# Attendance Allowance



## pottersusan (Dec 28, 2011)

Does anyone know if us unpredictable diabetics can get Attendance Allowance?


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## FM001 (Dec 28, 2011)

No harm in trying


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## Pumper_Sue (Dec 28, 2011)

pottersusan said:


> Does anyone know if us unpredictable diabetics can get Attendance Allowance?



Attendance allowance is for over 65's try DLA


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## Copepod (Dec 28, 2011)

The key requirements for Care Component of DLA (Disability Living Allowance) is reasonably needing help from another person for personal care and / or supervision or being unable to cook a meal for one person. 

To get  Lower Rate Mobility Component, you need to have need for guidance or supervision in places that are unfamiliar for you; to get Higher Rate, you need to be unable or virtually unable to walk. 

It's always best to seek advice / guidance from an advisor when filling in application form - Macmillan are very good for people with cancer, which can bring extra issues, such as fatigue. 

All these comments apply to adults (aged 16 years or over) as rules are different for children, and as Sue has already pointed out, Attendance Allowance is for people who first claim when they are 65 years or older.


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## Ellie Jones (Dec 28, 2011)

It really depends..

There's unpredictable and there's unpredictable.. To a certain extend our diabetes is unpredictable to various degree's, otherwise we would be easy to manage..

As an adult you would need to prove that the unpredictability means that due to sudden changes combined with hypo unawareness means that you require the assistance of 3rd party to over see you, in case you drop without warning..

But always worth asking, they can either say yes or no


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## sweetsatin (Dec 28, 2011)

pottersusan said:


> Does anyone know if us unpredictable diabetics can get Attendance Allowance?



As mentioned above you can only claim AA if over 65, but you can try claimig DLA
A word of advice through my own experience, if claiming DLA keep a copy of everything as follows:
1 Keep a photocopy of everything you send the DWP.
Most especially, keep a photocopy of your completed claim form and keep it safe. i do know how difficult and expensive this can be, but if you don?t you may regret it because:
Your claim form may be lost by the DWP... it does happen. 
Records of telephone calls, letters from you and your claim form will be shredded by the DWP... Shredding may happen within a few months of documents being received. The longest the department is now likely to hold onto your claim pack is fourteen months.
Even if your claim is successful the award will either be for a limited period, perhaps as little as one year and you?ll have to apply again towards the end of that period, or it will be for an indefinite period but it may still be reviewed every few years. 
Having your previous claim form to refer to may save you a great deal of time.
If you?re not happy with the result of your claim it will be harder to challenge the decision effectively without a copy of your original form.
Keep every letter you receive from the DWP.
Put them all in a folder in date order along with copies of letters you?ve sent them.
Keep a note of any phone calls to or from the DWP.
Ask for the name of anyone you speak to and keep a note of it, along with the date and the subject of the call.
Try not to feel embarrassed or awkward about this as DWP staff are used to giving their names.
In the very unlikely event that anyone refuses to give you at least their first name and the section they work on, ask to speak to their Supervisor.

Hope this helps.


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## hyper-Suze (Dec 29, 2011)

pottersusan said:


> Does anyone know if us unpredictable diabetics can get Attendance Allowance?



Hi Susan, 

I tried and filled out a form a while back, I was trying to get DLA to afford a gym membership and with the angle that a gym membership would keep me fitter, lower my BS and insulin requirements as well as other health improvements, which with T1 is always a benefit to avoid! My angle was that if I could lower my need for meds and improved health then I would be less likely to go blind or have nerve damage and lose a limb and thus avoid then needing the higher rate of DLA! It was in their interests and benefit to award the lower amount to prevent the higher one down the line! 

But, as the questions on DLA are merely a Yes/No answer to activities which the majority of us 'unpredictables' can do, my form, I guess, looked pathetic!!!

If you manage to 'put some meat on the bones' of the form and are successful, come back and let me know what you put on it!!!!


