My wife and I are in our 70s and in extremely poor health – so why were we refused Attendance Allowance?

My wife and I, who celebrated 50 years of marriage last year, have never claimed benefits of any sort throughout our lives.

Unfortunately, I have been diagnosed with Pulmonary Fibrosis, a hiatus hernia, and a hernia in my oesophagus. I have also developed osteoarthritis and have extreme pain in my hands, knees and shoulders. I have had a stroke and have collapsed several times.

My memory is worsening, I am nearly 72 and have been told I will need to be on oxygen within four years and possibly die within five years.

My wife is 70 and has severe osteoarthritis. She had an operation on her right thumb that didn’t go well as the bone crumbled, is due to have the same op on her left hand and have the nerves in her neck burnt to ease the excruciating pain she is in. 

We muddle through with great difficulty caring for each other and really worry about expenses. 

We applied for Attendance Allowance and were turned down on the basis we didn’t meet these two criteria:

1. Right through the day, frequent attention with your bodily functions, or continued supervision to avoid substantial danger to yourself or others; 

2. At night, repeated or prolonged attention with your bodily functions, or frequent or prolonged watching over to prevent substantial danger to yourself or others.

I don’t understand, as my wife helps me out of bed numerous times through the night as I need the toilet frequently and she ensures I don’t fall or collapse.

I have to get her tablets for her pain as she can’t unscrew the bottles and I have to put pain relief gel on her neck as she cries with the pain.

Not one penny have we ever claimed apart from our pensions. Are we destined to struggle at the one time we thought we may have had some form of help?

We were hoping for a blue parking badge to save us having to walk so far or carry shopping so far, but we need the Attendance Allowance to obtain it.

I doubt you will be able to assist but I just wanted to voice the dreadful situation old age brings with it.

VIDEO: You can WATCH Steve answering this week’s question – scroll down and click play 

Steve Webb replies: I was very sorry to read about you and your wife’s poor health, and understand your frustration with being turned down for Attendance Allowance.

I’m happy to explain how Attendance Allowance works, how to make sure that you express your needs in a way which will be understood by the Department for Work and Pensions, and what to do if you think a decision is wrong.

By way of background, Attendance Allowance is a benefit which is currently received by around 1.7 million people, all over pension age.

It is designed to help with the additional costs of care which we may incur in later life. It is payable at one of two rates.

– A lower rate of £73.90 per week if you need ‘frequent help or constant supervision’ during the day or ‘supervision’ at night.

– A higher rate of £110.40 per week if you need help or supervision both day and night.

More information on Attendance Allowance and how to claim are here.

Provided that you can demonstrate you have these care needs, Attendance Allowance is paid regardless of your income, and regardless of your record of National Insurance contributions. It is also free of income tax.

You will see from the description of the benefit that it is all about care needs, and is based on the assumption that those with care needs will tend to have higher outgoings than those without.

This could include having things like carers coming into the house or paying for meals on wheels. You don’t necessarily have to be paying for these things to qualify for the benefit though, and you don’t have to provide receipts.

Crucially, Attendance Allowance is not about having specific medical conditions. Rather, you need to explain why the condition you have leads to the care need you are describing.

Because these judgments are pretty subjective, it matters a great deal how you fill in the form.

One thing I have noticed is that many people in the older generation don’t like to make a fuss and can sometimes play down their needs when filling in a form.

Unfortunately, this can reduce the chance of a successful claim.

Whilst I’m obviously not suggesting anyone should exaggerate their care needs, I am saying that people should write on the form all of the ways in which they need help or supervision.

Many people enlist the support of a specialist charity to help them with completing benefit forms, as these organisations are experienced at completing the form and know what DWP is looking for.

Some charities which may be able to help are below.

– Independent Age which has a phone service and also supports various local organisations which may be able to provide in-person help.

– Age UK which also has a phone service and local branches.

– Citizens Advice which supports people of all ages with a range of issues, both over the phone and in person.

In terms of the decision that you have received, if you think that it is wrong you can appeal against it.

There is usually a deadline for this set out on your decision letter, so you may need to move quickly.

There are two stages to a benefit appeal.

Mandatory reconsideration: At this first stage someone else in DWP looks at the original decision and does a basic check to make sure there aren’t any obvious or glaring errors.

In recent years around one in five Attendance Allowance decisions was overturned at this stage.

Appeal tribunal: If the mandatory reconsideration does not change the decision you can then go to an independent tribunal to look at your case again. This used to be done mainly in person but is now increasingly done virtually.

A tribunal gives you the opportunity to talk about your situation and your care needs and give the tribunal chair a clearer picture. Roughly one in three Attendance Allowance appeals are successful.

As you can see, a refusal to award Attendance Allowance need not be the end of the matter, and many people do successfully challenge such decisions each year.

If you decide to go down the route of appealing you might want to enlist the help of one of the charities mentioned earlier, as they will be able to help you complete the paperwork for an appeal and support you through the process. 

Do please let me know how you get on.