Query re attendance allowance

Cabbie21 and Kitty Lester thanks for the views but you are assuming there are carers. My point really is if no carers and having personal needs is AA appropriate as it does not seem to me to meet the care need identified. I struggle with the need personal care but even with full AA the personal care may not be being purchased so is there really a need? Not trying to be contraversal just trying to get it clear in my own mind.

A claimant can need help, but not get it if they have nobody to help them. They can use the money to buy an aid, which may help them with a specific problem. They don’t need to be in receipt of help to be eligible for AA.
You could contact Adult Social care for an assessment, to see what support is available for your specific needs. It may be a carer, or a rising chair, or toilet frame, bath aid, grab rails, or a wet room……

We don’t know the full story of the needs of the poster, so before we get on our high horse there is a need to know more. You can get AA without the need for help with going to the loo and washing. I get it and I have never said I need hr.p in this area. So please can we sto; scaring the poster and giving her wrong information.. what she needs to do is go back to Age Concefn first and discuss before contacting anyone else.

M0nica

Having been an Age Concern (now Age UK) benefits advisor for over 10 years, I think it is highly unlikely that any of their advisors would put anything down on the form that was not true.

What does happen is that many people do not realise quite how disabled they are because their disabilities come on slowly and are expressed in terms of what they cannot do. 'needing help in the garden', need help in the house'.

But if you need help in the garden, it will be because your arthritis means you cannot bend anymore, or you are afraid of falling and not being able to get up again and there are probably other things you do not do that you do not notice, or minor changes you have made in your life, because of stiffness The same with cleaning.

One of the first questions the AA form asks about is getting in and out of bed. When a client told me they had no problem, I would respond,'So you leap out of bed like 20 year old.'. The client woukd say, Oh no, First I have to sit up in bed and wait a bit, then I manage to get my legs over the side of the bed and rest, then I lean on the bedside table to help to stand ..........'

Now someone in that situation does not need a carer coming into the house, But clearly struggles to get out (and into) bed and in an ideal world could do with an Aladdin's Lamp they can rub, and a carer pops out to lend them an arm for a minute or two before popping back into the lamp again. They might be glad of some help getting down stairs (remember a stair lift is an answer to a problem, it doesn't mean you do not have problem.), just for a minute or two.

Anything you do or do not do now that you did or did not do when you were younger and fitter, is likely to be because you cannot do it anymore because of the problem of an aging body.

Time after time I had clients like Ex-dancer who were simply unaware of the problems they had, because they came on slowly and they made adjustments.

So ex-dancer, go to Age UK and ask them to explain their responses on the form and before you go ask yourself these questions. What physical problems are the cause of you needing help in the garden and in what way do those physical problems affect everything else you do, from getting out of bed to moving round the house, to the actions you take to protect yourself from falling.

I reiterate, I think it is highly unlikely that what is written on the form was wrong, more that, you had not realised how much the problems you have doing the gardening/shopping were limiting and restricting the rest of our life, you had just adjusted yourself to them gradually without thinking about them.

Excellent advice.

I have AA (higher rate), no carers. So the money that I receive has given me the opportunity to purchase all sorts of aids to help with my problems.
Even with an en-suite, getting to the loo in time at night can prove difficult. I now have something to help me get out of bed, and something to help me get to that loo. The AA also helps to pay for the extra washing required when even all of this is not enough. Have a trolley to help me around the flat, suitable cooking facilities, and a scooter and powerchair for when I go out.

Without AA I would be leading a miserable existence, unable to leave my flat, to go to groups and meetings and social activities, worried about 'accidents' taking place day and night with my stoma, etc. Even paying the extra to have supermarket deliveries might well be beyond my means.

Before I came to the flat, I also used this money for a gardener, but now do not need that, but do pay for a good window cleaner. At present I can still push a vacuum cleaner around, but may need to get a home cleaner in the future.

What I do NOT want is any sort of personal care.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/attendance-allowance-claim-form
Some people may like to look at a form. There are useful notes too on this link.

Having had some experience of these forms I think it is reasonable to base answers on your worst days rather than better days but the answers still need to be accurate and truthful and if you are claiming for personal care which isnt ever needed then it is possible the money could be reclaimed at a later date if the claim was deemed inaccurate . As MOnica has said it is hard to get a claim approved unless you are entitled to it , the exception would be if the form was filled in inaccurately . This certaining isnt your fault as the form was filled by someone else but it is your responsibility to let the DWP know if this is the case . It's such a shame the bar is set too high for most people to genuinely claim some help to manage to stay independently in their own homes .

I don’t need personal care and have never said on a form that I do but it was accepted that I needed care to make sure That I am safe at night going to the toilet as I tend to fall due to medication, this card is provided by Mr B at the moment but could also be provided by wearing an alarm. Personal care does not mean just someone washing and dressing you but someone encouraging or reminding you, even just to squeeze the toothpaste onto the brush for you. This all comes under personal care.

