Choosing a personal alarm for an older parent

The NHS describes the same choices in its guide to personal alarms, monitoring systems and key safes: basic alarms that make a loud noise, alarms that send an alert to a family member's phone, and monitored alarms that alert a 24-hour monitoring service. A loud alarm only helps if somebody lives close enough to hear it, so for a parent living alone the choice is between the second and the third.

When a family-call alarm worksSection titled When%20a%20family-call%20alarm%20works

A family-call alarm, sometimes sold as an unmonitored alarm or an alarm that contacts family, rings a list of numbers in turn until somebody picks up, and then opens a speaker call so you can talk to your parent. It costs less to run because nobody is paid to wait for the call, and it works when the people on the list live close by, will answer at night and can get in.

If the list comes down to one daughter who works shifts or lives 40 miles away, every unanswered call adds minutes to the time your parent spends on the floor. Ask how many numbers the device holds and what it does when none of them answer: some ring the list again, and some can call 999.

When a monitored alarm is the safer choiceSection titled When%20a%20monitored%20alarm%20is%20the%20safer%20choice

A monitored alarm rings a centre that is staffed day and night. The person who answers has the details you gave when you signed up: your parent's name, their conditions, who to ring and whether there is a key safe. They can talk to your parent through the base unit, ring the family, and call an ambulance if it is needed. That is the better fit where family live some distance away or the list of people who could answer is short.

The council route, usually called a lifeline, community alarm or telecare, is a monitored service too, run by the council or a provider it pays. In some areas the scheme employs a response team who can come out to help somebody up from the floor; in others the centre rings the named contacts. Ask which applies in your parent's postcode.

This page is about making the choice. For what each device does and does not do, pendant alarms and sensors has the detail, and technology that helps an older person live alone covers sensors, reminders and cameras. Both sit within the elderly care guides.

The best device is the one your parent keeps on. A pendant taken off at bedtime misses the hours when people get up to the toilet in the dark, while a waterproof wrist button can stay on in the shower and in bed. If your parent already wears a watch and is used to charging a phone, a watch may be accepted where a pendant would sit in a drawer. If charging is likely to be forgotten, a home pendant with a long-life battery is the safer choice.

Fall detection, and what it cannot promiseSection titled Fall%20detection%2C%20and%20what%20it%20cannot%20promise

Some alarms offer automatic fall detection, which raises a call without anybody pressing the button. It looks for a sudden drop, an impact and then stillness. That is worth having for somebody who might faint or be too shaken to press anything, but no detector catches every fall. When researchers tested 13 published fall detection methods against 29 falls recorded in real life rather than acted out, they caught on average 57% of the falls and the best caught under 83%. Over a day of recording, the same methods raised between 3 and 85 false alarms depending on which was used (Bagalà and colleagues, PLOS ONE, 2012). It tested methods rather than products on sale today. Ask any supplier what happens after a false alarm and how often your parent can expect one, and treat fall detection as a second chance behind the button rather than a replacement for pressing it.

GPS, and asking your parent firstSection titled GPS%2C%20and%20asking%20your%20parent%20first

A mobile alarm with GPS shows where the person is when they press it, and some let family check the location at any time. That helps somebody who still walks to the shops alone. For a parent with dementia it raises the question of consent. Under the Mental Capacity Act your parent is assumed to be able to make this decision unless it has been shown otherwise, and they should be part of it. The Alzheimer's Society's advice on using technology covers how to have that conversation, and if leaving the house is the worry, read wandering and leaving the house as well.

1. 1

   Ask the council for a care needs assessment

   Free to ask

   Ring adult social care where your parent lives and say you are worried about falls and would like an alarm considered. The gov.uk page on applying for a needs assessment finds the right council from a postcode. The assessment looks at the whole picture, including the house and the help your parent already has.
2. 2

   Find out which part is equipment and which is the service

   The question that decides the cost

   In England a council must not charge for aids, or for minor adaptations costing £1,000 or less, that it provides after an assessment. Monitoring is a service, and councils can charge for it after a financial assessment. Some charge for their alarm service and some do not, so ask.
3. 3

   Check the VAT position if you buy privately

   0% for a long-term condition

   An alarm designed for a disabled person, supplied to them for their own use, is zero rated, and so is the monitoring centre's service. The test is a long-term condition with a substantial effect on everyday activities. Being over 60 on its own does not count, and the 5% rate for older people covers some mobility aids but not alarms.
4. 4

   Look at Attendance Allowance

   £76.70 or £114.60 a week

   If your parent is over State Pension age and needs help with personal care or supervision, Attendance Allowance is not means-tested and can be spent on whatever helps, including an alarm bought privately.

You can find the right council on gov.uk through apply for a needs assessment by social services. The rule on what must be free is in regulation 3 of the Care and Support (Charging and Assessment of Resources) Regulations 2014, and it is worth having to hand if you are told everything carries a charge. What equipment an older person can get free covers the rest of what the council and the NHS lend or fit, and how council funding works explains what happens after the assessment.

The VAT relief is set out in section 7 of HMRC's notice on reliefs from VAT for disabled and older people. The supplier should give you a short declaration to sign confirming your parent is eligible, kept separate from the order form; HMRC publishes a template for that declaration. A price quoted with VAT added is worth querying if your parent has a long-term condition such as diabetes. The Attendance Allowance figures are the 2026/27 weekly rates, and claiming Attendance Allowance goes through the form.

Your right to cancel within 14 daysSection titled Your%20right%20to%20cancel%20within%2014%20days

If the alarm is bought over the phone, online or from a salesperson in your parent's home, the Consumer Contracts Regulations give a right to cancel without giving a reason. For the equipment, the 14 days run from the day it arrives. For a service such as monitoring, they run from the day the contract is made. That is set out in regulation 30 of the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013. If a salesperson visits, be there if you can and ask for the terms in writing.

Where independent views come fromSection titled Where%20independent%20views%20come%20from

We do not rate alarms or the companies that sell them. Which? publishes buying advice and its own testing for personal alarms. TEC Quality runs the certification scheme for the Quality Standards Framework and keeps the public register of certified providers, so you can check a name before you sign. Age UK's guide to telecare covers what to compare when you shop around.

While you are arranging the alarm, sort out how somebody gets in. However quickly a call is answered, somebody still has to get through the door. Key safes for carers and family covers which kind to fit and who should have the code.

The risk is an older unit, still plugged into the phone socket, on a line that is upgraded without anybody connecting the two. The government's guidance on the transition from analogue to digital landlines sets out the commitments made to telecare users, including the power cut rule, and the connectivity timeline has the dates. The Telecare National Action Plan explains what councils and providers have agreed to do.

For a parent who lives alone, the family may be both the people on the alarm list and the people doing the checking in. If that has become too much, you can search for carers near you and compare their rates. A morning visit every day is seven hours a week, £126 to £175 at the rates carers charge here. Care for someone who lives alone shows how families put a week together, companionship care covers visits for company and checking in, and falls and toilet trips at night covers night care.

PrimeCarers is an introductory service, not an agency. Carers are self-employed and set their own rates. Before a carer appears in a search we check their identity and right to work, confirm an enhanced DBS check (or PVG in Scotland, Access NI in Northern Ireland) issued within the last 2 years, and interview them online. We do not check qualifications, training or references, so the references and reviews on a profile are for you to follow up with the carer. Separately from those checks, visits booked through PrimeCarers are insured, within the terms of the policy.