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Payment of AA when DPA in place
Hi, I’m finding more and more issues with the DWP refusing to pay AA despite there being a DPA in place with the LA. They seem to pay some awards and not others. Is anyone aware of any changes/guidance that has been issued within the department to stop payments? I have a large number of clients that could be getting PC if AA was in payment.
Thanks in advance
We’ve not heard of any similar cases. The rules are rather tortuous as well.
Reg.7 of the Social Security (Attendance Allowance) Regulations 1991 provides:
Persons in care homes
7.—(1) Subject to regulation 8, a person shall not be paid any amount in respect of an attendance allowance for any period where throughout that period he is a resident in a care home in circumstances where any of the costs of any qualifying services provided for him are borne out of public or local funds under a specified enactment.
(2) The specified enactments for the purposes of paragraph (1) are—
(vii) Part 1 of the Care Act 2014 (care and support),
The legislation for DPA’s is in Part 1 of the Care Act at Section 34 but the important point to note is that these provide for a loan to be made to the person concerned so they are not being paid from public funds. They are receiving loan payments that will be repaid on death or sale of the home.
I’d be interested to see a decision notice on this issue to see how DWP are arguing this.
Sorry, for completeness, the above is confirmed by Reg.8(6) of the AA Regs:
(6) Regulation 7 shall not apply in any particular case for any period during which the whole costs of all of the qualifying services are met—
(a)out of the resources of the person for whom the qualifying services are provided
That’s great, thanks Paul.
I have asked for confirmation of the legislation/guidance they are using to make the decision but won’t hold my breath. It is definitely happening more and more.
I suspect it’s part of the general decline in AA decision making since they moved experienced DMs over to writing UC appeal papers.
Hi, I’m finding more and more issues with the DWP refusing to pay AA despite there being a DPA in place with the LA. They seem to pay some awards and not others. Is anyone aware of any changes/guidance that has been issued within the department to stop payments? I have a large number of clients that could be getting PC if AA was in payment.
Thanks in advance
We are finding the same here. At one time no issue paying the AA but now they are no longer accepting that the client has a DPA and DWP are only paying when property is sold and as stated it is impacting on potential PC payments