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## Pumper_Sue (Dec 29, 2011)

hyper-Suze said:


> Hi Susan,
> 
> I tried and filled out a form a while back, I was trying to get DLA to afford a gym membership and with the angle that a gym membership would keep me fitter, lower my BS and insulin requirements as well as other health improvements, which with T1 is always a benefit to avoid! My angle was that if I could lower my need for meds and improved health then I would be less likely to go blind or have nerve damage and lose a limb and thus avoid then needing the higher rate of DLA! It was in their interests and benefit to award the lower amount to prevent the higher one down the line!
> 
> ...



There's plenty of room on the form to add extra info and you can also add info on sep sheets of paper.
But DLA is not for buying gym membership. Exercise you def do not need to pay for as you can go for a walk  DLA is for personal care and mobility if applying for the mobility section.


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## MeanMom (Dec 29, 2011)

pottersusan said:


> Does anyone know if us unpredictable diabetics can get Attendance Allowance?



Correct me if I'm wrong Susan, but I assume you mean you need 'extra' care because of being different from the 'usual' T1(if such a thing exists), ie because of the removal of your stomach spleen etc. In which case it is worth a try but would suggest having a chat with your team and leaving it a week or two to see how things settle down so you know what 'extra' help you do need. You might also want to look into someone getting careers allowance for you

'ordinary' T1 adults with no other health issues would IMHO be very unlikely to get DLA as lots of older children with T1 are struggling to get it/having cases reviewed under current financial climate

Good luck with the form!


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## Copepod (Dec 29, 2011)

Re MeanMom's comment: 
"You might also want to look into someone getting careers allowance for you" - true, but there are many conditions that need to be met to get Carers Allowance.

A person can only claim Carers Allowance if they are aged 16yrs to retirement age AND providing a minimum of 35 hours per week for a person (child or adult) who gets Middle or Higher Rate Care Component of DLA or Lower or Higher Rate of Attendance Allowance AND they're not earning too much (which isn't very much at all!) In some cases, even if a claim for CA doesn't result in payment of money, it can help with other aspects eg qualifiying to help with housing costs, council tax etc.


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## Flutterby (Dec 29, 2011)

DIAL will help people fill in these forms and they are very good at picking up anything that the DWP may pick up on, the are good at wording things in a way which will get more attention from those who read your form.  Google your nearest branch and ring for an appt.  they helped me after my stroke.  I only get the lower rate because of being unable to cook a hot meal for one due to confusion and general nuttiness (!) it's always worth a try.x


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## cheeffy (Dec 29, 2011)

*Strong possibility*

QUOTE] well I am and I do, but also you maybe entitled to DLA on the lowest level as diabetes is for life so embrace it and enjoy the challenges


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## pottersusan (Dec 30, 2011)

You folk are the fount of all knowledge!

I can feel some form filling coming on, but it may have to wait until I'm suffering from insomnia!

Thanks for all the info.


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## Pumper_Sue (Dec 30, 2011)

pottersusan said:


> You folk are the fount of all knowledge!
> 
> I can feel some form filling coming on, but it may have to wait until I'm suffering from insomnia!
> 
> Thanks for all the info.



Hi Susan,
your best bet is to take it to someone like CAB to fill it in for you. From what I understand it all depends on how you cross your T's and dot your i's. Write down your worst day and how it affects you. This will help them help you.


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## ypauly (Dec 30, 2011)

Surely just by putting the truth on the forms you will get what you are entitled?

Money saving expert has a benefits check up service.
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/benefits-check


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## trophywench (Dec 30, 2011)

Pauly, if that were only true you'd be able to claim sickness benefit all the time you are sick and continuously signed off work as such by your GP.

Fact is after 6 months, you can be having panic attacks every hour then cry for an hour then have to sleep for another hour, and have completely unmanageable BG's because of it, but because you can still mostly put the kettle on, wash yourself and touch yer toes, you are fit for work and they expect you to claim JSA and look for a job.  I couldn't actually go anywhere on my own - I'd try and go somehwere not far on the bus but I'd brick it and my husband would have to come and fetch me.  Great when your CV says 'I used to be able to do this that and the other, but now I can't do anything'  Hard to sell yourself really.

