1. What is DLA and Attendance Allowance for?
DLA is designed to help those people with severe disabilities to be better able to look after themselves. The two components (care and mobility) for disability living allowance are intended to cover all aspects of the ways which in which people may be affected by disability.
Attendance Allowance is paid to people over the age of 65 who need help with personal care or who need a lot of looking after. There is no mobility component for Attendance Allowance and some have argued that this discriminates against older people.
Both these benefits are administered by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
2.24 million people currently receive Disability Living Allowance
1.29 million people currently receive Attendance Allowance
2. Why can't benefitsnow be more certain of the award people are likely to receive?
Disabilities affect people in different ways, each case is decided on individual circumstances.
We can be certain with some of the criteria- if you are completely unable to walk then you will get the higher rate of the mobility component- but others have been subject to different definitions over the years- "virtually unable to walk" being one term which has been interpreted in a number of different ways. The need for "attention" has also been interpreted in different ways by different commissioners. The Disability Living Allowance Advisory Board has commented on the use of "vague terms" in the legislation which are open to a variey of interpretations.
We think it would be irresponsible of us to claim to be totally accurate- this may raise some people's expectations and that would be unfair. We nevertheless have looked at a large number of decisions and our notes to each question are intended to give people a clear idea of how they should answer according totheir own circumstances
3. Why are some of the questions so long?
The longest question is about severe mental impairment and this has four main parts in the regulations- we've tried to be as clear as possible on this issue but we have to reflect what the rules say.
4. What needs to be changed to make things simpler?
We would be very pleased to see some of the criteria expressed in clearer ways which would be more specific and understandable- we'd also like to see the cookery test brought into line with the needing help aspect of "attention".
5. What's good about DLA and Attendance Allowance?
Both are universal benefits- it doesn't matter whether you are rich or poor- you get paid according to your needs
You don't have to obtain a doctor's report when you apply although self-reporting does mean that some people understate their needs
The care component is based on what you need rather than on your medical condition
You can spend your benefit on anything you want
6. What's wrong with DLA and Attendance Allowance?
Some of the terms used in the criteria are imprecise and can lead to confusion ("virtually unable to walk" "for the purpose of watching over you" etc).
Appealing against a decision can be a long and costly process.
Access to decent information about DLA is hard to locate- most of the published stuff is either simplistic or overly dense and wordy.
The application pack for DLA is very long and some people are put off by this.
It still takes the DWP over two months to process an application.
The absence of a mobility component for Attendance Allowance discriminates against older people.
Some people feel that the medical assessment process is insufficiently independent.
