Attendance Allowance Query - Special Rules?

[MrsMoose]

My father in law's dementia began to deteriorate sharply back in August so we applied for higher rate attendance allowance. (He already had the lower rate) He's just been awarded this - but we'd not really taken in about the six month rule, so it's been awarded from February onwards.

He will be 97 next may - apart from the increasingly severe dementia (incontience - swallowing difficulties- absolutely no short term memory) there are other health problems. He has diminished lung capacity as the result of a fall which has made him more prone to infections. He was recently hospitalised with pneumonia.

Would it be worth asking the AA people to look again at the award but using the criteria for people who are not expected to live much longer? The six month wait just seems so Scrooge-like for a man who is as old and ill as he is.

 

[Beate]

https://www.gov.uk/attendance-allowance/how-to-claim

Special rules - if you’re terminally ill
There are ‘special rules’ so you get Attendance Allowance more quickly if you’re not expected to live more than 6 months. You must:

• complete an Attendance Allowance form
• ask a doctor or other healthcare professional for form DS1500 - they’ll either fill it in and give the form to you or send it directly to DWP

You can do this on behalf of someone else without their permission. The letter about the money awarded won’t mention ‘special rules’.