Attendance Allowance Wales is devoted to people whose age is over 65 who need help to care for themselves as they are disabiled. The plans were announced by UK Government. The plans were devoted to the handover of responsibility for Attendance Allowance to Wales. The main benefit is that over 100,000 people in Wales get help at the end of 2015 at a cost of £415 million. ‘The future of Attendance Allowance’ is found on posted data and research, as well as a roundtable discussion held by the Bevan Foundation and WLGA. It brought together experts in the sphere of social security and care.
The report cautions that if the benefit were created to local authorities in England, as advised, it is highly unlikely that it would not also be released in Wales. Therefore, the Welsh Government should include several steps as preparation. It contains 5 recommendations on how this should be realized:
- The Welsh Government should build an advisory team of disability, social care and welfare benefits specialists from a UK Government consultation on explorign the benefit for new applicants.
- If it were transferred, the Welsh Government should review the transfer of responsibility for current applicants to avoid a two-tier system emerging.
- Fund raising for the transferred benefit should reflect Scotland’s settlement, which is established on previous annual expenses and an additional transfer for administration fees, and is then ‘Barnettised’ for future years.
- A take-up campaign should be held to make the max number of Attendance Allowance applicants in Wales to give a more correct case of all those who are legal to claim Attendance Allowance.