personal finance

State pension age: Could you get extra £4,500 per year? Attendance Allowance explained


This payment is known as the Attendance Allowance, and the government website says the payment “helps with extra costs if you have a disability severe enough that you need someone to help look after you”. The payment is paid at two different rates. How much a person gets depends on the level of care that they are deemed to need because of their disability.

Attendance Allowance is paid weekly at two different rates, with the one that a person gets depending on the level of help required.

Attendance Allowance rates

The gov.uk says that for the lower rate of £58.70 per week, the level of help needed is: “Frequent help or constant supervision during the day, or supervision at night”.

The higher rate of £87.65 is available if one needs “help or supervision throughout both day and night, or you’re terminally ill”.

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Gov.uk also says that a person who gets Attendance Allowance could get other forms of financial support, such as extra Pension Credit, Housing Benefit or Council Tax Reduction.

Attendance Allowance is not means-tested, meaning what a person earns or how much they have in savings do not affect what one can get.

Who is eligible for Attendance Allowance?

A person can get Attendance Allowance if they have reached state pension age and the following circumstances apply:

One has a physical disability (including sensory disability, for example blindness), a mental disability (including learning difficulties), or both

One’s disability is severe enough to need help caring for themselves or someone to supervise, for one’s own or someone else’s safety

One has needed that help for at least six months (unless terminally ill)

There are some other requirements, and this includes being in Great Britain when they claim – however there are some exceptions, such as members and family members of the armed forces.

They must also have been in Great Britain for at least two of the last three years – although this does not apply if they are a refugee or have humanitarian protection status.

Eligible people must also be habitually resident in the UK, Ireland, Isle of Man or the Channel Islands, and not be subject to immigration control – unless they’re a sponsored immigrant.

There are some exceptions to these conditions if a person is living in another European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland.

It may be that there are different rules if a person is terminally ill, and in this situation, if the individual is not expected to live for more than six months, there are “special rules”.

These are that there’s no qualifying period for how long one has had an illness, and, if eligible, one will automatically get the higher rate of Attendance Allowance.

It may be that a person cannot get Attendance Allowance if they live in a care home and their care is paid for by the local authority.

Some people may need to attend an assessment in order to check their eligibility.

It’s not possible to get Attendance Allowance if a person already gets Disability Living Allowance (DLA) or Personal Independence Payment (PIP).



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