Pensioners with joint pain or other conditions can get up to £369 a month | Personal Finance | Finance
One condition the benefit could help with is arthritis or other joint conditions, which become more common as people age. The two most common types of arthritis are osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis and the condition can impact a person and their daily life severely.
Symptoms can include joint pain, inflammation, restricted movement, weakness and muscle wasting, which may limit a person’s ability to perform daily activities. Other joint conditions include:
- Ankylosing spondylitis
- Cervical spondylitis
- Fibromyalgia
- Lupus
- Gout
- Psoriatic arthritis
- Enteropathic arthritis
- Reactive arthritis
- Secondary arthritis
- Polymyalgia rheumatica.
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Attendance Allowance could provide important help to pay for the extra costs of a person who lives with these conditions.
To be eligible for the support, a person must have a condition severe enough they need help caring for themself or they need someone to supervise them, for the person’s safety or for the safety of someone else.
They must also have needed the help for at least six months, unless they have six months or less to live, in which case this condition does not need to be met.
A claimant also needs to be living in Great Britain when they claim and have lived in Great Britain for at least two of the last three years.
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How much is Attendance Allowance?
Attendance Allowance is paid at two rates depending on a person’s needs. A lower rate of £61.85 a week is paid to those who need frequent help or constant supervision during the day, or supervision at night.
Alternatively, a person may qualify for the higher rate of £92.40 a week, which is for those who need help or supervision throughout both day and night.
The money is usually paid every four weeks directly into a person’s bank, building society or credit union account.
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A person can put in a claim by filling in the application and sending it off by post, and the form comes with notes telling people how to fill it in.
The completed form can be sent to Freepost DWP Attendance Allowance, and people do not need to include a postcode or stamp.
The benefit can be backdated to the date the person first makes the claim, which is usually the date the form is received or when the person calls the enquiry line, as long as the application is returned within six weeks.
The organisation Versus Arthritis has explained Questions 27 to 44 in the form will be important to fill in correctly, for those living with arthritis.
These questions pertain to issues such as mobility, personal hygiene, medicine, communication and eating or drinking.
The applicant is asked to detail the help they need from another person at home or when they go out, as well as the supervision they may require.
The organisation added: “Include things you do not do now, but would if you had the help — perhaps things you used to enjoy or things you would like to be able to do if you had someone to help you.”
Attendance Allowance payments are increasing by 10.1 percent with the start of the new tax year in April, along with several other benefit payments, including for Universal Credit.