Attendance Allowance pays £76.70 or £114.60 a week in 2026/27. It is not means-tested, not taxed, and does not depend on your National Insurance record. The higher rate is £5,959.20 a year, and for a single pensioner on Pension Credit who lives alone an award can be worth £10,433.80 once the extra Pension Credit it unlocks is counted. In Scotland it has been replaced by Pension Age Disability Payment, at identical rates.
This is money for the cost of needing help, not a reward for a diagnosis. It is also a benefit people talk themselves out of, usually on the assumption that savings or a private pension rule them out. Below: the two rates, the six-month rule, the larger sums an award can unlock, the care-home rule that stops payment, and what to do when the answer comes back no.
What Attendance Allowance actually is
Attendance Allowance is a cash benefit for people over State Pension age who need help with personal care or supervision. GOV.UK sets the test as your condition being “severe enough for you to need help caring for yourself or someone to supervise you” — physical disability including sensory impairment, mental disability including learning difficulties, or a health condition.
Three features make it unusual, and all three are why it gets missed:
- It is not means-tested. Age UK’s factsheet puts it flatly: “AA is not taxable, is not based on National Insurance contributions, and is not means-tested”. A pensioner with £300,000 in the bank has the same entitlement as one with nothing.
- It is tax free. HMRC lists it among the state benefits that are not taxable, alongside PIP, DLA and Pension Credit. Carer’s Allowance, by contrast, is taxable.
- Nothing is ring-fenced. It is not a care voucher: it arrives in your bank account and you spend it on whatever the condition costs — extra heating, taxis instead of the bus, a cleaner, ready meals.
What it is not is a mobility benefit: unlike PIP and Disability Living Allowance, it has no mobility component. Age UK notes that walking counts as a bodily function, so mobility difficulties can support a claim, but “only at home or when visiting others or attending social activities”. It is the benefit you claim instead of PIP once you are past State Pension age: GOV.UK says that “if you’re over State Pension age, you cannot usually make a new claim for Personal Independence Payment”. An existing PIP or DLA award normally continues, but you cannot hold Attendance Allowance alongside it.
The two rates in 2026/27
There are two rates and nothing in between. The DWP benefit and pension rates for 2026 to 2027 put the lower rate at £76.70 a week, up £2.80, and the higher rate at £114.60, up £4.20; GOV.UK carries the same two figures. Age UK’s factsheet adds the payment cycle: AA “is usually paid four weekly in arrears”, so the money normally lands as £306.80 or £458.40 a time.
| Payment | 2025/26 weekly | 2026/27 weekly | Every 4 weeks | A year (×52) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attendance Allowance — lower rate | £73.90 | £76.70 | £306.80 | £3,988.40 |
| Attendance Allowance — higher rate | £110.40 | £114.60 | £458.40 | £5,959.20 |
| Pension Credit severe disability addition | £82.90 | £86.05 | £344.20 | £4,474.60 |
| Pension Credit carer addition | £46.40 | £48.15 | £192.60 | £2,503.80 |
| Carer’s Allowance (taxable) | £83.30 | £86.45 | £345.80 | £4,495.40 |
| Pension Credit guarantee — single | £227.10 | £238.00 | £952.00 | £12,376.00 |
What separates the two rates
The line is drawn by day and night, not by severity in the abstract. GOV.UK gives the lower rate for “frequent help or constant supervision during the day, or supervision at night” and the higher rate for “help or supervision throughout both day and night”. Age UK puts it the other way round: the higher rate needs both conditions, and meeting one of them, however badly, pays the lower rate.
The gap between them is £37.90 a week, or £1,970.80 a year. That is why the night-time questions on the form deserve as much thought as the daytime ones.
Who qualifies
Four conditions, and only four. You must have reached State Pension age. You must need the help. You must have needed it, in GOV.UK’s words, “for at least 6 months”. And you must meet the residence rules.
The six-month rule trips people up because it looks backwards, not forwards. It is not a waiting period after you claim, but one you have usually already served by the time you think about claiming.
