If you are under State Pension age: PIP
Personal Independence Payment is for people aged 16 to State Pension age who have a long-term condition or disability affecting daily life or getting about. It is tax-free and it is not means-tested — your income, your savings and whether you work make no difference at all.
There are two parts, assessed separately. Daily living pays £76.70 a week at the standard rate and £114.60 at the enhanced rate in 2026/27. Mobility pays £30.30 or £80.00. You can be awarded one part or both, at different rates. Both at the enhanced rate comes to £194.60 a week, a little over £10,000 a year, paid every four weeks.
The money is yours to spend on whatever makes life easier. There is no requirement to spend it on care, and nobody checks. In practice enhanced daily living covers around five hours of support a week at typical rates; both components at the enhanced rate covers closer to nine.
Two things worth knowing. Awards are based on how your condition affects you rather than on diagnosis, so the wording on the form matters a great deal — Citizens Advice and many local disability organisations will help you complete it free. And you may have heard about a proposed rule requiring four points in a single activity; that was removed from the Bill in July 2025 and the existing scoring still applies.
Attendance Allowance — if you are over State Pension age
Attendance Allowance is the over-pension-age equivalent of PIP daily living. If your relative needs help or supervision because of a physical or mental health condition, it is very likely the first thing to claim. Like PIP it is not means-tested — savings, income, a house, a private pension, none of it affects eligibility.
For 2026/27 it pays £76.70 a week at the lower rate, for people who need help by day or by night, and £114.60 a week at the higher rate, for people who need help both day and night, or who are terminally ill. That is roughly £3,988 or £5,959 a year, tax-free, and you can spend it on whatever you like — there is no requirement to spend it on formal care.
The condition must generally have been present for at least six months, though this is waived for people who are terminally ill, and those claims are fast-tracked. Claiming Attendance Allowance can also unlock extra Pension Credit, Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction, which is why it is worth claiming even by families who feel they are managing.
In Scotland, Attendance Allowance is being replaced by Pension Age Disability Payment, delivered by Social Security Scotland. The rates are the same and existing awards transfer automatically.
Local authority support and the means test
Anyone can ask their council for a free care needs assessment, regardless of income, and it is worth doing even if you expect to pay for everything yourself. The assessment establishes what support is needed; a separate financial assessment establishes who pays.
In England the thresholds have been frozen for years. Capital above £23,250 means funding your own care in full. Below £14,250, capital is disregarded and only income is assessed. Between the two, councils apply a tariff: £1 a week of assumed income for every £250 of capital above the lower limit.
Thresholds differ elsewhere in the UK — Scotland and Wales both operate more generous limits. The much-discussed £86,000 lifetime cap on care costs has not been implemented.
NHS Continuing Healthcare
NHS Continuing Healthcare, usually shortened to CHC, is a package fully funded by the NHS. It is not means-tested at all. The test is whether someone has what is called a primary health need — meaning their needs are principally medical rather than social.
It is genuinely hard to qualify for and the assessment process is often described as bruising. But it is worth pursuing where needs are substantial or unpredictable, particularly after a serious illness or where nursing input is significant. Age UK and Beacon both publish good free guidance on the process, and Beacon offers a free advice line.
Direct payments — the option that matters most here
If a council assesses someone as eligible for support, they can usually take that support as a direct payment rather than as council-arranged services. The money goes to them, and they arrange their own care with it.
This matters particularly if you want to choose your own helper. Direct payments can normally be used to engage a self-employed helper, which means council support and choosing the individual who comes to the house are not mutually exclusive. Rules vary between councils, so ask yours specifically what a direct payment can be used for before assuming.
What these amounts actually buy
Families rarely do this arithmetic, and it is the part that makes a benefit feel real. At a helper rate of £20 an hour plus Witho’s 10%, a visit costs £22.
Attendance Allowance or PIP daily living at the standard rate, £76.70 a week, covers around three and a half hours. At the enhanced rate, £114.60, it covers just over five hours — a morning visit twice a week with change, or one longer weekly visit and the shopping done.
PIP with both components at the enhanced rate, £194.60 a week, covers close to nine hours. For a great many households that is the whole of the support they need, paid for entirely by a benefit they may not have claimed.
Carer’s Allowance, and the trap inside it
If you provide 35 hours or more of care a week for someone receiving PIP daily living or Attendance Allowance, and you earn no more than £204 a week after deductions, you may be able to claim Carer’s Allowance. It is £86.45 a week in 2026/27, around £4,495 a year, and each week carries a National Insurance credit that protects your own State Pension record.
Now the trap, which catches a great many families. Claiming Carer’s Allowance can cause the person you care for to lose their Severe Disability Premium, worth around £81.50 a week. Claim £86.45, lose £81.50, and the household is barely five pounds better off — and once council tax reduction is affected it can go backwards.
It does not always happen, and where it does not the benefit is well worth having. But work out the whole household position before you claim rather than afterwards. Citizens Advice and Age UK will do this calculation with you free, and it takes about twenty minutes.
One more: the earnings limit is a cliff edge, not a taper. A penny over £204 in a week and the whole payment stops for that week.
Where to get free, independent help
This guide is a starting point, not financial advice, and Witho has an obvious interest in how you arrange care — so please also take advice from someone who does not. Age UK offers free benefits checks and will often help complete an Attendance Allowance form, which is long and off-putting. Citizens Advice covers the same ground. For larger decisions involving property or long-term funding, a financial adviser accredited by the Society of Later Life Advisers is the right port of call.