You then have to lodge an appeal.  The appeal may not take place until after you have actually retired and claiming your State pension.  No matter though you still have to attend .......

The whole system is DEEPLY flawed.


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## ypauly (Dec 30, 2011)

trophywench said:


> Pauly, if that were only true you'd be able to claim sickness benefit all the time you are sick and continuously signed off work as such by your GP.
> 
> Fact is after 6 months, you can be having panic attacks every hour then cry for an hour then have to sleep for another hour, and have completely unmanageable BG's because of it, but because you can still mostly put the kettle on, wash yourself and touch yer toes, you are fit for work and they expect you to claim JSA and look for a job.  I couldn't actually go anywhere on my own - I'd try and go somehwere not far on the bus but I'd brick it and my husband would have to come and fetch me.  Great when your CV says 'I used to be able to do this that and the other, but now I can't do anything'  Hard to sell yourself really.
> 
> ...



But ultimately it's the truth that will get you what you're entitled. I understand all those appeals things as my mother and my father when he was here had to do them for years (they arn't new) but are intended to weed out the ones who are "pulling a fast one" and I do know at least one of those who seems to get everything including cars despite being fitter and healthier than me.

I just believe honesty is the best policy and certainly wouldn't advise or encourage the telling of lies on official forms, even an embelishment of the truth is wrong in my eyes.


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## am64 (Dec 30, 2011)

ypauly said:


> But ultimately it's the truth that will get you what you're entitled. I understand all those appeals things as my mother and my father when he was here had to do them for years (they arn't new) but are intended to weed out the ones who are "pulling a fast one" and I do know at least one of those who seems to get everything including cars despite being fitter and healthier than me.
> 
> I just believe honesty is the best policy and certainly wouldn't advise or encourage the telling of lies on official forms, even an embelishment of the truth is wrong in my eyes.



....oh ypauly you are so true to your avatar ... please stop reading the newspapers


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## ypauly (Dec 30, 2011)

am64 said:


> ....oh ypauly you are so true to your avatar ... please stop reading the newspapers



Where does it say I have read a newspaper? I havn't. Any benefit thoughts I have come from my real life experience and yes I really do know people that get things they shouldn't and even what lies they have tols to get them.


I hope that anybody that is in need gets what they need, and only have to tell the truth to get it. That's what our welfare system is for.


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## am64 (Dec 30, 2011)

ypauly said:


> Where does it say I have read a newspaper? I havn't. Any benefit thoughts I have come from my real life experience and yes I really do know people that get things they shouldn't and even what lies they have tols to get them.
> 
> 
> I hope that anybody that is in need gets what they need, and only have to tell the truth to get it. That's what our welfare system is for.



yep its true ...and they are wasting taxpayers money ...i know of folk in these woods who claim for grants etc for their student kids pretending they are seperated and use the 'buy'to let investments as alternative address ...these BTW are earning >?800,000 a year ..silly money ....they also know all the tax dodges and are the tightest when it comes to donating to charity ...
what is incredible really is the cost to the taxpayer for this 'cull' of benefits cheats 
regardless of actual need, the target figs for refusal in the first instance for the new ESA is 75% ...if you go to appeal which can take approx 1 year now the success rate is 60% ..but to appeal takes an awful lot of energy and effort which is the last thing that alot of those who are truely unwell can do without support from folk such as the CAB ...
Alison M pointed it out in a thread a while back ..i will try and find a link ...

ps ..you could always 'shop' those getting things they shouldn't do ....?


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## am64 (Dec 30, 2011)

http://www.diabetessupport.co.uk/boards/showthread.php?t=6437

first part ...more to come 

http://www.diabetessupport.co.uk/boards/showthread.php?t=11025

and finally 

http://www.diabetessupport.co.uk/boards/showthread.php?t=11396

quote ....




*I WON!

The hearing took about 35 minutes with a judge and a doctor on their side and me and the CAB Rep on the other. They worked their way through the assessment report point by point, asking me questions about how true the statements were and what I had been like then (February). Then they asked me to wait outside while they discussed things and less than two minutes later I had the decision. The original assessment gave me a total score of 9 (you need at least fifteen to be declared unfit for work). The tribunal upped that score to 18, so I win and they've thrown away thousands of quid on a flaming farce.

