Attendance Allowance check → What conditions qualify for Attendance Allowance?

What conditions qualify for Attendance Allowance?

There is no list of qualifying illnesses: the claim turns on the help you need. The conditions often behind claims, and what to describe for each.

Written and checked by the Attendance Allowance Check team at Virix Ltd. Last reviewed 25 September 2026 against gov.uk.

It is one of the first things people search for: which conditions qualify for Attendance Allowance? The honest answer is that none of them do, on their own, and almost any of them can. The benefit is not paid for having an illness. It is paid for needing help with looking after yourself, or needing someone to keep an eye on you, because of an illness or disability. This page explains how that works, then looks at the conditions that often lie behind claims and at what is worth describing on the form for each.

Why there is no list of conditions

The guidance the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) gives to decision makers says that the severity of a disability is judged by the needs that arise from it, not by the general nature of the condition. It also says that the absence of a diagnosis does not stop someone claiming. When the decision maker reads a claim, they are asking four things:

1. Does this person have a physical or mental disability?
2. Which everyday bodily functions does it affect — washing, dressing, eating, using the toilet, moving about, seeing, hearing, communicating?
3. Do they reasonably need someone’s help with those functions, or someone to watch over them to keep them safe?
4. How often is that help needed, and how long does it take?

So the name of the condition opens the door, and the description of the day and night is what the decision is made on. Articles listing “56 conditions that qualify” describe who already receives the allowance; they do not decide who can. Our eligibility check explains the other conditions — age, residence, the six-month rule — and why there is no points calculator.

How to use the rest of this page

Below are the conditions that commonly sit behind claims from people over State Pension age. For each one we describe the kinds of needs that often arise, and what the form gives you room to explain. None of this is medical advice, and none of it means a particular condition will or will not lead to an award. Everyone’s days are different, and many people live with more than one of these at once, which the form lets you describe together. For the questions themselves, see our guides to the daytime care questions and the night-time questions.

Conditions that often lie behind a claim

Dementia and memory problems

With dementia, the need is often less about strength and more about remembering and staying safe. Someone may be able to dress, but not realise they need to, or put clothes on in the wrong order; they may forget to eat, take tablets twice, leave the gas on or go out at night. The DWP’s guidance recognises that reminding and encouraging someone, in person, can count as help. On the form, describe the prompting, the checking and the times someone has had to step in, and what happens when nobody is there. Night-time wandering or confusion belongs in the night section.

Arthritis and joint pain

Arthritis tends to show up in the hands and the knees and hips: buttons, zips, jar lids, tights and shoes; getting in and out of the bath; getting up from a low chair or the toilet. It often varies, with stiff mornings and worse days in the cold. Describe how long things take now, what you have given up (a bath for a strip wash, cooking for toast), any falls, and what a bad day looks like and how often it comes. Walking outdoors on its own does not count for this benefit, so focus on personal care indoors.

COPD, other lung conditions and heart failure

Breathlessness changes ordinary tasks. Washing, drying and dressing may mean stopping to recover; stairs may be a real barrier; a chest infection can make everything harder for weeks. Some people need oxygen, nebulisers or help sitting up in bed at night to breathe more easily. Describe which tasks leave you breathless, how long you need to recover, whether someone has to help or wait with you, and what happens at night. Swelling and tiredness from heart failure can be described in the same way.

Stroke

After a stroke, needs can come from several directions at once: weakness down one side, balance, speech and understanding, swallowing, eyesight, memory and mood. Someone may need help with dressing one side, cutting up food, getting safely on and off the toilet, or making themselves understood. Describe each area that is affected, not just the most obvious one, and whether there is a risk of falling or choking that means someone needs to be nearby.

Parkinson’s disease

Parkinson’s is known for tremor and stiffness, but the needs it creates are often about timing and safety: slow movement when medication is wearing off, freezing, falls, difficulty turning in bed, and swallowing. Many people have “on” and “off” periods through the day. Describe how your day varies, what help is needed during the harder periods, any falls, how medicines are managed, and whether you need help to turn over or get to the toilet at night.

