Little known DWP rule hands state pensioners £5,644 each | Personal Finance | Finance

December 15, 2024 2,769

More than one million people could be missing out on up to £5,644 a year from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) because they’re unaware they can claim it, a report shows.

Attendance Allowance is a benefit for people over the state pension age of 66 who need help with personal care or supervision due to illness or a disability.

The benefit has relatively broad eligibility criteria, but many eligible individuals are thought to be missing out on this support.

Research by Policy in Practice, in partnership with Money Saving Expert, estimates a staggering 1.1 million are missing out on £5.2billion of the support per year, collectively.

It suggests the support is underclaimed due to a “lack of knowledge” about the benefit and who can claim it.

Who is eligible for Attendance Allowance?

To be eligible for Attendance Allowance, people must be 66 years old or older and be habitually resident in the UK, Ireland, the Isle of Man, or the Channel Islands. This means one of these countries must be the claimants’ main home.

They must be in Great Britain (England, Scotland, or Wales) when making the claim and have resided there for the past two years.

The person must have a type of disability or illness severe enough to need help with personal care. The full list of conditions that can qualify for Attendance Allowance include:

Arthritis
Spondylosis
Back Pain – other/precise diagnosis not specified
Disease of the muscles, bones or joints
Trauma to limbs
Blindness
Deafness
Heart disease
Chest disease
Asthma
Cystic fibrosis
Cerebrovascular disease
Peripheral vascular disease
Epilepsy
Neurological diseases
Multiple sclerosis
Parkinson’s disease
Motor neurone disease
Chronic pain syndromes
Diabetes mellitus
Metabolic disease
Traumatic paraplegia/tetraplegia
Major trauma other than traumatic paraplegia/tetraplegia
Learning difficulties
Psychosis
Psychoneurosis
Personality disorder
Dementia
Behavioural disorder
Alcohol and drug abuse
Hyperkinetic syndrome
Renal disorders
Inflammatory bowel disease
Bowel and stomach disease
Blood disorders
Haemophilia
Multi-system disorders
Multiple allergy syndrome
Skin disease
Malignant disease
Severely mentally impaired
Double amputee
Deaf/blind
Haemodialysis
Frailty
Total parenteral autrition
AIDS
Infectious diseases: Viral disease – coronavirus Covid-19
Infectious diseases: Viral disease – precise diagnosis not specified
Infectious diseases: Bacterial disease – tuberculosis
Infectious diseases: Bacterial disease – precise diagnosis not specified
Infectious diseases: Protozoal disease – malaria
Infectious diseases: Protozoal disease – other/precise diagnosis not specified
Infectious diseases – other/precise diagnosis not specified
Cognitive disorder – other/precise diagnosis not specified
Terminally ill.

People must have needed help for the past six months, unless they have less than 12 months to live.

However, people won’t be able to claim Attendance Allowance if they already receive Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Adult Disability Payment (ADP), or the care component of Disability Living Allowance (DLA).

Attendance Allowance rates

Attendance Allowance is paid at two rates, lower and higher, based on how much help a person needs, not the help they currently receive.

The current lower and higher payment rates are:

Lower rate: £72.65 per week
Higher rate: £108.55 per week.

This means the highest payment amounts to around £470 a month, translating to £5,644 a year.

Individuals requiring assistance during either the day or night may qualify for the lower rate, while those needing help both day and night, or who are terminally ill, may be eligible for the higher rate.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced that DWP benefits, including Attendance Allowance, will increase by 1.7% in April 2025.

As a result, Attendance Allowance payments could rise to approximately £73.89 per week for the lower rate and £110.40 per week for the higher rate.