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If yes then our specialist solicitors may be able to help. Call now on 0333 011 0515 and speak to our solicitors for free advice on what you can do next. Our Lines Are Open 24 HOURS A DAY.Attendance Allowance
Attendance Allowance (AA) is a benefit for people with care needs who: -
- are 65 or over, and
- do not get DLA (Disability Living Allowance).
AA does not include a mobility component. However, if you are already getting a DLA mobility component when you become 65, you can carry on getting it. You can't make a new claim for DLA mobility component after the age of 65.
Who can get Attendance Allowance
You can get Attendance Allowance (AA) if you are disabled, you have care needs and you are 65 or over. You must not be living permanently in hospital or accommodation funded by a local authority, for example, a local authority care home. To get AA, you must have lived in the UK for two years in the last three years.
Attendance Allowance - care needs
To get Attendance Allowance (AA) you have to have had care needs for at least six months.
You have care needs if you need help with your 'bodily functions', for example, washing, getting dressed and going to the toilet. This help can include attention, which allows you to take part in social activities. You also have care needs if you need supervision to stop you from being a danger to yourself or others. If you are terminally ill, you are automatically treated as having care needs.
You do not actually have to be receiving help for your care needs. As long as you have the needs, it does not matter whether you are getting or planning to get care.
How much is Attendance Allowance
Attendance Allowance (AA) is paid at two rates, a higher rate and a lower rate. You get the lower rate of AA if you need frequent care throughout the day or night. You get the higher rate if you need frequent care throughout the day and night or if you are terminally ill.
For the current rates of AA, go to the GOV.UK website.
Attendance Allowance, change of circumstances and fraud
You may commit a benefit fraud if you give incorrect or misleading information, or fail to report a change of circumstances that could affect your Attendance Allowance (AA). Even if you are not committing fraud, you can cause an overpayment that will have to be repaid. Your circumstances can be checked at any time while you are claiming. Benefit fraud is a criminal offence and you can be prosecuted or asked to pay a penalty. If you are being investigated for benefit fraud, your benefit may be suspended.
Problems with Attendance Allowance
The problem that many people face is that they declare their capabilities truthfully to begin with but their conditions vary and change so frequently that they it is difficult or impossible to describe the variations and effects of different conditions they and treatment deployed on them. They forget how they described the conditions on their AA forms and find themselves subject to scrutiny or investigation and accused of lying in the first place or failing to notify a change of circumstances.
Legal Advice - Claimant need to advise changes or circumstance in order to cover themselves against the risk of criminal investigation. A record of contacts need to be made and it needs to be clear which completed form [if any] the claimant is referring to.
get advice.
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