The CARE component

The care component falls into three levels, higher, middle and lower and day and night conditions. BEWARE; to meet the highest level of care payment you must meet both the highest day AND night level. The requirements of the act seem quite straightforward. It states that you must have

"Either frequent attention throughout the day in connection with your bodily functions or continual supervision throughout the day in order to avoid substantial danger to yourself or other people"

For the night condition the wording is equally sensible, in that you need

"Either prolonged or frequent attention in connection with your bodily functions or in order to avoid substantial danger to yourself or others you require a person to be awake for prolonged periods or at frequent intervals for the purpose of watching over you."

To meet the middle level of care allowance, you have to meet either of the day or night time requirements for the full allowance. To successfully claim the lower rate again the law is straight forward. You must

"Either require in connection with your bodily functions attention from another person for a significant portion of the day (whether for a single period or a number of periods OR, cannot prepare a cooked meal for yourself if you have the ingredients."