Attendance Allowance (NI)
Attendance Allowance is a tax-free benefit. You may get Attendance Allowance if you are State Pension age or over – and have needed help with personal care because of a physical or mental disability for six months. There are two rates of Attendance Allowance depending on how your disability affects you.
Going Abroad temporarily
You can claim Attendance Allowance for up to 13 weeks if you’re going abroad (or 26 weeks if it’s for medical treatment).
Residence and Presence Tests
You must have been present in the UK for not less than 104 week in the last 156, however, there are some exemptions. If you are covered by the EEA co-ordination rules or the UK-Ireland Convention, you are habitually resident in the UK or an EEA country and you can demonstrate a genuine and sufficient link to the UK you may not have to meet the past presence test (advisors see below).
Source: Disability Rights Handbook Edition 46 Chapter 55 Pg. 278
Cross-border issues
Living South
You or a family member may be able to claim Attendance Allowance if you:
- work in the UK or pay National Insurance in the UK because of work
- have paid enough National Insurance to qualify for contribution-based benefits
- are getting State Pension, Industrial Injuries Benefit, contribution-based ESA or bereavement benefits
Source: https://www.gov.uk/claim-benefits-abroad/disability-benefits
See also
For Advisors:
The Kavanagh Case reinforces that the genuine and sufficient link in disability benefits is to the UK as a whole, not simply the UK’s social security system, and both objective evidence but also motives, intentions and expectations of the claimant are relevant in establishing the link.
If you are claiming AA, PIP, DLA or CA and you are covered by the main EU co-ordination rules or the UK–Ireland Convention you should, if possible, provide evidence to show both that the past presence test does not apply to you due to your genuine and sufficient link to the UK (as above) and that you satisfy the past presence test by aggregating your residence in an EEA state with your presence in Great Britain, in case one basis for your entitlement is not accepted.
The Upper Tribunal has held that ‘mere residence’ in an EEA country cannot be aggregated to satisfy the past presence test under the main EU co-ordination rules. Similarly, the UK–Ireland Convention limits the aggregation of specific periods of residence to those during which you were ‘insured’ in Ireland.
Source: CPAG. “4. Principles of co-ordination.” In Benefits for Migrants Handbook (15th edition) 2024.
Page last checked: July 2025
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