Attendance Allowance check → Filling in the form: what actually happens

Filling in the form: what actually happens

About thirty pages, what they ask for, what to have to hand, and where people lose claims that should have been straightforward.

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

What the form is

It is a long paper form that arrives in the post, or can be filled in online. Most of it is free text: the same question about an ordinary day, asked in a dozen different ways. There is no tick-box shortcut and no score to see.

What to have to hand

• National Insurance number.
• The name and address of the GP surgery, and of any consultant or clinic seen recently.
• A list of medicines.
• Bank account details for payment.
• Dates, roughly, of when things became difficult.

You do not need a doctor's letter, a diagnosis on paper, or a social worker's report. Supporting evidence helps, but the claim stands or falls on how the day is described.

Where claims are lost

1. Answering as though it is a good day. The form is scored on what is needed most of the time, including the bad days.
2. Understating for pride. “I manage” is true and also, on this form, fatal.
3. Describing walking. There is no mobility part to this benefit.
4. Leaving the night blank. Night-time need is the difference between the two rates.
5. Running out of patience by page twenty. The later sections are where most of the scoring detail sits.

How long it takes

Filling it in properly takes a couple of hours, usually spread over a few sittings. Decisions often take several weeks; the DWP writes to you with the result. The claim starts from the day the DWP receives the form — or, if you rang the helpline for the form and send it back within six weeks, from the day you rang.

If it is refused

You can ask for the decision to be looked at again — a mandatory reconsideration — within a month, and then appeal to a tribunal. If we filled the form in and they say no, we help you ask them to look again, free — and if it is still no, you get every penny back.

Doing it yourself

Plenty of people do. The claim is free to make, and some charities help with the form at no charge — availability depends where you live, and the wait can run to several weeks. If that suits you better than paying us, it is a perfectly good route. What it costs with us, and what it is worth.