Attendance Allowance check → Attendance Allowance for sight loss: what to write

Attendance Allowance for sight loss: what to write

How sight loss counts for Attendance Allowance: reading post, eye drops, food, clothes, falls and unfamiliar places, and what to write on the AA1.

Written and checked by the Attendance Allowance Check team at Virix Ltd. Last reviewed 25 September 2026 against gov.uk.

Sight loss changes a day in ways that are easy to leave off a form. Someone with macular degeneration may still walk round the house without trouble, but no longer read the post, tell one tablet box from another, or see that a shirt has a stain on it. Help with reading or checking feels small, so it often goes unmentioned. This guide covers sight loss whatever the cause, including macular degeneration, glaucoma, cataracts and diabetic retinopathy, and sight loss together with hearing loss. For the short overview of other conditions, see our conditions page.

How sight loss fits the rules

GOV.UK says Attendance Allowance is for people over State Pension age who have a physical disability, “including sensory disability, for example blindness”, severe enough that they need help caring for themselves or someone to supervise them, and who have needed that help for at least six months. The eligibility check sets out the other conditions.

The DWP’s guidance for decision makers lists “seeing” as one of the bodily functions that help can be given with, alongside dressing, eating and hearing. It says a visually impaired person may need help with reading letters, with choosing appropriate clothing, or guidance, by touch or by the spoken word, to avoid injury when walking in unfamiliar surroundings. It also gives, as examples of help given by the spoken word, guiding a blind person in unfamiliar surroundings and reading personal correspondence to a person with a visual impairment. Spoken help counts only when the helper is there in person, so a relative reading a letter over the telephone is not the same as someone sitting beside you.

What counts is the help you reasonably need, not the help you happen to get; the form’s notes say that even if you are not actually getting the help you need, you can still get Attendance Allowance. The guidance also says needs that are small on their own can, combined with others, bring someone within the rules, and that severity is judged by the needs that arise, not by the name of the condition.

Do you need to be registered as sight impaired?

No. Being registered as sight impaired or severely sight impaired is not one of the conditions GOV.UK lists for Attendance Allowance, and a registration does not decide the claim on its own. If you have been registered, or have a certificate from the eye clinic, it is still worth mentioning at question 16 and sending a copy as a report at question 21, because it helps explain the picture. Separately, GOV.UK explains that in England and Wales, being registered with your council as blind or severely sight impaired, with a certificate, is what lets you claim Blind Person’s Allowance, an extra Income Tax allowance.

Where the help usually shows

Post, forms and the telephone

Question 37 asks whether you need help from another person to communicate, and lists sight difficulty as an example. Among its tick boxes are “reading letters, filling in forms, replying to mail” and “answering or using the phone”. The form asks you to answer as if using your normal aids, such as glasses. Say what you cannot read, who reads it to you, and how often.

Medicines and eye drops

Question 36 mentions eye drops by name, and includes handling medicine and understanding which medicines to take, how much and when. Describe whether you can read labels, tell similar boxes apart and put in your own drops, and if someone does it for you, how often and for how long.

Eating and drinking

Question 35 includes “identifying food on your plate”. Finding and cutting food, pouring hot drinks and checking whether food has gone off can all be hard. Cooking in general is not counted, but help with eating and drinking is.

Dressing and appearance

Question 32 has boxes for help “choosing the appropriate clothes”, and question 31 includes “checking your appearance”. Matching colours, noticing stains, putting clothes on the right way round, shaving and doing your hair are worth describing, with who checks and how often.

Moving about, and places you do not know

Question 33 is about moving around indoors, and says indoors means anywhere inside, not just your own home. Attendance Allowance has no separate mobility part, so difficulty walking outdoors does not count on its own. But the guidance recognises in-person guidance to avoid injury in unfamiliar surroundings as help with seeing, so describe it: where you go, who guides you and what happens without them.

Falls and near misses

Question 34 asks whether you fall or stumble, and gives “problems with your sight” as one of its examples. It asks when you last fell and stumbled, roughly how many times in the last month and year, whether you hurt yourself and whether you need help to get up. Missed steps, walking into doors and tripping over things left out all belong here, with rough dates and what happened.