The residence conditions require you to be in Great Britain when you claim, to have been here for at least two of the last three years, to be habitually resident in the UK, Ireland, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands, and not to be subject to immigration control unless you are a sponsored immigrant, with exceptions for the armed forces and for refugees. Nor can you hold it alongside DLA, PIP, Adult Disability Payment, Scottish Adult DLA or Armed Forces Independence Payment.
Note what is not on that list: any requirement that somebody is actually providing the care. GOV.UK says so in as many words — “you do not have to have someone caring for you in order to claim”. The test is the help you need, not the help you receive, which is why a widow living alone and coping badly is often a stronger claimant than she believes.
The end-of-life route
There is a fast route. If a medical professional has said you “might have 12 months or less to live”, GOV.UK sets only two conditions — that and State Pension age — so the six-month qualifying period does not bite. You “will not need to go to a face-to-face assessment”, and you get “the higher rate of £114.60 per week”. The mechanism is form SR1, which the medical professional completes and either gives you or sends straight to DWP. Ask for it; families are often not told it exists.
The money it unlocks can rival the benefit itself
Attendance Allowance does not reduce your other benefits. Age UK’s factsheet is precise: AA “is disregarded as income in the calculation of means-tested benefits including Pension Credit, Universal Credit, Housing Benefit, and Council Tax Reduction”. GOV.UK puts it from the other end: you “could get extra Pension Credit, Housing Benefit or Council Tax Reduction if you get Attendance Allowance”.
It can even create entitlement where there was none. Age UK: “If you do not receive any means-tested benefits or have had a claim refused before, an award of AA may make you entitled for the first time.” A Pension Credit refusal three years ago is not the end of it; our guide to Pension Credit covers the sums.
Here is the arithmetic for a single pensioner who lives alone. Assume £185 a week of State Pension and nothing else — near the full basic State Pension of £184.90 for 2026/27. The mechanism works the same at any figure below the guarantee.
- Before. The Pension Credit standard minimum guarantee for a single person is £238.00 a week. She gets the difference: £238.00 − £185.00 = £53.00 a week.
- She is awarded the higher rate of Attendance Allowance. That is £114.60 a week, ignored as income for Pension Credit.
- She now qualifies for the severe disability addition of £86.05 a week, because she gets Attendance Allowance, lives alone and nobody is paid Carer’s Allowance for her. Her figure becomes £238.00 + £86.05 = £324.05, so Pension Credit rises to £324.05 − £185.00 = £139.05 a week.
- After. She is £86.05 a week better off on Pension Credit and £114.60 better off on Attendance Allowance: £200.65 a week, or £10,433.80 a year.
Nearly half of that gain is not the benefit at all. It is the extra Pension Credit the award switched on — and Pension Credit is itself a gateway to help with rent and often to a lower bill through your local Council Tax Reduction scheme, which councils set themselves. Non-dependant deductions from Housing Benefit also stop once you get Attendance Allowance, which is worth more again where an adult child lives at home.
The carer trap that can cost more than it pays
An award is one of the qualifying benefits that lets someone caring for you claim Carer’s Allowance, if they care at least 35 hours a week and earn £204 or less a week after tax, National Insurance and expenses. Families hear this and claim on instinct. Do the sum first.
GOV.UK warns that if you claim Carer’s Allowance, the person you care for stops getting “an extra amount for severe disability paid with Pension Credit” and any severe disability premium. In the example above, a daughter claiming Carer’s Allowance of £86.45 a week would cost her mother the £86.05 addition. Between the two of them the gain is 40p a week — £20.80 a year — and it moves money from the pensioner to the carer. Carer’s Allowance is also taxable, so after tax the pair can be worse off.
One wrinkle matters. The addition is lost only when Carer’s Allowance is actually paid: Age UK’s condition is that “no-one can be paid Carer’s Allowance (CA) or the carer element of Universal Credit for looking after you”. A carer over State Pension age whose own State Pension blocks payment may still have an underlying entitlement, which can add the £48.15 carer addition to their Pension Credit without destroying the cared-for person’s £86.05. Work out both households first.
