Keeping a Care Diary for a Dementia Attendance Allowance Claim

The Attendance Allowance form asks you to describe care needs from memory, and memory is unreliable — especially when you have been caring for someone with dementia for months and the disruptions have become routine. A care diary kept over a week or two before filling in the form gives you concrete entries to draw on, with times, durations, and specifics that a decision-maker can assess.

What to Record

Each diary entry should capture four things:

The time. When did you need to intervene? "3:15am — found her at the top of the stairs" is far stronger than "she sometimes gets up at night."

What the person was doing or needed. Be specific. Not "helped with personal care" but "prompted him three times to brush his teeth, handed him the toothbrush, guided his hand to his mouth because he held the brush and stared at it."

What you did. Distinguish between types of help: verbal prompting (telling them what to do), physical guidance (moving their arm, fastening buttons), supervision (standing nearby watching for safety), emotional reassurance (calming them down after confusion or agitation).

What would have happened without your help. This is what the decision-maker needs. "Without prompting she would not have eaten anything since yesterday afternoon." "If I had not been awake he would have tried to go down the stairs in the dark and fallen."

How Long to Keep the Diary

A week gives enough data to show a pattern. Two weeks is better because it captures the variation between good and bad days. The diary does not need to be exhaustive — if nothing happened between 10am and noon, just note "settled, watching television, no intervention needed." The gaps matter too because they show that you are recording honestly, not exaggerating every moment.

Day Versus Night

Split the diary clearly into day and night sections. The decision about whether to award the lower rate (day OR night) or higher rate (day AND night) depends on this distinction. Night for Attendance Allowance purposes is broadly the period when the household would normally be asleep.

For each night, record:

• How many times you were woken or had to intervene
• What the person was doing each time
• How long each episode lasted before the person settled
• Whether you had to stay awake between episodes as a precaution

What Dementia-Specific Entries Look Like

Morning routine: "7:30am — He was already dressed but had put his pyjama top on over a shirt and was wearing outdoor shoes with no socks. I talked him through taking layers off and dressing in order. Took 25 minutes with verbal prompting throughout."

Medication: "9:00am — Gave him his morning tablets. He picked them up and put them down three times. I put each tablet in his hand one at a time and gave him water after each. Without supervision he takes the wrong number or forgets entirely."

Safety incident: "2:15pm — Smelled gas. Found her in the kitchen, had turned on the hob without lighting it and walked away. Turned it off, opened windows, stayed with her for 20 minutes to make sure she did not go back."

Night: "11:45pm — He got up, fully dressed himself, and tried to open the front door. I guided him back to bed and sat with him for 30 minutes until he settled. 2:30am — up again, confused about where the bathroom is. Led him there and waited. 4:00am — calling out, distressed. Sat with him for 40 minutes."

Presenting the Diary

Send the diary as a photocopy with the AA1 form. Do not replace the form answers with the diary — use the diary to inform what you write on the form, and attach it as supporting evidence. A brief cover note at the top helps: "Attached: care diary kept over [dates] showing the daily and nightly help [name] needs because of dementia."

If you are applying for PADP in Scotland, you can reference the diary in Part 2 and either upload it online or post it with the form.

For a structured approach to recording and presenting care needs across the full claim — including diary templates designed for cognitive care — our dementia claim guide covers the entire process from evidence to submission.

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