How to claim Attendance Allowance - and protect your start date

Attendance Allowance is claimed differently from most benefits, and one detail matters more than any other: the way you start the claim decides the date your money runs from. Get that right and everything else can be done calmly.

The three ways to claim, and what each does to your start date

Step by step

1. Ring 0800 731 0122 (or use Relay UK on 18001 then that number). Ask them to send the claim form. Note the date of your call.
2. Wait for the AA1 form to arrive with its prepaid envelope.
3. Fill it in over days, not minutes. You have six weeks. The care questions reward honest detail: what happens, how often, what help you need even if nobody currently gives it. Keep notes for a few days if it helps.
4. Send copies of useful evidence, never originals: a printed prescription list (the form says this saves you writing out your medicines), any care plan or clinic letter you already hold. Do not delay the form to chase new evidence.
5. Post it in the prepaid envelope to Freepost DWP Attendance Allowance, or hand your online claim in on time. Within about 3 weeks you should get a text or letter saying when to expect a decision.

Who can claim

You can claim if you are over State Pension age, have a physical or mental health condition (or both), and have needed help or supervision with personal care, or someone keeping you safe, for at least 6 months. It is not means-tested: savings and income do not matter, it is tax-free, and you can claim whether or not anyone actually helps you at the moment. What counts is the help you reasonably need.

Nearing the end of life

If a medical professional has said you may be nearing the end of life, special rules apply: the claim is fast-tracked, the 6-month rule does not apply, and the higher rate is paid automatically. Ask your doctor or specialist nurse for an SR1 form - and send your claim form in without waiting for it, because the SR1 can follow separately.

What happens after you send it

Decisions are normally made on paper, from your form and evidence. You will only be asked to attend an assessment if it is unclear how your condition affects you, and the DWP may contact your GP with your consent. That is why the form itself carries almost all the weight - it is the one conversation you get with the decision maker.

Before you open the form: five things to gather

The AA1 asks for a surprising amount of detail about the people around your health, and hunting for it mid-form is where momentum dies. Ten minutes of gathering first makes the whole job calmer:

• Your repeat prescription list. The form says it plainly: if you send in your prescription list, you do not need to fill in the medicines and dosage boxes at question 16. One printout from the pharmacy replaces the fiddliest table on the form.
• Specialist details. Question 17 asks about specialists seen in the last 12 months - clinic name, address, what they treat you for, when you last went. An appointment letter has all of it.
• Who helps you. Question 18 wants the name of anyone who helps, what they do and how often - a spouse, a daughter who rings every morning, a neighbour who takes the bins.
• Your GP surgery details for question 19.
• Copies of any reports or care plans you already hold. The form asks for copies, not originals, because nothing you send comes back.

If you have a week before you start, a care needs diary kept for seven days will answer half the form for you, in your own evidence.

The consent box that quietly decides claims

Question 20 asks you to sign consent for the DWP to contact your GP and specialists. It is easy to skim past, and costly to skip: the form warns that without consent they may be unable to make sure you qualify. Sign it.

The form's own note about your GP is worth reading twice: the GP gives details of medical fact - they do not decide the claim. So your GP does not need to champion you; their records simply need to reflect your reality. If your notes are thin because you have stopped mentioning problems you consider unfixable, our GP letter topics tool lists what is worth raising at your next appointment, in your own words rather than a script.

The ground rules printed on the form - take them literally

Three sentences inside the AA1 do more work than any tip we could give you:

• "Tell us about the difficulty you have or the help you need, whether you get the help or not." Unmet need counts. If you struggle alone because there is nobody to help, that is exactly what the form wants to hear.
• "Help means physical help, guidance or encouragement." Reminding, prompting and encouraging are help in law, not just lifting and carrying. This is the line that carries claims for memory problems, low mood and anxiety.
• "Usually means most of the time." You do not need every day to be your worst day. Questions 38, 41, 43 and 45 ask how many days and nights a week the needs apply - answer them honestly and the variation is captured properly.

Every care question follows the same shape: tick the form's own lines, give a frequency ("how often each day?"), then explain in the "tell us about this" box. Our section-by-section walkthrough covers all 65 questions; falls and supervision and the night questions deserve their own reading because they are the most under-claimed parts.

Questions 55 to 62: the statement someone writes for you

Near the end, the AA1 hands eight questions to someone who knows you - ideally the person most involved in your care. They describe how often they see you, what your conditions stop you doing, and what they actually do for you. It is the closest thing the form has to a witness box, and it is optional, so many people leave it blank. Do not. A husband writing "I wake twice most nights when she calls out, and I stay up for twenty minutes until she settles" gives the decision maker something no tick box can.

If the person helping you is also weighing up their own position, our guide to Carer's Allowance alongside Attendance Allowance explains what your award could mean for them.

Posting it: envelopes, copies and the checklist

The envelope needs three words and nothing else: Freepost DWP Attendance Allowance. No stamp, no postcode. Before it goes in:

• Consent at question 20 - signed and dated.
• Declaration at question 64 - signed.
• Question 28 - the date your difficulties began (this anchors the 6-month rule).
• Question 65 - list what you are enclosing: prescription list, clinic letters, care plan.
• Photocopies only. The DWP says it cannot return documents.
• Your own copy of the whole form - if you ever need a review or a challenge, you will want to know exactly what you said.

Within about 3 weeks you should get a text or letter confirming arrival and saying when to expect the decision. Our decision time guide covers what happens from there.

Mistakes that cost real money

Printing the form from the internet and posting it cold. A printed form's claim starts the day the DWP receives it. Phoning 0800 731 0122 for a form first protects the date of your call, as long as the form is back within 6 weeks. At the higher rate that difference is £114.60 for every week lost.

Waiting for a diagnosis. Attendance Allowance is about function, not labels. If the help has been needed for 6 months, the claim can start now, whatever the hospital is still investigating.

Describing the day and forgetting the night. The gap between £76.70 and £114.60 a week - about £1,970 a year - is decided almost entirely by questions 42 to 45. If broken nights are part of your life, they belong on the form in times-per-night and minutes.

Answering as the person you used to be. "I manage" usually means "I struggle slowly, painfully and sometimes dangerously". The form wants the second version, because it is the true one. Two honest minutes with our which-rate check before you start can recalibrate what you are about to write. And if you already suspect the claim date question has cost you months, read why there is no backdating - and what the phone call fixes today.

After the award: three doors it opens

An Attendance Allowance award is often worth more than its own money, because it is a qualifying benefit for other support:

• Pension Credit. An AA award can add a severe disability addition of £86.05 a week for a single person who lives alone and has no one paid to care for them - and it can make people eligible for Pension Credit who were previously just over the line. Our Pension Credit guide walks through it.
• Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction. Gov.uk's own wording: you could get extra of each if you get Attendance Allowance.
• Support for your carer. Their route is covered in the carer's guide - including the trap to check before anyone claims anything.

To see what the award itself is worth across a year, the annual value calculator does the arithmetic - and none of it is taxable or affected by savings or income.

Common questions