Claiming Attendance Allowance for your mum or dad: who fills in the form, who signs it - and when you need to be the appointee

Can you claim Attendance Allowance for your mother or father? Yes - and the form expects you to. The AA1 says in plain print that you can fill it in for someone else. What you cannot usually do is sign it for them. The claimant signs their own form unless you already hold authority as their DWP appointee, a deputy or an attorney for property and finance; the other exceptions are asking the DWP to make you the appointee and claiming under the special rules without their knowledge. Everything on this page follows from that distinction between helping and signing; Scotland and Northern Ireland have rules of their own, covered separately below.

First, the phone call - in their name, not yours

Before anyone opens the form, protect the date. Ring the Attendance Allowance helpline on 0800 731 0122 (Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm; Relay UK 18001 then the number) and ask for a claim form: if it goes back within 6 weeks, the claim starts on the date of the call. Apply online and it starts on the day you submit. Print the form from gov.uk and post it cold and the claim starts only when the DWP receives it - the weakest route, because nothing is paid for the weeks before the claim date. Our claiming guide covers all three routes. Make the call with your parent beside you if you can, and have their National Insurance number ready.

Helper, attorney, appointee: three levels of authority

A helper has no formal status and needs none: gov.uk says you can help someone with their benefit claim without being their appointee. You fill in every box from your parent's answers, gather the evidence and post the envelope; your parent signs the consent at question 20 and the declaration at question 64, and the DWP writes to them. An attorney holds a registered Power of Attorney for property and financial affairs, and the form lets you sign in their place once you prove it. An appointee has been appointed by the DWP itself to receive and deal with the benefits of someone who cannot manage their own affairs; the money is paid to the appointee and the duties are the appointee's.

Question 15, line by line

Page 5 of the current form (version 11/25) is headed Signing the form for someone else and asks: Are you signing the form for someone else? No sends you to question 16 and your parent signs later. Yes tells you to make sure you sign the consent at question 20 and the declaration at question 64, then asks why you are signing: the special rules for someone nearing the end of life; a DWP appointee; Power of Attorney for property and finance; a deputy; a tutor, curator bonis or judicial factor under Scottish law; a corporate acting body or corporate appointee; and I want to be appointed to act on their behalf. The section-by-section walkthrough covers the other 64 questions.

Power of Attorney: only the money kind counts here

The form is explicit and families miss it: the Power of Attorney that lets you sign is the one for property and finance, and this does not include Power of Attorney for Health and Welfare. In England and Wales a lasting power of attorney comes in those two types. The property and financial affairs type covers bank accounts, bills and collecting benefits, and gov.uk says it can be used as soon as it is registered, with the donor's permission. The health and welfare type can only be used once the person cannot make their own decisions, and it does not authorise you to sign a benefit form. Question 15 then asks Do you have an online account? If the power is on the government's online service, tick yes and the DWP contacts you for an access code. If not, send the full registered documents, original or certified copy; the form says they will be sent back, and that not sending them could cause delays. A deputy appointed by the Court of Protection signs the same way and encloses the order - but for a benefit claim alone families rarely go to court, because the DWP has a simpler mechanism of its own.

Becoming the appointee: what the DWP actually does

Appointeeship is the DWP's route for people who, in gov.uk's words, cannot manage their own affairs because they are mentally incapable or severely disabled. Its legal basis is regulation 33 of the Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1987. Only one appointee can act for a claimant - a relative, a friend or an organisation such as a solicitor. On a new claim the route is the form itself: tick I want to be appointed to act on their behalf at question 15 - the form's own wording covers a person too ill or disabled to claim for themselves or lacking the mental capacity to manage their own affairs - and give your own name, National Insurance number, date of birth, address and daytime number. Gov.uk sets out what follows in four steps: the DWP arranges to check that your parent needs an appointee, interviews you, completes form BF56 with you at the interview and, if it agrees, sends form BF57 confirming the appointment.

Read the duties before you tick the box, because they are yours personally. Gov.uk lists them: sign the benefit claim form; tell the benefit office about any changes which affect how much the claimant gets; spend the benefit, which is paid directly to you, in the claimant's best interests; and tell the benefit office if you stop being the appointee. If the benefit is overpaid you could, depending on the circumstances, be held responsible. You can resign, and the DWP can end the appointment if you do not act properly, if your parent becomes able to manage again or if you become unable to. In practice the appointee is the person who reports hospital and care home stays and the changes in needs the declaration requires.

Filling it in together: the honesty that protects your parent

Whoever signs, the answers come from the same place: your parent's real week, day and night. Help means physical help, guidance or encouragement, so your reminding and prompting counts. The form asks about help needed whether you get the help or not, so an unmet need is still a need. And the night questions decide the rate: £114.60 a week rather than £76.70 turns on whether someone needs to be up with them, how often and for how long - about £1,970 a year that parents rarely volunteer. Their reflex answer is I manage - see the mistakes guide. Keep the Care Needs Diary for a fortnight, then translate each day into the form's units: how often each day, how many times a night, how many minutes each time, how many days a week. Where memory or confusion is part of the picture, questions 40 and 44 and the line how long can you be safely left for at a time? carry the claim; where falls do, question 34 wants numbers.