Hobbies and social life

Question 39 asks about help you need, or would need, to take part in hobbies, interests, social or religious activities, at home and when you go out. The guidance says help needed for a reasonable level of social or leisure activity counts. Include things you have stopped doing because nobody is available to help.

Someone keeping an eye on you

Question 40 asks whether you usually need someone to keep an eye on you, and gives sight difficulty as an example. Supervision means someone nearby and ready to step in to prevent substantial danger, such as a fall. If you are not safe using the cooker, a kettle or the stairs without someone about, tick the boxes that fit and say how long you can safely be left.

Nights

Night means the time the household has closed down. Getting to the toilet in the dark, finding tablets or drops you need at night, and falls on the way are all worth describing at question 42. Question 44, about someone needing to be awake to watch over you, also gives sight difficulty as an example. Our guide to night-time needs explains the difference between the two.

Aids: list them, and say what they do not solve

Question 27 gives a magnifier as its own example of an aid, and the form’s notes add a textphone and a braille terminal. The DWP’s guidance says an aid may reduce or remove the need for help, but the decision maker has to consider whether it is reasonable and practicable for that person to get and use, and what the consequences would be. So list what you use honestly, then say what you still cannot do with it. “I have a magnifier but cannot read handwriting or small print on medicine boxes with it” tells the decision maker much more than the word “magnifier”.

Sight and hearing loss together

The guidance says that if someone with severe hearing difficulties needs another person to interpret in order to communicate, that is attention with hearing. It also says that “unusual efforts” to get a person’s attention before a conversation can count, though not something as slight as a tap on the shoulder. Question 37 lets you describe this, and gives British Sign Language as an example. Describe how people get your attention, whether you need someone at appointments, and whether you would notice the doorbell, a visitor or a smoke alarm.

What to write at the key questions

The question numbers below are from the AA1 (edition 11/25). For each one, say what happens, how often, how long it takes, and what goes wrong without help.

Illustrative examples

These are made-up examples to show the level of detail, not real people or wording to copy.

At question 37: “I have macular degeneration in both eyes and cannot read ordinary print, even with my magnifier. My son reads all my post to me when he visits, about four times a week, for around 20 minutes, and fills in any forms. Last year I missed a hospital appointment because I could not read the letter.”

At question 36: “I have glaucoma drops twice a day. I cannot see whether the drop has gone in, so my wife puts them in morning and night, about five minutes each time. I cannot tell my blood pressure tablets from my water tablets, so she sets them out every morning.”

For more on phrasing, see our example answers, what not to write and the daytime questions guide.

The statement from someone who knows you

Questions 55 to 62 are for an optional statement from someone who knows you. The form suggests the best person is the one most involved with your treatment or care. That might be a relative who reads your post, describing specific things they have seen. If someone is signing the form on your behalf, the form asks for a different person to fill in this statement.

Timing, and the end of life

Question 28 asks roughly when you started to need the help; normally you must have needed it for six months. If a doctor or other medical professional has said someone may have 12 months or less to live, GOV.UK explains the special rules for end of life: no six-month wait, and the higher rate. See our page on rates and payment.

Getting the form, and free help

You can claim online, or download the AA1 from GOV.UK, fill it in on paper and send it by post; GOV.UK explains how to claim. If the person lives in Scotland, Pension Age Disability Payment replaces Attendance Allowance for new claims. RNIB and the Macular Society offer information for people with sight loss, and Age UK and Citizens Advice help with benefit forms free of charge where they can. Our guide to the whole AA1 covers the rest of the form.

Nothing on this page is medical advice, and we cannot say whether any claim will succeed; that is decided by the DWP.

If you would like a hand with it

We are a private company, Virix Ltd, not part of any government department. We go through the AA1 with you, or with the person you care for, over the telephone, write the answers up in your own words, then print the form and post it to you to read, sign and send. It costs £149, once. If the claim is refused, we help you ask for the decision to be looked at again at no extra cost, and if the answer is still no, we refund the full £149. Or you can pay £15 now for printing and posting, and £234 only if the claim is awarded (terms). Equally, the claim is free to make yourself, and Age UK and Citizens Advice help at no charge where they have capacity, as do some local services; RNIB and the Macular Society also offer free information. How the options compare.