Attendance Allowance (AA) guide

You may not have anyone to help you but you still manage to dress or undress yourself, although this may take some considerable time. If this is your situation put it on the form.

Think very carefully about how long it takes you to dress without help. Say how long you have to rest between each procedure or how because of fatigue you have to rest once you are dressed.

Think about the following when filling in the form:

• do you have difficulty putting certain items of clothing on? What is the problem and with what clothing
• are you unable to bend over, reach behind your back or put your hands above your head? Does this make it difficult to put on certain items of clothing
• can you pull a jumper over your head
• can you bend over to put on socks or tights and then pull them up
• do you have difficulty with detailed tasks like buttons, zips or shoelaces, and how do you overcome the difficulty
• are you restricted to wearing front fastening clothing or Velcro attachments because you have difficulty managing back fastenings
• do you need to support yourself by leaning against the wall or furniture while dressing
• do you need to get dressed or undressed more than once a day, due to things like incontinence, spillages or sweating
• do you need to be reminded to get dressed or undressed
• do you have a disability such as a sight impairment and need help to choose suitable clothing to wear
• do you need to be told if your clothes are appropriate for the weather
• do you need motivating or prompting to get dressed and detail why
• do you need help in locating your clothing
• do you need assistance in choosing
• do you need to be told that your clothes match
• do you need to be told how to put your clothes on