Attendance Allowance check → How to fill in the Attendance Allowance form (AA1)

How to fill in the Attendance Allowance form (AA1)

A plain guide to the AA1 claim form: what each part asks, how to prepare, how to describe the help you need, and where to send it.

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

What the AA1 form is

AA1 is the paper claim form for Attendance Allowance in England and Wales. The current edition is 32 pages long — the edition date, 11/25, is printed at the foot of each page — and it comes with a separate 12-page booklet of notes. You can print it from GOV.UK, or ring the Attendance Allowance helpline on 0800 731 0122 (Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm) and ask for a paper copy in the post. The helpline can also send it in large print, braille or audio. There is an online claim as well, if that suits you better.

If you print the form yourself, note that the fillable version cannot be completed on a phone or tablet. You need a desktop or laptop computer with a PDF reader, or you can simply print it and fill it in by hand.

If you live in Scotland, the benefit is Pension Age Disability Payment instead, and the form is different.

Why it can be worth ringing for the form

The claim date matters, because payments cannot start before it. If you post a printed form, the claim starts on the day the DWP receives it. If you ring the helpline for a form and send it back within six weeks, the claim starts on the day you rang. That gives you time to fill it in carefully without losing anything.

How the form is laid out

The question numbers below are from the paper form.

Most of the weight sits in questions 28 to 45. That is where the form asks, task by task, what is hard and how often. We have separate guides to the daytime questions and the night-time questions.

Before you start

The notes that come with the form suggest having these to hand. Do not worry if you cannot find all of them.

• Your National Insurance number — it is on letters from the DWP.
• Your GP's name and the surgery address.
• A list of your medicines. If you have a spare, up-to-date printed prescription list, send it in: then you do not need to write out each medicine and dose, though you still need to name your illnesses.
• Details of anyone else you have seen about your health in the last 12 months — a consultant, nurse, physiotherapist, occupational therapist, social worker.
• Your hospital record number, if you know it. It is on appointment cards and letters.
• The dates of any stay in hospital or a care home, and the name and address of the place.

Keep a short record first

The notes also suggest writing down what you needed help with, or found difficult, over one or two days. If you have good days and bad days, keep a record of each. Start when you get up, and carry on through the night until you get up the next morning. You can send the record in with the form if you want to. Even if you do not send it, it makes the form much easier to fill in.

Take your time

You do not have to fill it in at one sitting. Use black ink. If you make a mistake, cross it out with a pen — do not use correction fluid. Spelling does not matter.

If someone is nearing the end of life

Question 01 asks whether the claim is under the special rules, for someone not expected to live longer than another 12 months. If so, ask the doctor or specialist for an SR1 form — it is free, and the surgery can often arrange it without an appointment. Do not wait for it: send the claim form straight away, and send the SR1 when you can. Under the special rules the care questions are skipped, the claim is dealt with more quickly, and it is paid at the higher rate without the usual six-month wait.

How to answer the care questions

Describe the help you need, not the help you get

The form says it plainly: tell them about the difficulty you have or the help you need, whether you get the help or not. Someone who lives alone and struggles through each morning is describing a need, even if nobody is there to help.

“Usually” means most of the time

Many questions begin “Do you usually have difficulty…”. The form explains that usually means most of the time. If your condition varies, say how: how many days a week are bad, what a bad day looks like, and what a good day looks like. Question 38 asks directly how many days a week you have difficulty.

Put numbers on it

Most sections have boxes asking how often each day. The night section also asks how many minutes each time. Fill these in. “Three times a day, about fifteen minutes each time” tells the reader far more than “sometimes”.

Say who helps and what they actually do

On this form, help means physical help, guidance or encouragement from someone else. Reminding someone to take tablets counts. So does persuading them to get out of bed, or standing nearby while they get into the bath. Name the person — a daughter, a neighbour, a paid carer — and say what they do and how often. Question 18 asks for the main helper's details; others can go in question 63.

