Attendance Allowance Eligibility, Rates, and How to Claim in 2026

Attendance Allowance puts up to £114.60 per week into your parent's pocket — tax-free, non-means-tested, and available regardless of how much they have in savings. Yet roughly a million eligible people in England do not claim it. The application process is straightforward, but the form is intimidating enough that many families give up halfway through.

Here is everything you need to know about eligibility, current rates, how savings interact with the benefit, what happens when your parent moves into a care home, and how to fill out the claim form effectively.

Who Is Eligible

Attendance Allowance is for people who are State Pension age or older and need help with personal care or supervision because of a physical or mental disability. Your parent qualifies if they:

• Are 66 or older (State Pension age in 2026)
• Have needed help with personal care or supervision for at least six months (unless they are terminally ill, in which case the six-month rule is waived under Special Rules)
• Are ordinarily resident in England, Scotland, or Wales

There is no requirement that someone is actually providing the care. Your parent qualifies based on what they need, not what they currently receive. A parent living alone who struggles with washing, dressing, preparing meals, or who needs someone to watch over them to prevent danger is eligible — even if nobody is currently helping.

2026/27 Rates

Attendance Allowance is paid at two rates:

• Lower rate: £76.70 per week — for daytime OR night-time care needs
• Higher rate: £114.60 per week — for daytime AND night-time care needs, or if terminally ill under Special Rules

The rates are uprated every April in line with the previous September's Consumer Price Index. The benefit is paid directly into your parent's bank account every four weeks.

Attendance Allowance and Savings

This is where Attendance Allowance differs from almost every other form of support in the care system: savings and capital are completely irrelevant. Your parent could have £500,000 in the bank and still receive the full amount.

Attendance Allowance is also ignored when calculating eligibility for Pension Credit. In fact, receiving Attendance Allowance can trigger the Severe Disability Premium within Pension Credit, adding further income. It is one of the few benefits where claiming one unlocks another.

However, Attendance Allowance is counted as income during the local authority financial assessment if your parent receives council-funded care. This means the council includes it when calculating how much your parent should contribute toward their care fees.

What Happens in a Care Home

The rules change significantly depending on who funds the care:

• Self-funders (paying all their own fees because their assets exceed £23,250) continue to receive Attendance Allowance in full. This can contribute up to £5,959 per year toward care home costs.
• Council-funded residents lose Attendance Allowance after 28 days. Once the local authority starts paying toward the care, the DWP suspends the benefit completely.
• NHS Continuing Healthcare recipients also lose Attendance Allowance after 28 days, because the NHS is covering all care costs.

If your parent is a self-funder, Attendance Allowance is worth claiming immediately — it directly reduces the out-of-pocket weekly cost.

How to Claim

The claim is made on form AA1, available by calling the Attendance Allowance helpline (0800 731 0122) or downloading it from GOV.UK. The form is long — around 40 pages — but most of it is repetitive sections asking about different types of care needs.

The key to a successful application is describing your parent's worst days, not their best. Be specific:

• Instead of "needs help washing," write "cannot get in or out of the bath without two people lifting, and needs someone to wash their back, legs, and feet every morning"
• Instead of "gets confused," write "left the gas hob on three times last month; once a neighbour had to intervene because the kitchen was filling with smoke"
• Instead of "unsteady on feet," write "fell twice in April and once required paramedic attendance; uses a walking frame but still stumbles on uneven surfaces"

The DWP assesses the form on the written evidence alone — there is no face-to-face assessment for Attendance Allowance. What you write is what they decide on.

The England Care Funding Guide includes a section on how Attendance Allowance interacts with every other element of the care funding system — from the means test to Pension Credit to Deferred Payment Agreements — so you can see exactly how it fits into your parent's overall financial picture.

See more England guides →