, but mum had a lot of input.

Generally, I found it very straightforward and the DWP were very helpful. However, if you need money straight away, that is a problem.

You can ask the DWP for a visiting officer to come and help the form if you find it overwhelming, call up and say you need help and have no one to assist you, you don’t need to have carers in to be awarded

I helped my mum complete hers, it took a couple of hours, we sent copies of doctors letters, photos of her injuries when she had a fall. It was nowhere near as bad as completing my PIP forms. It took about 10 weeks from ringing up for the forms to her being notified that she had been awarded.

In addition to Citizens Advice, you may well have one or more disability charities locally who can help with the claim form. It's always worth getting professional help if it's available. Good luck!

Just to add that I did get a phone call after I sent in my dad's form.

The lady who phoned asked whether he had to get up to the toilet at night. I answered that - yes, he did that by himself.

I was told that that was immaterial - the fact that he needed to get up during the night every night (he was on diuretics) meant that she could tick the box to say that the was entitled to the full (including night-time) allowance.

Sorry - I know that that's not the correct nomenclature, but I've had a trying day and my brain's not working.

In my experience of doing hundreds of forms they do seem to award the full / higher rate very easily.

I honestly can't describe how incredibly helpful you've all been. Thank you so much. I feel so much better about starting this form now.

I appreciate the advice to get some expert input. It makes total sense and I'd love to, but my mum is insistent that I have to do it because she won't discuss her conditions with some nosey stranger

That's a whole other thread of course 😂😂

That sounds very familiar, OP: "They want to know all our business!"

I'm assuming that my dad's many health conditions were taken into consideration. A combination of age, war wounds, heart and TIA related problems meant that he was prone to falls - he did carry a fall alarm.

With my dad, he just told the welfare advisor from the council he's 'fine' and 'nothing wrong' so I just sent her the info for the forms including the SS referral and letter from the housing warden.

It felt a bit sneaky but it got him the AA. Welfare lady said it is really common for the elderly to be overly stoic and downplay any problems.