The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is offering financial help to Brits with certain health conditions. Those who are eligible could receive a monthly boost of £407.

In England, two main types of disability benefits are available to people.

One is called Personal Independence Payments (PIP) and that is for people under the station pension age of 66. Benefits for people over that age are called Attendance Allowance.

PIP is made up of two components - a daily living rate and a mobility rate - and you can be entitled to both or just one of these. These are then split again, into the standard rate and the enhanced rate.

As of April 2023, for the daily living rate, you can either get £68.10 or £101.75 a week and for mobility, you can either get £26.90 or £71. If you are eligible for both enhanced rates you can get over £700 every month.

Attendance Allowance is worth £68.10 or £101.75 a week - meaning you could potentially get £407 a month. The lower rate is awarded to those who need help during the day or at night. The higher rate is for those who need help during the day and at night, or who are terminally ill.

You do not need to require a full-time carer for the money to be awarded, just some form of assistance with routine chores.

According to the DWP, there are 56 health conditions that might qualify you for the monthly financial assistance, a complete list of which follows.

The 56 conditions:

  1. Arthritis
  2. Spondylosis
  3. Back Pain – other/precise diagnosis not specified
  4. Disease of the muscles, bones or joints
  5. Trauma to limbs
  6. Blindness
  7. Deafness
  8. Heart disease
  9. Chest disease
  10. Asthma
  11. Cystic fibrosis
  12. Cerebrovascular disease
  13. Peripheral vascular disease
  14. Epilepsy
  15. Neurological diseases
  16. Multiple sclerosis
  17. Parkinson’s disease
  18. Motor neurone disease
  19. Chronic pain syndromes
  20. Diabetes mellitus
  21. Metabolic disease
  22. Traumatic paraplegia/tetraplegia
  23. Major trauma other than traumatic paraplegia/tetraplegia
  24. Learning difficulties
  25. Psychosis
  26. Psychoneurosis
  27. Personality disorder
  28. Dementia
  29. Behavioural disorder
  30. Alcohol and drug abuse
  31. Hyperkinetic syndrome
  32. Renal disorders
  33. Inflammatory bowel disease
  34. Bowel and stomach disease
  35. Blood disorders
  36. Haemophilia
  37. Multi-system disorders
  38. Multiple allergy syndrome
  39. Skin disease
  40. Malignant disease
  41. Severely mentally impaired
  42. Double amputee
  43. Deaf/blind
  44. Haemodialysis
  45. Frailty
  46. Total parenteral autrition
  47. AIDS
  48. Infectious diseases: Viral disease - coronavirus Covid-19
  49. Infectious diseases: Viral disease - precise diagnosis not specified
  50. Infectious diseases: Bacterial disease – tuberculosis
  51. Infectious diseases: Bacterial disease – precise diagnosis not specified
  52. Infectious diseases: Protozoal disease – malaria
  53. Infectious diseases: Protozoal disease – other/precise diagnosis not specified
  54. Infectious diseases - other/precise diagnosis not specified
  55. Cognitive disorder - other/precise diagnosis not specified
  56. Terminally ill

The benefit is made available in two tiers, a standard rate and a higher rate, awarded depending on the severity of your needs and paid out every four weeks directly to your bank or building society account.

It is not means-tested and is intended to allow people a greater degree of independence and to live in their own homes for as long as possible without requiring institutional care.

Winter fuel payment

Millions across the UK will also begin to receive energy bill support in the form of Winter Fuel Payments from the Department for Work and Pensions from next month.

The payments can provide a much-needed boost for people as the time comes to crank up the heating.

For further assistance, you can call the DWP’s dedicated helpline on 0800 731 0122 from 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday.