Three of the eligibility rules disqualify people outright, and two of those catch households who assumed they were fine — the benefit you already hold, and where you have lived for the last three years. The rest turns on the help you need.
The three conditions everyone must meet
You qualify if you have reached State Pension age, have a physical or mental disability or a health condition severe enough that you need help caring for yourself or someone to supervise you, and have needed that help for at least six months. All three have to be true together, not one or two.
GOV.UK adds a detail to the supervision limb that is worth reading twice: supervision counts where it is needed “for your own or someone else’s safety” (GOV.UK, Attendance Allowance: eligibility, checked 9 September 2026). Safety, not capability, is the test it sets.
There is no list of qualifying conditions
This is the belief that keeps people from applying at all. GOV.UK publishes no list of conditions that qualify. It names three categories — a physical disability including sensory disability, a mental disability including learning difficulties, or a health condition — and then decides everything on the help you need (GOV.UK, Attendance Allowance: eligibility, checked 9 September 2026).
The practical consequence is that a diagnosis alone neither wins nor loses a claim. What the form describes about an ordinary day is what the decision is made on, because it is all the decision maker sees.
Our Attendance Allowance pitfalls guide covers why lists of qualifying conditions circulate anyway. If a claim has already been turned down on those grounds, it is worth challenging. Our guide to the mistakes that get claims refused covers what the form is actually asking.
The six-month rule looks backwards
GOV.UK’s condition is that you “have needed that help for at least 6 months” (GOV.UK, Attendance Allowance: eligibility, checked 9 September 2026). The tense is doing the work: it asks what has already been true, so someone who has needed help since the spring meets it now rather than waiting six months from applying.
That distinction matters because a delay costs money. Attendance Allowance is not backdated to when your needs began: GOV.UK states the claim starts on the date you claim online, the date the DWP receives a posted form, or the date of your call if you ring for a form and return it within six weeks (GOV.UK, Attendance Allowance: how to claim, checked 1 November 2026).
The six-month rule does not appear in GOV.UK’s eligibility list for people nearing the end of life, which has only two conditions (GOV.UK, Claiming Attendance Allowance if you’re nearing the end of life, checked 1 November 2026).
You cannot hold it alongside PIP or DLA
This rule is entirely explicit, and it is a condition of eligibility rather than a preference. GOV.UK states you must not get Disability Living Allowance, Personal Independence Payment, Adult Disability Payment, Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance or Armed Forces Independence Payment (GOV.UK, Attendance Allowance: eligibility, checked 9 September 2026).
So the question is never whether to claim both. It is which one you should be on. Over State Pension age you cannot usually make a new PIP claim, and GOV.UK’s own answer there is to apply for Attendance Allowance instead. There is one exception: GOV.UK states you can make a new PIP claim if you received PIP or Adult Disability Payment in the last 12 months (GOV.UK, Personal Independence Payment (PIP): eligibility, checked 1 November 2026).
If you already hold one of those awards, take advice before doing anything. Which benefit leaves you better off depends on your rates and your circumstances, and this is not a decision to make from a general rule on a website.
Where you have lived matters as much as where you live
Four residence conditions apply, and the second one catches people who have spent recent years abroad. You must be in Great Britain when you claim, have been in Great Britain for at least two of the last three years, be habitually resident in the UK, Ireland, Isle of Man or the Channel Islands, and not be subject to immigration control.
Each carries an exception. The presence rule does not apply to refugees or people with humanitarian protection status, the immigration control rule does not apply to sponsored immigrants, and members and family members of the armed forces are among the exceptions to being in Great Britain when you claim.
There is also a route for people who have moved to Europe. GOV.UK states you might still get Attendance Allowance as a UK national living in or moving to the EU, EEA or Switzerland (GOV.UK, Attendance Allowance: eligibility, checked 9 September 2026).
You will only be assessed if it is unclear
An assessment is the exception rather than the step everyone goes through. GOV.UK states you will only need to attend one to check your eligibility if it is unclear how your disability or health condition affects you, and that if one is needed you will be sent a letter saying why and where you must go.
That is worth knowing before you start, because an assessment is what people picture when they imagine claiming. The trigger GOV.UK gives is a lack of clarity about how the condition affects you, so a form that describes an ordinary bad day in detail is answering the question that would otherwise be asked in person.
Where an assessment does happen, a medical professional will examine you (GOV.UK, Attendance Allowance: eligibility, checked 9 September 2026).
Different rules if you are nearing the end of life
The special rules ask only two things: that you have reached State Pension age, and that a doctor or medical professional has said you might have 12 months or less to live. There is no six-month qualifying period in that list, and the higher rate of £114.60 a week is paid automatically.
GOV.UK adds something humane here. It acknowledges that it can be difficult to predict how long someone might live for, and says that if a medical professional has not raised it with you, you can still ask them to support a claim under the special rules.
Three further details are on GOV.UK and worth knowing before you start. Someone else can make the claim for you and does not need your permission. You will not need a face-to-face assessment. And the letter about the money awarded will not mention special rules (GOV.UK, Claiming Attendance Allowance if you’re nearing the end of life, checked 1 November 2026).
The claim needs form SR1 from a medical professional, who can either give it to you or send it to the Department for Work and Pensions directly. If you already receive Attendance Allowance and are given that prognosis, GOV.UK says to contact the helpline straight away.
Savings and income make no difference
There is no capital limit and no income test. What you have in the bank, what you own and what you receive from a private pension are all irrelevant to whether you qualify and to how much you are paid. No figure you could give would change the answer.
The rule is absolute rather than generous: GOV.UK states that what you earn or how much you have in savings will not affect what you get (GOV.UK, Attendance Allowance: what you'll get, checked 1 November 2026).
If you live in a care home, or in Scotland
Two situations change the answer entirely. You cannot usually get Attendance Allowance if you live in a care home and your local authority pays for your care, though you can still claim if you meet the whole cost yourself. And Scotland has replaced the benefit altogether.
Both come from GOV.UK’s own eligibility conditions (GOV.UK, Attendance Allowance: eligibility, checked 9 September 2026). Our guide to Attendance Allowance in care homes sets out which side of the funding line you are on, and our Pension Age Disability Payment guide covers the Scottish rules, which differ from these in more than the name.
Whether it is worth checking
If you have read this far and are unsure, the cost of checking is a few minutes. At the higher rate of £114.60 a week, a year of not claiming is £5,959.20 (GOV.UK, Attendance Allowance: what you'll get, checked 1 November 2026). Nothing here is means-tested, so the usual reason for assuming you would not qualify does not apply.
Our see what you can claim tool asks three questions and gives the answer before it asks anything of you. Nothing you enter leaves your browser, and there is no name or email to give.