Replace “I manage” with how you manage

Many people write “I manage” out of habit. It may be true, but it hides the detail the form needs. Say how you manage: holding on to furniture, sitting down halfway through, taking forty minutes, stopping because of pain or breathlessness, or not doing something at all any more. The form's own examples ask for exactly this.

Mention aids, and any trouble using them

Question 27 asks about aids such as a stick, rails, a bath seat or a commode. Tick the second box for any that a professional prescribed. If you need someone's help to use an aid, say so.

Keep it true

You sign a declaration that the information is complete and correct. Wrong information can mean repaying money or worse. Understating is also inaccurate. Aim for an honest account of a typical week, bad days included.

Remember too that Attendance Allowance is about personal care and supervision. Difficulty getting out and about is not, on its own, what it pays for. Our guide to what counts as needing help explains this in more detail.

Use the spare boxes

Almost every care question ends with “Is there anything else you want to tell us…?”. That is the place for the detail that does not fit a tick box. Question 46 asks for anything else about your care needs, and question 63 gives a whole page for extra information. If you continue on separate paper, write your name and National Insurance number at the top of each sheet.

The statement from someone who knows you

Questions 55 to 62 are for a short statement from someone who knows you. It is optional. The form suggests the person most involved with your treatment or care — perhaps someone you have already named. If you are filling in the form for someone else and signing it for them, ask a different person to write this part.

Your GP and consent

Question 19 asks for your GP's details. The form explains that the GP only gives medical facts; they do not decide whether you get Attendance Allowance. Question 20 asks whether you agree to the DWP contacting your GP and the others you have named. You do not have to agree, but if you do not, they may be unable to check that you qualify. Question 20 has its own signature and date, separate from the declaration at question 64. Both need signing.

What to send with the form

• An up-to-date printed prescription list, if you have one.
• Any reports you already hold — a care plan, an occupational therapy assessment, a hospital letter. Do not worry if you have none; do not delay the form to get them.
• Your day-and-night record, if you kept one.
• If you are not a British or Irish national, the notes explain which documents to include.

Send copies, not originals — the DWP cannot return them. List everything you are sending at question 65. Do not send the notes booklet back.

Check before you post it

The last page of the form has its own checklist. Before you seal the envelope, make sure that:

1. question 20 is ticked, signed and dated;
2. the declaration at question 64 is signed and dated;
3. your GP's full details are at question 19;
4. anyone else you have seen is at question 17, and anyone else who helps is at question 18;
5. question 28 gives the date, or rough date, your care needs started.

It is sensible to keep a photocopy or photographs of the completed form. It helps if the DWP rings with questions, and if you ever need to ask for the decision to be looked at again.

Where to send it

If the form came in the post, use the envelope it came with. It does not need a stamp. Otherwise, address the envelope to:

Freepost DWP Attendance Allowance

Write nothing else on the envelope. You do not need a postcode or a stamp. The notes booklet has a box for the date you post it — worth filling in.

What happens next

Within three weeks of sending the form you should get a text or letter saying when to expect a decision. You will only be asked to an assessment if it is unclear how your condition affects you, and a letter will explain why.

The decision comes by letter. If you are awarded Attendance Allowance, it is paid at one of two rates: £76.70 or £114.60 a week. Our page on rates and how it is paid explains which applies when. If you disagree with the decision, you can ask for a mandatory reconsideration, usually within one month of the date on the letter.

More on each part of the form

• The daytime questions, one by one — getting up, the toilet, washing, dressing, meals, medicines, moving about, falls, communicating and supervision.
• The night-time questions — and why they decide between the two rates.
• Filling in the form: what actually happens — a shorter overview.
• What counts as needing help.
• Help with the claim: what it costs and what it is worth.

If you would like a hand with it

We are a private company, Virix Ltd, and we fill in the AA1 with you over the telephone, in your own words, then print it and post it to you ready to sign. You check it, sign it and send it yourself. It costs £149, once — and if they say no, we help you ask them to look again, free; if the answer is still no, you get the £149 back. Or £249, paid only if the claim is awarded. You do not have to use us: the claim is free, many people fill in the form themselves, and Age UK and Citizens Advice can help at no charge, depending on where you live. How the options compare.