The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has confirmed that 56 health conditions could qualify individuals for Attendance Allowance, according to the latest caseload statistics. This benefit is designed to help people over state pension age with the extra costs of living with a disability or long-term health condition.
Who is eligible for Attendance Allowance?
To be eligible, individuals must be above state pension age, which is currently 66, and have a disability or illness that affects their everyday life. Claimants need to demonstrate they require help with personal care activities, such as washing, dressing, eating, and drinking, or need supervision for safety reasons, whether during daytime or night-time hours.
The DWP has published the official list of conditions that may qualify, ranging from arthritis and heart disease to dementia and Covid-19. The full list includes 56 specific conditions, which are detailed below.
Full list of 56 health conditions
The 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 nutrition, 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), and terminally ill.
What Attendance Allowance can be used for
Caroline Abrahams CBE, charity director at Age UK, explained: "If you're an older person living with a disability or serious health condition, you may be entitled to extra financial support to help you stay independent at home."
She added: "Attendance Allowance is there to fund some of the extra costs that come along if you are an older person living with disability. For example, if you are successful in your claim, you could use Attendance Allowance to help with the extra costs of heating that many disabled people face or to meet the cost of a taxi to take you to a hospital appointment, or to visit a friend."
The benefit is not means-tested, so savings and income do not affect eligibility. Claimants can receive either the lower or higher rate depending on their care needs, and the money can be spent on any support that helps them live independently.
