Two figures, and one question decides which of them you receive. The question is not what your diagnosis is or how much care you already get. It is whether your needs stop at bedtime.
The two rates, and which one you get
Attendance Allowance is paid at £76.70 or £114.60 a week. The lower rate covers frequent help or constant supervision during the day, or supervision at night. The higher rate covers help or supervision across both day and night, or where a medical professional has said you are nearing the end of life.
How often it arrives is not on the Attendance Allowance pages themselves. GOV.UK’s guide to how benefits are paid says Attendance Allowance is usually paid every 4 weeks, into a bank, building society or credit union account (GOV.UK, How and when your benefits are paid, checked 1 November 2026). Our benefit payment dates page has what happens when that day is a bank holiday.
| Rate | Weekly | When it applies |
|---|---|---|
| Lower | £76.70 | Frequent help or constant supervision during the day, or supervision at night |
| Higher | £114.60 | Help or supervision throughout both day and night, or nearing the end of life |
Source: GOV.UK, Attendance Allowance: what you'll get, checked 9 September 2026. The wording in the right-hand column is the test itself, not a summary of it.
What changed in April
Both rates rose this April. The lower rate went from £73.90 to £76.70, and the higher rate from £110.40 to £114.60. That is £2.80 and £4.20 more a week, or £145.60 and £218.40 across a full year, for a household counting in weeks rather than percentages.
| 2025/26 | 2026/27 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lower rate | £73.90 | £76.70 | +£2.80 a week |
| Higher rate | £110.40 | £114.60 | +£4.20 a week |
Both years come from the same official table, which prints them side by side (Benefit and pension rates 2026 to 2027 (PDF), checked 1 November 2026).
Why the nights decide the difference
The gap between the two rates is £37.90 a week, or £1,970.80 over a year. What separates them is night-time need. Someone who needs help or supervision during the day and again at night is on the higher rate; someone who needs it in the day alone is not.
It is also the part of the form that is quickest to under-answer, because needs met by habit stop registering as help at all. Getting up to use the toilet, needing someone within earshot, being at risk if you woke confused — these count, and they are frequently left out by people who have stopped thinking of them as help.
Our Attendance Allowance pitfalls guide covers how to describe a night in the terms the form is asking about.
When the rates change, and how to spot a stale figure
Rates change each April, and the figures appear months beforehand. The 2026/27 rates came from a written ministerial statement on 26 November 2025, were published the following day, and were confirmed on 16 February 2026. A page quoting a rate without a date beside it may be quoting last year’s.
Those dates come from the publication’s own history (GOV.UK, Benefit and pension rates 2026 to 2027, checked 9 September 2026), and they are worth knowing when you are checking a figure anywhere, including here. We re-check this page at each April uprating, and the date at the top is the date we last confirmed the numbers rather than the date the page was written.
Nothing you earn or have saved changes the figure
Attendance Allowance is not means-tested. GOV.UK states that what you earn or how much you have in savings will not affect what you get. There is no capital limit and no income test, so the figure you receive turns only on the help that you need.
That statement is on GOV.UK’s own rates page (GOV.UK, Attendance Allowance: what you'll get, checked 9 September 2026).
That makes it unlike most of the benefits people are used to being assessed for, and it is the reason a household with savings and a private pension could still qualify for the higher rate — £114.60 a week, or £5,959.20 over a year. Our Attendance Allowance guide covers who qualifies and what the six-month rule means.
What the rate is worth alongside other benefits
The weekly figure is not the whole of what an award is worth. GOV.UK states you could get extra Pension Credit, Housing Benefit or Council Tax Reduction if you receive Attendance Allowance, and it is disregarded as income in the Pension Credit calculation rather than counted against you.
So the arithmetic runs one way only here. GOV.UK says you could get extra Pension Credit if you get Attendance Allowance, and describes no case where getting it reduces Pension Credit (GOV.UK, Attendance Allowance: what you'll get, checked 1 November 2026). Our what unlocks what tool lists every link of that kind we have checked against an official source.
If you live in Scotland
Scotland replaced Attendance Allowance with Pension Age Disability Payment, run by Social Security Scotland. Its rates are published separately, so the figures on this page describe a benefit that people living in Scotland do not claim. The purpose is broadly the same; the office and the process are different ones.
GOV.UK states that if you live in Scotland you will need to apply for Pension Age Disability Payment instead of Attendance Allowance (GOV.UK, Attendance Allowance, checked 1 November 2026). Its rates currently match the figures above, and our Scotland guide carries them alongside the rules that differ.
Whether either rate applies to you
Knowing the two figures is not the same as knowing which one you would be paid, or whether you would be paid at all. That turns on the help you need on your worst days rather than your best, and it is a question worth answering before you spend an evening on a 32-page form.
Our check 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.