Question 18 and the statement at 55 to 62: where you appear by name

You are on the form twice even as a plain helper. Question 18 asks who helps: your name, what you do, how you are related and how often - answer it in the same units as the care questions. Questions 55 to 62 offer a statement from someone who knows the claimant, the form's only witness box. If your parent signs the form, you are its natural author, and the statement guide gives the six things to cover. If you sign as appointee or attorney, the form is explicit: please get someone else to fill in this section. Line up a sibling, a neighbour or a paid carer now, before the 6 weeks run.

Consent, evidence and where the money goes

Question 20 is the consent for the DWP to contact your parent's GP and specialists, signed by your parent or by you under question 15; without it, the form warns, the DWP may be unable to make sure they qualify. Enclose a printed prescription list and the medicine columns at question 16 can stay blank. Copies only, never originals - the DWP cannot return them; the evidence checklist keeps the folder short. Questions 50 to 54 take the account details: normally your parent's own account for a helper or an attorney, while for an appointee, in gov.uk's words, the benefit is paid directly to you to spend in your parent's best interests - keep it separate and keep a note of what it buys. The benefit is tax-free and not means-tested, so savings and income are never asked about. What an award unlocks is where the arithmetic starts: Pension Credit can rise by a severe disability addition of £86.05 a week for a parent who lives alone and has nobody paid a carer's benefit for looking after them.

If your parent lives with you

Attendance Allowance does not care whose roof it is: living with a son or daughter changes neither the entitlement nor the rate, because the test is the help needed, whether they get it or not. Two things do move. The Pension Credit severe disability addition is for someone who lives alone in the rules' sense, so a parent moving in can change that sum - ring the Pension Service with the household's facts. And your own Carer's Allowance position opens up: £86.45 a week for at least 35 hours of care and earnings of £204 a week or less after deductions - but being paid it can switch off your parent's severe disability addition, so run the household sum in both directions first and ask about council tax in the same call.

Scotland: Pension Age Disability Payment has its own rules

A parent in Scotland does not claim Attendance Allowance at all. The benefit is Pension Age Disability Payment, run by Social Security Scotland, and the rules on acting for someone are Scottish. Mygov.scot says you can apply on behalf of someone not able to complete the application on their own, and the form opens by asking who is completing it: the person alone; someone with legal power to act (a Power of Attorney, a guardian, a deputy or a Social Security Scotland appointee); someone helped by a friend, relative or organisation they want as their third party representative; or someone applying to be the person's appointee because they believe the person cannot act for themselves. The third party route is the answer for a parent who can still decide: the representative can support the application, ask for updates, make calls and receive notifications, authorised on a third party authorisation form. Appointeeship is only for an adult who cannot make or communicate decisions because of a mental or physical health condition - mygov.scot says a person who can make their own decisions cannot have one. You ask by phone on 0800 182 2222 or in writing to Social Security Scotland, General Enquiries, PO Box 10301, Dundee DD1 9FY; Social Security Scotland then arranges a visit with you and your parent to check that an appointee is needed. A DWP appointeeship does not carry over automatically; existing legal authority does, proved with originals or certified copies. Scottish powers of attorney (continuing for finance, welfare for care) are registered with the Office of the Public Guardian in Scotland. How to apply for PADP covers the rest.

Northern Ireland: same form, the Department for Communities

In Northern Ireland the form is still the AA1 and question 15 reads the same, but the authority is the Department for Communities, whose appointee rules on nidirect are the strictest of the three. You can only be an appointee if the Department has appointed you, after an interview and form BF56; it arranges an interview with you and visits your parent; and it will not appoint you if your parent is capable and just needs general help, nor just because it seems the most convenient way of helping. Only one appointee can act. Apply through the Disability and Carers Service on 0800 587 0912 (textphone 0800 012 1574). The benefit is usually paid to the appointee, and the appointment ends if you resign, if you stop acting in your parent's best interests or when your parent dies. Power of Attorney in Northern Ireland is the enduring kind and covers financial matters only - there are no lasting powers of attorney there - and nidirect says it must be registered with the High Court (Office of Care and Protection) once the attorney believes the person is no longer capable of managing their affairs. The claim date lever works as in Great Britain: the date of the phone call, or of an email to dcs.forms@dfcni.gov.uk, counts if the form is back within 6 weeks, and the completed form goes to DfC Attendance Allowance, Mail Handling Site A, Wolverhampton WV98 2JS.

Special rules: claiming without telling them

One box on question 15 exists for the hardest situation. If a doctor has said your parent is nearing the end of life and not expected to live longer than another 12 months, you can claim under the special rules in their absence or without their knowledge: tick the first box, ask the clinician for an SR1 and send the form without waiting for it. The higher rate follows automatically and the 6-month qualifying period does not apply. Letters go to your parent, and the form promises there is no mention of end of life or the special rules in them. The special rules guide explains the route gently.

Common questions