Constant Attendance Allowance
Constant Attendance Allowance, usually shortened to CAA, is an extra weekly payment on top of IIDB (chapter 6.5) for people who need someone with them for daily care because of the same prescribed industrial disease that triggered the IIDB award. For mesothelioma, the IIDB award is already at 100% disablement, so the gateway is essentially the care need rather than a fresh assessment of the disease.
What ‘daily care’ means here.Substantial, ongoing help with washing, getting to the toilet, eating, taking medication, mobilising around the house, or supervision because of fatigue, breathlessness or pain that makes being alone unsafe. Casual help with dressing or ordinary housework isn’t enough on its own. The care can be provided by your partner, an adult child, a friend, or paid carers; it doesn’t matter who delivers it, only that the need is real and ongoing.
Four rates. The DWP medical adviser decides the rate against the level of care you need:
- Part day: some help during the day.
- Full day: help throughout the day.
- Intermediate: a higher level still.
- Exceptional: the highest rate, where the level of help needed is persistent and substantial throughout the day and night.
We don’t print the weekly figures here because they change each April. The current rates are on gov.uk.
How to claim. Tell the IIDB helpline on 0800 121 8379 that you also want to claim CAA. It is usually decided on paper, with input from your GP and the IIDB medical advisor. There is no separate face-to-face assessment in most mesothelioma cases.
Interaction with PIP, AA and DLA care. CAA covers similar ground to the daily-living component of PIP (chapter 6.3), to Attendance Allowance (chapter 6.4) and to the care component of legacy DLA, and the rules stop the same care need being paid for in full twice. In practice DWP pays whichever care benefit gives you the higher figure, and tops it up with any difference from the other; you end up with the higher of the two, not both at full rate. The PIP mobility component isn’t affected, because CAA covers care, not mobility. Your benefits adviser will explain the maths for your award. The important point is to claim everything you might be entitled to and let DWP work out the offset, rather than self-rationing.
Exceptionally Severe Disablement Allowance (ESDA).If you are paid CAA at one of the two highest rates and the level of care need is expected to be permanent, you may also qualify for ESDA — another small weekly add-on. Ask the IIDB helpline to consider ESDA at the same time as CAA so they look at both together.