Same here barmeyoldbat - when I completed this form I never mentioned ANYTHING about any personal care. I personally care for myself!!!

Sandytoes comments are exactly the sort that makes people worried about claiming for AA - many of whom are very much entitled to it and would find life so much better if they got it.

And also people scaring the hell out of others by saying it’s fraud when they don’t know the whole story

I'm very grateful for the advice provided in this thread. I have had to apply for AA for my very elderly in-laws, and while we have been told that my MIL will get, my FIL's claim has just been rejected. He is 95 and very frail (she is 91 and even more frail), and having read this thread in full, I can see that, with hindsight, we have erred on the side of caution when it came to completing his form. I think, because he is very independent and insists he can manage with many tasks, we didn't outline just how frail he is - not to mention the fact that, in the few months since we completed the form, he has become even more frail. Thanks to the advice on here, I'm going to ask for the decision to be reconsidered, so thanks to M0nica and others for their very helpful and practical advice. Fingers crossed I can get them to reconsider.

@ Franbern ; I certainly wouldnt want to put people off claiming for AA and I think many people who are entitled dont claim . As I said I think when completing the form it's best to put worst day needs rather than better days needs . If forms are completed accurately and AA is awarded then no claimant should have any concerns and the money doesnt have to be used on care , or indeed anything in particular . It is the DWP that is making the judgement on the basis of the needs of the claimant, not the claimant themselves . ExDancers query was she felt the form had been completed incorrectly , explicitly stating she had care needs which are currently not required .
I also think the provision for people to stay in their own homes needs to be greater and the threshold much lower to claim support .

The form to claim AA was not designed to make claiming easy. It took three of us to help our late mother fill it in.

As loads of people have said - do it with AgeUk or CAB

Grantanow

The form to claim AA was not designed to make claiming easy. It took three of us to help our late mother fill it in.

It certainly is not. I'm convinced it was actually designed to put people off claiming. I'm far from stupid and more than used to having to fill in all kinds of forms and official paperwork, but the AA form was an absolute nightmare.

I agree the forms are very complex and are likely to deter claimants or mean that they are not awarded what they deserve . I have helped with appeals for both AA and PIP and have re- written accurate information about the claimant needs in a " different " way which has meant the claim has been approved instead of rejected.

Sandy toes, the trouble is people think of personal care needs as help with washing and as I stated it’s not, it covers a large area so Ex dancer might well have said something to the person who was filling in the form for her that came in this area. They are usually excellent at filling in the forms and rarely make mistakes

Dontknow, it is v expensive being disabled or having extra needs.
the AA may help towards some of those costs. it is never enough.
so for example, a person who is unsteady, needs the loo at night would benefit from someone to assist in getting there safely and in a timely manner. but there is no one.
so to be safe, the person crawls to the loo.
which takes longer. sometimes too long. which means extra laundry, which costs more money. etc.

Welbeck or they could have an alarm system or a commode, but yes it is expensive being disabled.

Needing help with deciding what to wear and what to eat, being reminded to drink, get dressed and to take medication are all examples of things that would count towards AA not just help with toileting.

I totally understand that AA doesnt just cover personal care ( in a professional capacity I have completed AA / PIP and DLA claims and appeals) , but ExDancer specifically said that certain things that were put on her form re personal care were not actually correct . There may be other things that ExDancer shared with her advisor that enabled the claim to be awarded at higher rate AA and I am not in any way saying her award specifically was incorrect .

That was not aimed at you SandyToes but a point of general information.

I must say that my eldest daughter suggested to me a few years back that I should apply for AA. The only thing she said to me was when filling it in, think of my bad days, not how I managed.
I downloaded the form, and was totally convinced that I had no right to this Allowance. Went through it, most questions did not apply to me as I was apply purely for physical reasons, so just sat down and scribbled my replies those questions as quickly as possible (did not even bother to photocopy the completed pages), sent it off and forgot about it.

So was astonished (pleasantly so), when a few weeks later i received the letter saying that I was entitled to Higher Level and this was being backdated to when I first applied for form.

Suppose it is easier for those checking the form when the application is totally for physical reasons, - most of the questions do relate to mental type reasons for requiring assistance and probably need more careful checking.

Sadly, due to a fall resulting in a fracture of the spine a few months later, my physical problems have actually worsened since I completed that form. But, all I can say is that I found that form relatively straight forward to complete, just replied honestly to those questions relating to how I did things and my physical conditions. Most questions on this form did NOT relate to these.

This extra money has and is so great - and has helped me turn around my life and given me the ability to purchase so many aids which help to ensure that I am able, living totally by myself can remain independent and live a good life.

I think it is more complicated when you are filling in the form on behalf of someone else, as I was for my inlaws. Apparently 58% of all AA applications are rejected.

My mum was very proud of how well she managed. Think positive! was one of her mottos. She would never have come up with the answers needed to show how much help she actually needed, so personally I think it is easier for somebody who can be more objective to fill in the form.