Unlocking Financial Support for Home Care: We've Partnered with Kinly
Most families we meet at Gladys are paying for care privately. They have not stopped to think about whether they might be entitled to government support, because the assumption is that benefits are for other people: people on lower incomes, people without savings, people whose situation looks different to theirs.
That assumption is almost always wrong.
Attendance Allowance is worth around £5,000 a year. It is tax-free, not means-tested, and can be spent on anything that helps the person receiving it live more comfortably at home: care, cleaning, taxis, heating, equipment, or simply taking the pressure off the family budget. It is available to people over 66 with a long-term physical or mental health condition that affects their daily life. You do not have to be on a low income. You do not have to be already receiving care. You do not have to live alone.
And yet only around 40% of people who apply for it succeed. The form is 35 pages long (85 in Scotland), the questions are written in a way that invites the wrong answer, and the process is exactly the kind of thing a stressed family member does not have time to wade through.
This is why we have partnered with Kinly.
Who Kinly are, and how they help families
Kinly is a UK social purpose service founded to help older people unlock the government support they are entitled to. They handle the eligibility check, the paperwork, and the application on the client's behalf. From the family's side, it is a phone call.
Their track record is incredible (we think). They have a whopping 97% success rate on Attendance Allowance applications, which is over double the national average. They are the highest-rated brand in UK Aged Support on Trustpilot. And the way they do business is close to our hearts: clients pay nothing upfront; their one-off fee (£456 including VAT, for Attendance Allowance or Pension Age Disability Payment in Scotland) is only payable after the backdated government payment comes through, and they offer instalments if that payment does not fully cover it.
The fee now includes ongoing membership of Kinly Life at no extra cost, so support doesn't stop once the application is done. Members get a free entitlement check every year, a dedicated phone number for questions, and access to further support, services and discounts.
Also, if an application is unsuccessful, Kinly support the appeal at no extra cost.
Why this matters for families who use Gladys
Around 86% of the families who come to Gladys are paying for care privately. Care budgets are real and they're never unlimited. Anything that stretches things further means more hours of support, longer continuity of care, and less pressure on family members already juggling work, children, and an ageing parent.
An extra £5,000 a year, paid monthly, is enough to fund several hours of additional visiting care every week. It can be the difference between three visits a week and five. Between two hours and three. Between getting by and feeling supported.
It is also money that many of our clients are already entitled to. They have simply never been told.
What the partnership looks like in practice
If you are a Gladys client or a family member arranging care for someone aged 66 or older, our team can refer you directly to Kinly. From there:
- A free eligibility check. A Kinly adviser calls within a day and spends about a quarter of an hour talking through the person's health conditions and day-to-day life. There is no obligation and no charge at this stage.
- The full application. If someone is likely to be eligible, Kinly's team of specialists will complete the forms on your behalf. This usually takes one phone call of 45 minutes and the application is typically submitted within 48 hours of the eligibility check.
- Submission and decision. The application goes to the Department for Work and Pensions. Official processing time is a couple of months. Kinly's applications tend to be a bit quicker and they get returns in just over a month on average.
- Backdated payment. If successful, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) pays you directly, including a backdated payment to the date the application was received by the DWP. Only at this point does Kinly's fee become payable.
- Appeal support if needed. If the application is unsuccessful, Kinly will handle the Mandatory Reconsideration appeal at no extra cost.
The whole process is designed to be light-touch for the family. Most people find the hardest part is the 15-minute chat to see if they can help, and it is genuinely 15 minutes (we've mystery shopped them).
A word from the Kinly founders
Harry Franks, Co-Founder at Kinly
"We started Kinly because we saw first-hand how overwhelming later life can become for families. When a loved one goes into care, there's so much to think about and manage. Understanding and accessing the support available is just one part of that journey, and we're here to help make it easy.
When you speak to us, you'll always be met with someone lovely who is there to help however they can. We're so pleased to be partnering with Gladys to help more families through these important moments."
Why we chose to partner with Kinly
We are extremely careful about who we recommend to our families. After all, Gladys is built on trust: families trust us to introduce them to carers who will be in their parents' home during some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives. We do not pass that trust around lightly.
Kinly meets our bar for three reasons.
First, their model is fair. There is nothing to pay until the support comes through, and the fee is capped and transparent. Families are never out of pocket.
Second, they have a cracking hit rate. A 97% success rate is not marketing language: it is the result of a team that knows the Attendance Allowance application inside out and knows how the DWP reads it.
Third, the values line up. Kinly exists to help older people live independently for longer. That is exactly the work Gladys is doing from a different angle. We match families with the right local carer or helper. Kinly make sure your family has the resources to sustain that care for as long as possible. Together, the two services do more than either could alone.
Alex Sorisi, Co-Founder at Gladys
Most of the families we work with are paying out of their own pockets for care, and they assume government support is not for them. We want families to have an easy access route to funding they are entitled to, without having to wrestle a 35-page form into shape on their own. That's why we've partnered with Kinly. It is the kind of partnership that makes a real difference to the people we look after and, having spent tens of thousands of pounds over the years on care myself, I can say that anything you can access to help with those costs is a godsend.
How to find out if you might be eligible
If you are a current Gladys client, speak to the team and they will gladly introduce you to Kinly. They're a friendly bunch, just like us.
If you are arranging care for the first time and want to know whether you or your loved one might be eligible for Attendance Allowance, you can go directly to Kinly at kinly.org.uk or call them on 020 3957 9510. The eligibility check is free, and there is no obligation to proceed.
If you would rather start with us at Gladys first to talk through care options for a parent or older relative, give us a call on 01225 63 77 19 or request a callback. We will help you think about the care first, and bring Kinly in alongside if it looks like there is funding to unlock.
Too often, the people we work with are paying for care they could be partly funding through entitlements they did not know existed. We would love to change that.