The care-home rule that stops payment
This is where entitlement and payment part company. GOV.UK: “You cannot usually get Attendance Allowance if you live in a care home and your care is paid for by your local authority. You can still claim Attendance Allowance if you pay for all your care home costs yourself.”
Age UK adds the timing: where any of the costs of accommodation, board or personal care are met from public funds, AA stops 28 days after admission. Hospital works the same way — payable for the first 28 days as a free inpatient, suspended after that. DWP’s statistics show a gap between entitlement and payment. At August 2025, of 1.7 million claimants, 1.6 million were being paid and 99,000 (6%) were entitled to the benefit but not receiving payment. DWP does not say why in each case, only that payments “can be temporarily suspended”, for example “if the claimant is in hospital”.
The practical consequence: if you are a self-funder in a care home, claim anyway. Many do not. If the funding changes in either direction, report it.
How to claim, and why the form is the whole game
You can apply online or by post, or ring the helpline on 0800 731 0122 for a form. The start date differs by route, and it matters, because Age UK is blunt: “AA cannot be backdated.” Every week you delay is a week of £76.70 or £114.60 gone for good.
- Online: the claim starts on the date you make it.
- By phone: the claim starts on the date of your call, provided you return the form within six weeks.
- By post without ringing first: the claim starts when DWP receives it — the worst of the three.
Not ready to fill it in? Ring for the form anyway — that call fixes your start date.
The form is long and the decision turns almost entirely on what is written in it. Two habits help. Keep a diary first: Age UK advises that “it may help to keep a note over a few days of the times when you need help”; a fortnight of dated notes beats any amount of adjective. Then describe your normal range, not your best day: “it is important to give a picture of your normal range of activities, not just the things you can do on a good day”.
Write about how long things take, how often you need help, and what happens when nobody is there. If someone has to remind, prompt or watch you, that is supervision and it counts. DWP says you will get a text or letter within three weeks explaining when to expect a decision. Awards can be indefinite or fixed-term; if fixed, Age UK says a renewal form arrives about four months before it ends.
If the answer is no
Challenge it. You normally have one month from the date of the decision to ask for a mandatory reconsideration, the compulsory first step; only then can you appeal to the First-tier Tribunal. You need the reconsideration notice in writing to appeal.
Appeals are worth taking seriously. In the Social Security and Child Support tribunal, the Ministry of Justice reports that in January to March 2026, 60 per cent of appeals decided at a hearing were overturned in favour of the customer (PIP 67 per cent, DLA 63 per cent). Attendance Allowance is not broken out, so there is no AA-specific figure — but a decision letter is plainly not the last word. Citizens Advice and local Age UK offices help with both stages, free.
Not sure what an award would actually change month to month?
Put £306.80 or £458.40 every four weeks into a proper budget and see what it covers.
Open the budget planner →How under-claimed is it? Honestly, nobody knows
Confident figures for “unclaimed Attendance Allowance” get quoted in billions. Treat them carefully. DWP’s official take-up statistics, in the income-related benefits estimates of take-up series, cover only Pension Credit and Housing Benefit, where a means test makes it possible to model who would qualify. Attendance Allowance is not in that series, and DWP publishes no take-up estimate for it. Every headline figure is somebody’s model, not a statistic, and we are not going to quote one as though it were.
What is measured is the caseload, and it is growing: DWP reported that “at August 2025 excluding policy devolved to Scotland, there were 1.7 million Attendance Allowance (AA) claimants, an increase of 110,000 from August 2024” — 1,744,000 on the underlying table, and the most recent published. The OBR puts the average award at £4,820 per AA claimant in 2023-24, against £6,900 for PIP.
The honest case for under-claiming is not a number. It is the set of reasons people give for not applying, every one of them wrong: that savings disqualify you, that you need a carer, that you must be housebound, that a care home rules it out, that it will cut your Pension Credit, that you have to be “really disabled”. Unusually for the decisions we cover, there is no trade-off to weigh: if you meet the conditions, applying costs a couple of hours, and the form goes back freepost.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
Attendance Allowance now covers England and Wales, where the rates, rules and claim routes above apply identically.