That last bit is the one that really angers me. It cost a blasted fortune to pursue this, at a minimum, ?2,000, probably more. Multiply that by x thousand people across the country and the cost is staggering. CAB here had around 700 of these appeals last year and didn't lose any. They haven't lost any this year and aren't likely to. It beggars belief.
__________________*

and more ....COSTINGS

*The whole thing involved:

Medical assessment
Document production, correspondence and postage
Staff costs
Judge
Doctor
Court Reporter
CAB Rep
Security
Transport costs and loss of earnings
Venue, facilities and utilities

Based on data from a friend who knows. She tells me it probably cost more like ?3,000 to pursue this appeal. Multiply that by the roughly 1,400 people going the the process in Inverness in the past two years and it's costing upwards of ?4.2 million in this town alone. There are tens of thousands of people across the UK in the same boat, maybe a thousand or so are actually malingerers. Add it up and the costs are horrendous.*

last bit i promise ..just food for thought

*Sorry, I'm still harping on about the costs of all this. 1,400 people is about 10% of the population of this area. So, 10% of the population of the UK is around 7 million. 7 million times 3000 = ?210 bmillion. So it seems that our beloved leaders have conceivably spent ?210 million on failed attempts to cut benefit costs by hounding folk who are genuinely ill.

Is your mind boggled yet? Mine is.*


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## ypauly (Dec 31, 2011)

am64 said:


> *Sorry, I'm still harping on about the costs of all this. 1,400 people is about 10% of the population of this area. So, 10% of the population of the UK is around 7 million. 7 million times 3000 = ?210 bmillion. So it seems that our beloved leaders have conceivably spent ?210 million on failed attempts to cut benefit costs by hounding folk who are genuinely ill.
> 
> Is your mind boggled yet? Mine is.*



You seem to have gotten a bit of a bee in your bonnet as all I did was offer advice in the form of a useful link and advocated truth.


ypauly said:


> Surely just by putting the truth on the forms you will get what you are entitled?
> 
> Money saving expert has a benefits check up service.
> http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/benefits-check






I did point out that I am aware of the system due to my parents who have had benefits stopped several times over the last eighteen or years and I don't think I need educating on it. 

wealthfare fraud is not a crime against the goverment nor is it against the taxpayer, it is against the most needy and deserving people in this land.

You also use a case where the truth won. You also failed to mention how many claims were dropped by people that didn't want to attend court for fear of having to repay moneys claimed fraudulently, which may or may not show that ?210 million (if this figure is accurate) is well spent.


ETA anyway none of this is going to help the OP who seems to be having a bad time trying to manage the condition and I hope that gets sorted soon.


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## am64 (Dec 31, 2011)

hehe Ypauly ...i know but i just love winding you up ! take care and happy new year !


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## Pumper_Sue (Dec 31, 2011)

ypauly said:


> Surely just by putting the truth on the forms you will get what you are entitled?
> 
> Money saving expert has a benefits check up service.
> http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/benefits-check



Yes you have to be very truthful filling in the forms.
Which means telling the office people what your worst day is like. They like the forms filled in just so. 
So simple solution is to get the experts to fill in the form for you. 

Hopefully OP will get all she is entitled.


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## trophywench (Dec 31, 2011)

What happens with ESA Paul, is that after 6 months if the DWP doc decides you are still worthy, you get paid a higher rate.  If they say you aren't but your doctor says you are still writes medical certs (I dunno what happens now they are 'fit' notes) they continue to pay you at the lower rate then should you win your appeal, they owe you all the back pay of the difference between the two.  And of course you continue to get paid at the higher rate every fortnight thereafter and don't have to submit monthly doctor's certs.  Or whatever the rules say now.

If you lose the appeal OK so your ESA would stop immediately, but you do NOT have to repay what they've already paid you.

