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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Disability benefits  →  Thread

Prolonged attention at night

Paul_Treloar_AgeUK
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Information and advice resources - Age UK

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Don’t have my reference books here in my home office. Client says that he needs to spend about 40 minutes a night attending to toilet needs due to difficulty getting to and from the bed to the toilet and an inability to use a bottle. I’m sure there is case law to the effect that 40 minutes can constitute a requirement for prolonged attention at night, and also the fact that this is related to 3-4 trips a night to the toilet also means it is a repeated need. This is for an AA claim.

DO you agree and do you know the case law to support this? Many thanks as ever.

nevip
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Welfare rights adviser - Sefton Council, Liverpool

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It has long been established that during the night, repeated means at least more than once and that the prolonged period can be satisfied if the period is 20 minutes or longer.  See R(A) 2/80 and CDLA/3612/2015.

HarlowAC
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Harlow Advice Centre

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Disability Rights Handbook also cites R(DLA)5/05

Ros
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editor, rightsnet.org.uk

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Just to confirm what Nevip says, in commentary on section 64 of SSCBA 1992, Sweet and Maxwell refers to commentary on section 72 for same provisions in DLA about ‘prolonged or repeated attention’ - that commentary says -

‘‘Prolonged’ seems to be accepted by decision makers to mean 20 minutes or more. In R v National Insurance Commissioners Ex p. SSWP [1981] W.L.R. 1017, CA, R(A)2/80, Lord Denning said ‘repeated means more than once at any rate’. Since the decision of the Court was that the Attendance Allowance Board had been correct in finding that the claimant satisfied only the day conditions it would seem that anything said as to the meaning of the night conditions was obiter, but as a minimum, it must mean at least twice.’

 

Paul_Treloar_AgeUK
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Information and advice resources - Age UK

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Thanks all, I thought I remembered 20 minutes as rough benchmark but was doubting myself.

What would we do without Rightsnet at these trying times I wonder?