Scotland has replaced it. GOV.UK now states that “if you live in Scotland you will need to apply for Pension Age Disability Payment instead of Attendance Allowance”. It is run by Social Security Scotland, is likewise not means-tested, and pays the same money — £76.70 and £114.60 a week. It launched in five pilot areas on 21 October 2024 and opened across Scotland on 22 April 2025. Existing recipients were moved automatically: on 29 December 2025 the Scottish Government announced that the transfer of disability and carer awards was complete, more than 700,000 in all, though on Attendance Allowance it said more than 99 per cent of pensioners had moved by the end of December, with 28 complex cases still to follow. A new Attendance Allowance claim is not possible in Scotland. If you move there on an existing award you must tell DWP and claim Pension Age Disability Payment: your “Attendance Allowance will stop 13 weeks after you move”.
Northern Ireland keeps Attendance Allowance under its own legislation, administered by the Disability and Carers Service rather than DWP, at the same rates: nidirect gives £76.70 and £114.60 a week. Claim online, by post or through a Jobs and Benefits office; requesting a form by phone or email fixes your date of claim provided it comes back within six weeks. The service says a claim normally takes 30 working days.
One thing to raise with your council wherever you live: council tax has its own separate reliefs, including a disabled band reduction and disregards for severe mental impairment. They are set by the council, not DWP, and are not automatic on the back of an award.
Frequently asked questions
How much is Attendance Allowance in 2026/27?
£76.70 a week at the lower rate and £114.60 at the higher rate, up from £73.90 and £110.40 in 2025/26. It is normally paid four-weekly in arrears, so £306.80 or £458.40 a time, which works out at £3,988.40 or £5,959.20 over a year. The same rates apply to Pension Age Disability Payment in Scotland.
Will Attendance Allowance reduce my Pension Credit or Housing Benefit?
No. It is disregarded as income when means-tested benefits are worked out, and GOV.UK says you could get extra Pension Credit, Housing Benefit or Council Tax Reduction because of it. An award can also create entitlement where a previous claim was refused. For a single pensioner living alone it can unlock the severe disability addition of £86.05 a week.
Can I get Attendance Allowance if I have savings?
Yes. Attendance Allowance is not means-tested, is not taxable and does not depend on National Insurance contributions. Your income, your pension and your savings are not taken into account at any level. The belief that savings rule you out is simply a misunderstanding of the benefit.
Do I need someone caring for me to claim?
No. GOV.UK says plainly that you do not have to have someone caring for you in order to claim. The test is whether your condition is severe enough for you to need help caring for yourself, or someone to supervise you, and whether you have needed that help for at least six months. Someone who copes alone but struggles can still qualify.
What happens to Attendance Allowance if I move into a care home?
If any of your accommodation, board or personal care is paid from public funds, payment stops 28 days after you move in, although entitlement can continue. If you pay all your care home costs yourself, you can still claim and still be paid. The same 28-day rule applies to a stay in hospital as a free inpatient.
What has replaced Attendance Allowance in Scotland?
Pension Age Disability Payment, run by Social Security Scotland. It opened in five pilot areas on 21 October 2024 and across Scotland on 22 April 2025, and it pays the same £76.70 and £114.60 a week. A new Attendance Allowance claim is not possible in Scotland. Existing awards were transferred automatically: the Scottish Government said more than 99 per cent of pensioners had moved by the end of December 2025, with a handful of complex cases following.
Last reviewed: September 2026. Figures are the 2026/27 rates in DWP’s benefit and pension rates for 2026 to 2027, current at the time of writing. Attendance Allowance applies in England and Wales, and in Northern Ireland under separate legislation; in Scotland it has been replaced by Pension Age Disability Payment, at the same weekly rates. Council Tax Reduction schemes are set locally. Worked examples are our own calculations on the stated assumptions. This article is general information, not personal financial advice — check your own position with gov.uk or the relevant benefits body, or get free help from MoneyHelper or Citizens Advice.
