Attendance Allowance in the UK is a tax-free weekly payment for people who have reached State Pension age in England, Wales, or Northern Ireland and need help with personal care because of a physical or mental health condition. For 2026–2027, it pays £76.70 a week at the lower rate and £114.60 at the higher rate.1GOV.UK. Benefit and Pension Rates 2026 to 2027 Your income and savings do not matter. It is not means-tested.
If you live in Scotland, this benefit no longer applies to you. Scotland replaced it with Pension Age Disability Payment on 22 April 2025, and existing recipients were transferred automatically.2Social Security Scotland. Pension Age Disability Payment Extends to More Areas The rest of this guide is for claimants in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
Who Qualifies
Three conditions have to line up at the same time.
You must have reached State Pension age. For most people applying in 2026 that is 66, but the age is rising to 67 between 2026 and 2028 for anyone born after 5 April 1960.3GOV.UK. State Pension Age Timetables You can check your exact date using the GOV.UK calculator.
You must be habitually resident in the UK, Ireland, the Isle of Man, or the Channel Islands, and you must have been in Great Britain for at least two of the last three years.4GOV.UK. Attendance Allowance – Eligibility People subject to immigration control are generally excluded, though sponsored immigrants and those with refugee or humanitarian protection status may still qualify.
Your care needs must have lasted at least six months before payment can start.4GOV.UK. Attendance Allowance – Eligibility The six-month wait is waived if you have a terminal illness with a life expectancy of twelve months or less.
What Counts as Needing Care
Your diagnosis is not the point. Two people with the same condition can get different outcomes because the Department for Work and Pensions looks at how much practical help you need, not what the label on your notes says.
There are two care tests. The daytime test asks whether you need frequent help through the day with things like eating, washing, dressing, using the toilet, or communicating.5GOV.UK. Attendance Allowance Notes “Frequent” means several times, not just once at the start of the day. The nighttime test asks whether you need prolonged help, or help more than once, overnight.
Meeting one test gets you the lower rate. Meeting both gets you the higher rate.6Legislation.gov.uk. Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 – Attendance Allowance
A separate supervision test works as an alternative to the care tests. If someone needs to watch over you to prevent substantial danger to yourself or others, that can qualify you even when no hands-on help is required. This matters particularly for people with dementia or severe sensory loss who may not recognise hazards. You do not have to actually be receiving the care or supervision. What matters is that it would be reasonable for you to need it.
Terminal Illness: The Fast Track
If your life expectancy is twelve months or less, you can claim under what the DWP calls special rules. The six-month qualifying period does not apply, you are awarded the higher rate automatically, and you do not need to describe daily care needs on the form.7GOV.UK. Attendance Allowance Easy Read
You need an SR1 medical condition report from your doctor, consultant, or specialist. There is no charge. The clinician can send it directly to the DWP, or you can submit it with your claim. Special-rules claims are processed faster than standard applications.
How Much You Get in 2026–2027
- Lower rate: £76.70 per week, if you need care or supervision during the day or during the night.
- Higher rate: £114.60 per week, if you need care or supervision during both, or if you qualify under special rules.1GOV.UK. Benefit and Pension Rates 2026 to 2027
Payments are tax-free and do not count as income for other benefits.8GOV.UK. Tax-Free and Taxable State Benefits Money goes into your bank, building society, or credit union account, usually every four weeks.9GOV.UK. Attendance Allowance – What You’ll Get You can spend it however you like. There is no rule that it has to be used on care services.
How to Apply
Phone the Attendance Allowance helpline before doing anything else. If you call to request a claim form, your claim start date is the date of the call, provided you return the completed form within six weeks.10GOV.UK. Attendance Allowance – How to Claim If you download the form from GOV.UK instead, payment only runs from the date the DWP receives it. That difference can be several weeks of money.
The form is called AA1 and comes on paper. Fill it in fully, then post it to the address printed on the form. A decision maker reviews the evidence and issues a decision, typically within a few weeks.
Filling In the Form Well
Gather your National Insurance number, GP and consultant details, a list of medications and dosages, and dates of any recent hospital or care home stays before you start. Half-completed answers slow the whole thing down.
Be specific about how your condition actually affects you. “I have trouble getting dressed” tells the decision maker very little. “I cannot grip buttons, I need someone to pull clothing over my head, and I lose my balance stepping into trousers” tells them what they need. Describe your worst days, not your best ones. Underselling your difficulties out of pride or habit is the single biggest reason people are refused or given the lower rate when they should have the higher one.
Keep a care diary for a couple of days before completing the form.5GOV.UK. Attendance Allowance Notes Write down every time you needed help, struggled with something, or avoided a task because it was too hard or unsafe. Note what happens overnight. It does not matter whether you actually received help. If you needed it and went without, that still counts. The form asks similar questions in different ways because each section covers a different legal test, so answer every part.
Extra Money It Can Unlock
Attendance Allowance never reduces your other benefits. It often adds to them.
If you already claim Pension Credit, an Attendance Allowance award can trigger a severe disability addition worth an extra £86.05 a week on top of your Pension Credit.1GOV.UK. Benefit and Pension Rates 2026 to 2027 That addition alone nearly doubles the value of a lower-rate Attendance Allowance award, and many people miss it because they do not know the two benefits interact. Contact the Pension Service once your award comes through to make sure the extra is applied.
Someone who looks after you may then be able to claim Carer’s Allowance, currently £86.45 a week, if they spend at least 35 hours a week caring for you and earn no more than £204 a week after tax, National Insurance, and expenses.11GOV.UK. Carer’s Allowance – Eligibility Only one person can claim it for you at a time.
You may also qualify for a council tax reduction, or an increase if you already have one. Ask your local council.
Hospital and Care Home Stays
Attendance Allowance stops after 28 days in an NHS hospital. The days of admission and discharge do not count. If you leave and go back within 28 days, the two stays are added together. Once the combined total hits 28 days, payments stop until you are discharged. Stay out of hospital for more than 28 days and the counter resets.
Care homes work similarly. If a local authority or the NHS pays any part of your fees, Attendance Allowance stops after 28 days. If you are fully self-funding, payments continue, which can matter a great deal when budgeting for long-term care.
Tell the DWP whenever you go into a hospital or care home, and again when you come out. Not reporting these changes leads to overpayments that will be recovered later.
Reporting Changes and Reviews
Your award will be either indefinite or for a fixed period. The decision letter will say which. Fixed-period awards must be renewed before they expire or payments stop. Indefinite awards have no end date but can still be reviewed at any time.
You have to report changes that could affect the award. If your condition worsens, you may move from the lower rate to the higher rate, so reporting a deterioration is usually in your favour.
If You Are Turned Down
If your claim is refused, or awarded at the lower rate when you think you qualify for the higher one, ask the DWP for a mandatory reconsideration. Do this within one month of the date on the decision letter. Late requests are possible up to 13 months if you have a good reason such as illness. Write to the DWP setting out which parts of the decision you disagree with and include any new medical evidence.
If the DWP sticks with its original decision, you can appeal to an independent tribunal. The appeal must reach the tribunal within one month of the date on the Mandatory Reconsideration Notice. The tribunal is separate from the DWP and makes its own assessment.
One risk to know about. The tribunal can decide you are entitled to less than you were awarded, or to nothing at all. It is uncommon but possible. The tribunal can only look at your condition as it was at the date of the original decision, so if your health has worsened since, submit a fresh Attendance Allowance claim alongside the appeal rather than expecting the tribunal to account for the change.