Attendance Allowance

Who is Attendance Allowance for?

To qualify for Attendance Allowance you must have reached State Pension age. And you must have an illness or disability that means you have difficulty with personal care or you need supervision.

Personal care includes things like getting in and out of bed, washing, having a bath, going to the toilet, eating, getting dressed or dealing with medication.

Supervision is when someone needs to keep an eye on you to stop you being a danger to yourself or other people.

You don’t have to be getting help already. It’s the help you need that’s important. But you must have needed this help for at least 6 months.

You can get Attendance Allowance even if:

• you’re working
• you get other benefits, including a State Pension or Carer’s Allowance
• your partner or husband or wife works
• you have savings
• you live alone and no-one provides care for you
• you already have someone providing care for you, like a partner
• you don’t want anyone to provide care for you

You won’t need to switch to Attendance Allowance if you began claiming Disability Living Allowance or Personal Independence Payment (PIP) before you reached State Pension age.

Find out more on Attendance Allowance and how to claim it

Citizens Advice have information about applying for Attendance Allowance and filling in the forms

Scotland

If you live in Scotland, instead of Attendance Allowance, you must apply for Pension Age Disability Payment.