Attendance Allowance exists for one specific reason: to help older people in Great Britain manage the extra cost of needing help with everyday personal care. It is paid by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), it is aimed at people over state pension age, and it is not means-tested — which means the size of your income, your savings or your pension has no bearing on what you receive. Many people assume a benefit like this is reserved for those on low incomes, or that claiming it is complicated. In practice it is neither, and it is one of the most chronically underclaimed payments in the system.
There is no assessment visit: the DWP decides from the information you put on the form, which makes the quality of your answers unusually important and gives you real control over the outcome. Before looking at rates and process, though, it is worth being clear about what the benefit is actually for.
What Attendance Allowance Is For
Attendance Allowance is designed to help with the practical, human side of daily life — the tasks most of us complete without thinking, which become genuinely difficult with illness, disability or frailty. It helps with:
- Getting in and out of bed
- Washing and bathing
- Dressing and undressing
- Eating and drinking
- Using the toilet
- Managing medication
Notice that the list is about personal care, not mobility. Unlike PIP (Personal Independence Payment), Attendance Allowance does not cover mobility costs such as help getting around outside your home. If your needs are mainly about getting out and about, this is not the benefit that addresses them.
Who Can Claim
The eligibility rules are a short list. The criteria are:
- Age: You are over state pension age (currently 66 for both men and women)
- Condition duration: Your health condition or disability has lasted for at least 6 months and is expected to continue for at least 6 months (unless you are terminally ill)
- Condition impact: You need help with personal care tasks such as washing, dressing, eating, or getting around your home
- Residence: You live in Great Britain (England, Scotland, or Wales) — there are different rules for Northern Ireland
What counts as needing help
This is where people often talk themselves out of applying. You do not need a carer, a formal diagnosis, or any prior assessment. You can claim if you need help from another person with personal care tasks, if you cannot do these tasks safely without supervision, if they take you much longer than someone without your condition, or if you cannot do them at all. The test is the reality of your day-to-day life, not whether you look disabled.
Terminal illness
For a terminal illness the rules are deliberately simpler. Where a doctor has said you have 12 months or less to live, you automatically qualify for the higher rate of Attendance Allowance, without the usual condition-duration test.
How Much You Can Receive (2026/27)
Two rates are available, and which one applies depends on the amount of help you need:
| Rate | Weekly amount | Monthly amount |
|---|---|---|
| Lower rate | £72.65 | £314.83 |
| Higher rate | £108.55 | £470.51 |
The lower rate applies if you need frequent help or supervision throughout the day, or throughout the night — suitable for people who manage most tasks independently but need support with aspects of personal care. The higher rate applies if you need frequent help or supervision during both the day and the night, or if you are terminally ill. Payments are usually made every four weeks, directly into your bank or building society account.
How to Apply
Step 1: Get the claim form
You can request the claim form by phone on 0800 731 0121 (freephone), by textphone on 0800 731 0122, or via Relay UK on 18001 0800 731 0121. The DWP will send you a claim form to complete, or you can download it from GOV.UK.
Step 2: Complete the form
The form asks about your health condition and how it affects your daily life: what the condition is, how long you have had it, how it affects your ability to do everyday tasks, what help you need and how often, and any aids or equipment you use (walking sticks, raised toilet seats, and so on). You have one calendar month to return the form, and you can request an extension if you need more time.
Step 3: The decision
The DWP makes its decision from the form alone — there is no face-to-face assessment. Decisions usually take up to 6 weeks from when you first contacted the DWP. Awards are either fixed-term — typically 2–5 years, depending on your condition — or indefinite, for conditions that are unlikely to improve. If your condition worsens, you can request a reassessment to see whether you now qualify for the higher rate.
What It Does and Doesn’t Cover
The benefit covers the personal care tasks listed above, plus supervision to keep you safe during the day or night. What it does not cover is worth spelling out, because starting with the right expectations keeps the whole process straightforward:
- Mobility costs: help getting around outside your home is not covered. For mobility support, PIP (Personal Independence Payment) is more suitable, but you need to be under state pension age to claim it
- Transport costs: trips to appointments or social activities are not covered
- Household tasks: help with cooking, cleaning, or shopping is not covered
Income and Savings Don’t Affect the Claim
This is the detail that surprises most people. Attendance Allowance is not means-tested, so your income, your savings and your pension have no effect on the claim — and neither do your partner’s income or savings. You can receive it regardless of how much money you have in the bank or how generous your pension is.
There is a second benefit to claiming beyond the payment itself. Attendance Allowance is not counted as income when your Pension Credit is worked out, so receiving it does not reduce other support — and it can help you qualify for more. If you are on a low income, receiving Attendance Allowance may make you eligible for Guarantee Credit (which tops up your weekly income to a minimum level) or Savings Credit — an extra payment for people with modest savings or a small pension who reached state pension age before 6 April 2016. You can claim Pension Credit on the phone at 0800 99 1234, or apply online at GOV.UK.
Making the Form Work in Your Favour
Because the DWP assesses your needs from the information on the form, honest, specific, concrete answers genuinely matter. A few habits make a measurable difference:
- Describe your worst days. The assessment is about how your condition affects you most of the time, not your best days. If you have good days and bad days, make sure the form reflects the difficult ones.
- Give specific examples. Instead of “I struggle with washing”, write something concrete: “I cannot get in and out of the bath safely — I have fallen twice in the last month”, or “I need my daughter to stand in the bathroom while I wash because I might slip”, or “It takes me 45 minutes to get dressed because of my arthritis”. Real incidents and real timings carry weight.
- Mention every aid you use. Walking sticks, walking frames, raised toilet seats, grab rails, bath seats, medication reminders — all of it supports the picture that you need help.
- Attach supporting evidence. Letters from your GP, consultant or other healthcare professionals confirming your condition and how it affects you strengthen the application considerably.
- Stay honest. Do not exaggerate, but do not downplay. The DWP can check information and may ask for additional evidence, so accuracy matters.
If the form feels daunting, you are not on your own. Citizens Advice can talk you through what to include — visit citizensadvice.org.uk or call 0800 144 8444. Age UK offers advice and support for older people — visit ageuk.org.uk or call 0800 678 1602. Some local councils also run welfare rights teams that help with exactly this kind of application.
How It Interacts with Other Benefits
- PIP and Attendance Allowance cannot be paid at the same time. If you are over state pension age and already receiving PIP, your PIP continues until a scheduled reassessment; at that point you may be invited to apply for Attendance Allowance instead.
- Carer’s Allowance — if someone looks after you for 35 hours or more per week, they may be able to claim it, provided they are not earning more than £151 per week after deductions. Receiving Attendance Allowance can help your carer qualify.
- Council Tax — you may be eligible for a council tax discount or exemption because of your disability. Your local council can tell you what is available.
A Final Word
Attendance Allowance is unusual among benefits: most of the people entitled to it are unaware of it, and none of it is affected by what they own or earn. If you are over state pension age and everyday personal care is taking more out of you than it used to, the most straightforward way to find out where you stand is to request the form and fill it in — many successful claims begin with nothing more than the decision to apply.