How to Fill Out and Submit the Attendance Allowance Claim Form

To fill out the Attendance Allowance claim form, request Form AA1 from the DWP helpline on 0800 731 0122 so your claim start date is locked in from the call, gather your National Insurance number and medical details, and then work through the form task by task — describing what you struggle with, who helps, and how long help takes on a bad day. Separate your daytime needs from your nighttime needs clearly, because that split decides which of the two rates you get. Return the form Freepost within six weeks of your call.

Get the Form the Right Way

There are three ways to start a claim, and they do not give you the same result.

Calling the Attendance Allowance helpline on 0800 731 0122 (Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm) and asking for a paper form is the option that pays the most. The DWP records the date of your call, and provided you return the completed form within six weeks, your payments are backdated to that call date rather than the date the form arrives.¹ The exact deadline is stamped on the form itself, so check the envelope as soon as it arrives.

You can also apply online through GOV.UK. An online claim starts from the date you submit it.¹ The third route is to download and print Form AA1 from GOV.UK and post it in yourself. With a printed form, your claim starts only on the date the DWP receives it, with no backdating.² The downloaded PDF can be completed on a desktop or laptop using a PDF reader (progress can be saved), but it does not work properly on a phone, tablet, or Apple’s Preview app.

If you have a sensory impairment, ask the helpline for the form in large print, braille, or audio.

One boundary to note before you start: this form is for England and Wales. In Scotland you apply for Pension Age Disability Payment instead, and Northern Ireland has its own process.¹

What to Have in Front of You Before You Start

Hunting for details halfway through the form is where most people stall. Get these together first:

Your National Insurance number. It appears on payslips, tax letters, and your State Pension correspondence, and it is the DWP’s main way of identifying you.
Your GP surgery’s name, address, and phone number. If a hospital consultant or specialist manages any of your conditions, add their details too.
A full list of your current medications with dosages and how often you take each one. A printout from your pharmacy or GP will do.
If you are currently staying in a hospital, care home, or hospice: the name, address, dates of your stay, and how it is funded.¹

Mistakes with your National Insurance number or your GP’s address are among the most common reasons a claim gets held up. Check both twice before you sign.

Filling In the Care-Needs Section

This is the part of the form that decides your claim. The DWP is not looking for a medical essay. It wants to know what you struggle to do and how often someone has to step in. Focus on the difficulty of each task, not on your diagnosis. “I cannot get dressed without help because my arthritis means I can’t grip buttons, and this takes my daughter about 20 minutes every morning” tells an assessor far more than “I have arthritis.”

Write about a bad day, not a good one. Most people understate their needs because they think about the days they cope. The DWP expects a description of the level of difficulty you face on your worst days, and how often those days occur. If pain or fatigue means you manage breakfast alone but need help by lunchtime, put that on the page.

Describe difficulties honestly even if nobody is currently helping you. The test is whether you reasonably require help, not whether someone is already providing it.

Daytime Needs

Go through every task where you need hands-on help or someone watching over you: washing, dressing, eating, using the toilet, moving around the house, managing medication, and anything else that applies to you. For each one, explain what goes wrong when you try alone, who helps, and roughly how long the help takes. Supervision counts too. If someone has to be there to prevent falls or other accidents, spell that out.

Nighttime Needs

Nighttime care is assessed separately, and it is the key to the higher rate. The night condition is met if you need prolonged or repeated help with personal care overnight, or if someone needs to stay awake for a prolonged period or at frequent intervals to watch over you and keep you safe. Examples include help getting to the toilet, managing incontinence, repositioning in bed because of pain, or supervision because of confusion or wandering. Be specific about how many times each night this happens and how long each episode lasts.

The distinction between needing care “day or night” and needing it “day and night” is what separates the lower rate from the higher rate,³ so keep the two sections clearly separate on the form and make sure both are fully filled in if both apply.

The Special Rules Shortcut for Terminal Illness

If a medical professional has said you are not expected to live more than 12 months, you can claim under the “special rules.” You are automatically awarded the higher rate, the usual six-month qualifying period does not apply, and a decision typically arrives within about two weeks.⁴

Your doctor, consultant, or hospice clinician completes an SR1 medical report confirming the prognosis. The SR1 is free and the healthcare professional sends it directly to the DWP. When you phone for the claim form, tell the helpline you are applying under the special rules so the claim is flagged for fast-track processing. On the form itself, tick the special-rules box at Question 1. You do not need to fill in the detailed care-needs sections.

Posting the Form

Send the completed form to:

Freepost
DWP Attendance Allowance

Write nothing else on the envelope. No postcode, no return address on the front. You do not need a stamp.² For proof of posting, take it to a Post Office and ask for a free certificate of posting, or use tracked delivery. Before you seal the envelope, photocopy or photograph every page. If the form goes astray or the DWP queries an answer, you will want your own copy in front of you.

What Happens After You Send It

Within about three weeks of the DWP receiving your form, you will get a text or letter confirming the claim is being processed and telling you when to expect a decision.¹ The DWP may contact your GP or consultant for further medical evidence. Face-to-face assessments are rare for Attendance Allowance but do happen in complex cases.

The decision letter tells you whether the benefit is awarded, which rate applies, and when the first payment will arrive. If you called the helpline to request the form and returned it within six weeks, payments run from the date of that call. If you applied online, they run from the date you submitted the claim. If you downloaded and posted the form yourself, they start from the day the DWP received it.¹

1
GOV.UK. Attendance Allowance – How to Claim
2
GOV.UK. Attendance Allowance Claim Form
3
GOV.UK. Proposed Benefit and Pension Rates 2026 to 2027
4
GOV.UK. Attendance Allowance – Eligibility