Attendance Allowance
If you are a social worker, welfare rights officer, staff or volunteer in a local society, or working with blind and partially sighted people in another capacity, you are well placed to encourage and support them in claiming Attendance Allowance. Our Advisers' guide to Attendance Allowance for people with sight problems gives key information and advice to help you support your customers in making a claim.
In addition to advice about benefits for people with sight loss and their carers, we can also offer advice about planning benefit take up campaigns. RNIB can offer in-house training or briefing sessions for advisers.
Sources for more information
The Directgov website provides information about Attendance Allowance and other benefits. Their Benefit Enquiry Line (BEL), on Freephone 0800 88 22 00, gives general advice on benefits for people with disabilities but does not deal with specific queries on individual claims.
DWP also has a Claim Form Completion Service for AA - telephone 0800 88 22 00. Someone will call the claimant back to complete the form over the telephone. When the form has been completed, the claimant will be sent a copy to check. People with sight problems can get a copy of their answers in large print or braille.
Claimants can ask the Pension Service for a home visit if necessary. This is useful for people who need help to complete a form but cannot use the telephone form completion service.
Many local authority welfare rights units operate consultancy lines for staff from social services, voluntary organisations and others.
Citizens Advice Bureaux can also help with completing AA forms, although they may have a waiting list.
Working with us
We working together with other organisations to raise awareness of AA, providing advice and encourage people to claim. We would like to hear from more organisations that are interested in getting involved in increasing take up of AA.