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Thursday, 8 January 2009

Disabled people

Disabled People

Attendance Allowance - your circumstances

There are certain conditions about your residence and presence which you need to meet to get Attendance Allowance; and you need to tell the office that deals with your payments when your circumstances change.

Changes in your circumstances

Changes to your circumstances can affect whether you should get Attendance Allowance or the amount you get. This includes if your care needs change, if you go into a National Health Service hospital or a care home or independent hospital or whether you go abroad to live or visit.

It's important to contact the office that deals with your payments.

Your disability or medical condition

Changes in circumstances include you, or someone you claim for, needing less help with personal care or supervision, because your condition has improved or you have an aid to help you.

If your condition, or the condition of someone you care for, gets worse and you need more help, this could mean that you, or the disabled person, can get more money.

National Health Service (NHS) hospitals

Changes in circumstances include you, or someone you claim for going into or leaving a National Health Service Hospital.

Care homes and independent hospitals

A permanent or temporary stay in a care home or independent hospital can affect your Attendance Allowance.

Going abroad to live or visit

If you are going to live abroad permanently you cannot usually get Attendance Allowance.

If you move to another country in the European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland and you already receive Attendance Allowance, you may continue to get it under certain circumstances.

If your visit abroad is temporary, you may continue to get Attendance Allowance if:

  • your absence from Great Britain does not last more than 26 weeks (this includes going on holiday)
  • your absence is only to get medical treatment for a condition which began before leaving Great Britain

Living in Great Britain

To get Attendance Allowance you must normally be in Great Britain, or be treated as living here, and meet certain other conditions about your residence and presence.

You must:

  • be normally resident in Great Britain (England, Scotland, Wales), and
    not be subject to immigration control, and
  • be in Great Britain when you make your claim, and
  • have been in Great Britain, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, Jersey or Guernsey for at least 26 weeks out of the last 52 weeks (the does not apply for people paid under the special rules).

Time spent living in another European Economic Area country may in some cases be treated as a period in Great Britain for the purposes of the 26-week rule.

You may be treated as living in Great Britain if you are:

  • a member of HM Armed Forces serving abroad or member of their family
  • a mariner or airman working abroad
  • working on the United Kingdom sector of the continental shelf (for example, on an oil rig)

If you are getting Attendance Allowance and you move to another European Economic Area country or Switzerland, you may continue to receive it under certain circumstances.

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