Attendance Allowance After Death: Arrears and Stopping the Claim

Attendance Allowance is a tax-free benefit for people aged 65 or over who need help with personal care because of a physical or mental disability. It is one of the most common benefits received by elderly people in the UK, and dealing with it after a death is a task that frequently falls to executors and family members who may be unfamiliar with the process. This guide covers what needs to be done and what the estate may be owed.

Stopping Attendance Allowance: notifying DWP promptly

Attendance Allowance stops from the exact date of death. It is important to notify DWP as quickly as possible to prevent ongoing payments being made into the deceased's bank account that will subsequently need to be returned.

How to notify DWP:

• Tell Us Once: The most straightforward route — available at the register office when you register the death, or online at gov.uk/after-a-death. Tell Us Once notifies DWP and multiple other government departments simultaneously
• Attendance Allowance helpline: Call 0800 731 0122 (textphone 0800 731 0317) — Monday to Friday 8am-6pm. This is a free call from both landlines and mobiles
• By post: Write to the Attendance Allowance office; the address is on any correspondence from DWP about the claim — though telephone or Tell Us Once is significantly faster

You will need the deceased's National Insurance number, date of birth, full name, and date of death.

Arrears: money the estate may be owed

DWP pays Attendance Allowance every four weeks in arrears. This means that at the point of death, there will almost always be a period for which the deceased was entitled to AA but had not yet been paid. The estate is entitled to this money.

Circumstances in which the estate may be owed arrears:

• Final payment period: AA is typically paid every four weeks — if the deceased died partway through a payment cycle, DWP owes the estate payment up to and including the date of death
• Underpaid at lower rate: If the deceased was receiving the lower rate but was entitled to the higher rate — for example, if their care needs had increased and a renewal application had been submitted but not yet processed — the estate may be owed the difference
• Late award: If a new claim or review was pending at the time of death and is subsequently awarded (even posthumously), the arrears from the effective date of the award are payable to the estate

To claim arrears, contact the Attendance Allowance helpline and ask for a reconciliation of payments made against entitlement. The executor can pursue any outstanding amounts as a debt owed to the estate.

The final payment: understanding overpayments

Because AA is paid in advance at the end of each four-week cycle, it is possible that payments were made covering a period that extends beyond the date of death. Any such payment is an overpayment that DWP will seek to recover.

The DWP process:

• Once notified of the death, DWP will calculate the overpayment — the amount paid for the period from the day after the date of death to the end of the payment period
• DWP will write to the executor or administrator with the overpayment figure and ask for it to be returned
• The overpayment should be returned promptly — it is a debt of the estate
• If DWP also owes arrears to the estate, they will typically set off the overpayment against the arrears and either pay the net balance or request the net difference — check the calculation carefully

Typical timescales for DWP reconciliation

After notification, DWP typically takes between four and eight weeks to complete a final reconciliation of the AA account. During this time:

• DWP will confirm the date payments stopped and calculate any overpayment or arrears
• They will write to the executor or administrator with a detailed breakdown
• Any money owed to the estate will be paid by cheque to the estate — it is not paid into the deceased's bank account after it has been closed

If you have not heard from DWP within eight weeks of notifying them of the death, follow up by calling the helpline and asking for the status of the final reconciliation.

Special rules for care home residents

Attendance Allowance rules for people living in care homes are more complex than for those living at home, and it is important to understand the position before assuming what the estate is owed.

The key rules:

• Local authority-funded care: If the local authority (council) was paying the full cost of the care home place, Attendance Allowance stops after 28 days in the home. If the deceased had been in local authority-funded care for more than 28 days before they died, they would not have been entitled to AA for the period in care — any payments made during this period were themselves overpayments
• Partially funded or self-funded: If the deceased was paying for their own care or was partially funded by the council but was also topping up from their own funds, AA continues to be paid and the rules above about arrears and overpayments apply in the usual way
• NHS-funded care: If the deceased was in a care home under NHS Continuing Healthcare funding, AA also stops after 28 days — notify DWP if this was the situation