Attendance Allowance (NI)
Attendance Allowance is a tax-free benefit for people who have reached State Pension age and need help with personal care because of a physical or mental disability. The amount you receive depends on how your condition affects your daily life, with two different rates available.
This guide explains Attendance Allowance, including eligibility requirements, temporary travel abroad, residence rules, and important information for people living in Ireland or dealing with cross-border circumstances.
Going Abroad temporarily
If you receive Attendance Allowance, you may continue to receive payments while temporarily abroad. In most cases, Attendance Allowance can be paid for up to 13 weeks when you are outside the UK, or up to 26 weeks if you are travelling abroad for medical treatment.
Residence and Presence Tests
You can usually continue to receive Attendance Allowance if you leave the UK temporarily:
- For up to 13 weeks if you are travelling abroad.
- For up to 26 weeks if you are abroad specifically for medical treatment.
If you plan to leave the UK, it is important to inform the relevant benefits office of your travel plans.
Source: Disability Rights Handbook Edition 46 Chapter 55 Pg. 278
Cross-border issues
Living South
In some circumstances, people living in Ireland may still qualify for Attendance Allowance.
You or a family member may be able to claim if you:
- Work in the UK or pay UK National Insurance contributions through employment.
- Have paid sufficient National Insurance contributions to qualify for contribution-based benefits.
- Receive a UK State Pension.
- Receive Industrial Injuries Benefit.
- Receive contribution-based Employment and Support Allowance (ESA).
- Receive bereavement benefits.
Whether Attendance Allowance can be paid while living in Ireland will depend on your individual circumstances and your connection to the UK social security system.
Source: GOV.UK – Claim benefits abroad.
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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