Sight loss

Seeing counts as a bodily function in its own right. With poor sight, needs often include help reading letters and medicine labels, identifying tablets, cooking safely, matching clothes, and finding your way in unfamiliar places. The DWP’s guidance gives guiding a blind person in unfamiliar surroundings, and reading personal correspondence, as examples of help that counts. Describe what you can no longer see to do, who helps, and any trips, falls or near misses.

Hearing loss

With significant hearing loss, the need is usually about communicating: following a conversation at the GP surgery, using the telephone, hearing the doorbell or a smoke alarm. Describe what help you need to understand and be understood, whether you need someone with you at appointments, and whether you would hear a warning at night. Where hearing and sight loss come together, needs are often greater than either alone.

Diabetes

Diabetes on its own, well controlled, may not create the kind of needs the form is about. Where it does, it is usually through insulin that someone needs help with or reminders for, low blood sugar episodes that need someone to notice and act, and complications such as poor sight, numb feet or foot ulcers that affect washing, dressing and moving about safely. Describe how often things go wrong, what has happened when they did, and who steps in.

Mental health: depression, anxiety and other conditions

Mental health conditions qualify on the same terms as physical ones. The DWP’s guidance gives encouraging someone with a mental illness to eat, wash, dress or get out of bed as an example of help that counts. Describe what you would not do without encouragement, how often you go without meals or washing, any risk to your safety, and what nights are like. It helps to be as specific here as for any physical condition.

Cancer

Cancer and its treatment can bring tiredness, pain, sickness, weakness and infections, and needs often change from week to week, especially around treatment. If you have needed help with personal care for six months, describe it in the usual way, including the bad weeks. If a medical professional has said you may have 12 months or less to live, the special rules below apply instead.

Kidney dialysis

This is one of the few situations with its own rule. According to the DWP’s guidance, someone who has dialysis two or more times a week, where that dialysis needs another person’s help or supervision, can meet the day or night condition because of it. If that applies, say so clearly on the form, with the type of dialysis and who helps.

If someone is nearing the end of life

If a doctor or other medical professional has said someone might have 12 months or less to live, they can claim under what GOV.UK calls the special rules for end of life. There is no six-month wait, the claim is dealt with more quickly, and it is paid at the higher rate. You ask the medical professional for form SR1, then make the claim online or by post. Someone else can make the claim, and does not need the person’s permission. The decision letter does not mention the special rules.

What to write, whatever the condition

• Needs, not the diagnosis. Name your illnesses at question 16; the rest of the form is about what happens in the day and the night.
• How often and how long. Numbers help the decision maker far more than words like “sometimes”.
• Bad days. Say how many days a week are bad and what changes on them.
• Help you need but go without. What counts is the help you reasonably need, not only the help you receive.
• Aids, honestly. Grab rails, a raised toilet seat or a perching stool are taken into account. Say what you still cannot do with them.
• Safety. Falls, near misses, burns and missed medicines, with rough dates.
• Everything together. Several conditions that each cause a little difficulty can add up.

Our guides to what not to write and example answers show how to put this into words.

More detailed guides are on the way

We are writing separate pages on Attendance Allowance with dementia, with COPD, with arthritis, with sight loss, and with cancer, each looking at the form questions that matter most for that condition. Until then, if you would like a quick view of whether a claim is worth making, the six-question check on our home page takes a couple of minutes.

If you would like a hand with it

We are a private company, Virix Ltd, not part of any government department. We fill in the AA1 with you over the telephone, in your own words, then print it and post it to you to check, sign and send. It costs £149, once. If the claim is refused, we help you ask for the decision to be looked at again at no extra cost, and if the answer is still no, we refund the full £149. Or you can choose to pay £249 only if the claim is awarded. Equally, the claim is free to make yourself, and Age UK and Citizens Advice help at no charge where they have capacity. How the options compare.