However if you say - I ain't going to this hearing, what's the point, eg cos I'm retired now anyway and haven't even been claiming ESA for X number of months - and they find against you - THEN and only then, do you become responsible to repay the monies.  So you MUST attend the hearing even though you don't care and have absolutely no interest in what they decide since it's purely academic, entirely pointless and a waste of time effort and money.  (Except it wouldn't be - had you been entirely dependant on those benefits - luckily since I continued to send my husband out to work plus I was claiming occupational pensions - I wasn't)

Obviously if it becomes an actual court case because they suspect you of fraud or whatever, then the court can decide you need to repay whatever.


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## Copepod (Dec 31, 2011)

Actually, decision for DLA / AA is made on what you're like most of the time, so that's why form asks what help you need and how often you need that ie how many days / nights per week, and how long each time.

ESA is different - looking at in/ability to work, not need for help with care / mobility needs.


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## ypauly (Dec 31, 2011)

trophywench said:


> What happens with ESA Paul, is that after 6 months if the DWP doc decides you are still worthy, you get paid a higher rate.  If they say you aren't but your doctor says you are still writes medical certs (I dunno what happens now they are 'fit' notes) they continue to pay you at the lower rate then should you win your appeal, they owe you all the back pay of the difference between the two.  And of course you continue to get paid at the higher rate every fortnight thereafter and don't have to submit monthly doctor's certs.  Or whatever the rules say now.
> 
> If you lose the appeal OK so your ESA would stop immediately, but you do NOT have to repay what they've already paid you.
> 
> ...



Why are you telling me? I am familiar with the system and have said so several times.

All the facts for costs used were supplied by AM64 including the judge and court reporter. So it is safe to assume that we are talking about court cases and only court cases.



am64 said:


> and more ....COSTINGS
> 
> *The whole thing involved:
> 
> ...


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## FM001 (Jan 1, 2012)

Take a read of this http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/nov/21/benefits-appeals-system-near-collapse to see what a shambles the ConDems have created.


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## ypauly (Jan 1, 2012)

toby said:


> Take a read of this http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/nov/21/benefits-appeals-system-near-collapse to see what a shambles the ConDems have created.



Funny that, it was under Labour it went pear shaped. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10159717 Take a look at the date. It was also under Labour the current mess was born and is absolutely NOT caused by the coalition. But as we are now aware Labour ruining the economy and doing NOTHING about the debt and deficit for the last two years in office in order to buy votes has stopped any chance of it being sorted soon.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmselect/cmworpen/313/313.pdf


But don't let your hatred get in the way of facts.


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## Northerner (Jan 1, 2012)

Can we calm the language please. I know people have passionate feelings about politics, but remember that this is not the House of Commons. Whatever the background to these things, I suspect things have always been difficult when it comes to claiming certain benefits.


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## ypauly (Jan 1, 2012)

Northerner said:


> Can we calm the language please. I know people have passionate feelings about politics, but remember that this is not the House of Commons. Whatever the background to these things, I suspect things have always been difficult when it comes to claiming certain benefits.



Why have you quoted me when you say calm the language? it wasn't me that stated a lie nor was it me that was petty name calling "condem"


I have re-read my postand do not see any problem with the language.


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## trophywench (Jan 1, 2012)

LOL - FWIW the benefits system was a shambles when I went to work for it in 1966 and although there have been changes - Oh yes, many changes - not all of em have been improvements!!

It's too big, it's like mist wrestling.  Always has been IMHO.

Incidentally - it wasn't my fault, I left in early 1967 !!!


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## ypauly (Jan 1, 2012)

trophywench said:


> LOL - FWIW the benefits system was a shambles when I went to work for it in 1966 and although there have been changes - Oh yes, many changes - not all of em have been improvements!!
> 
> It's too big, it's like mist wrestling.  Always has been IMHO.
> 
> Incidentally - it wasn't my fault, I left in early 1967 !!!



Very well said. We could look back to who stopped the public using social security offices or when they were merged with job centres but there would be no point. The benefits system is too big and too costly and always has been and every goverment since it's creation has looked for ways of saving money.


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