The form is long, and most of what goes wrong with it happens before anybody writes a word. The route you use to get hold of it sets your claim date; the device you open it on decides whether you can type into it at all.
What the form is
The Attendance Allowance claim form is published as the AA1A and printed as the AA1, headed “Attendance Allowance for people of State Pension age or over”. It runs to 32 pages, weighs 734 KB as a PDF, and was last updated on 20 February 2026. Knowing the length before you start is better than discovering it at page nine.
It arrives with a separate notes booklet, and the form’s own first instruction is to read page 3 of those notes before filling anything in. Our Attendance Allowance guide covers who the benefit is for before you commit an evening to the form (GOV.UK, Attendance Allowance claim form, checked 9 September 2026).
Two small mechanical instructions sit on page 1 of the form itself: use black ink, and if you make a mistake, cross it out with a pen rather than using correction fluid (the AA1A claim form (PDF), checked 1 November 2026).
The four ways to get hold of it
There are four routes, and they are not equivalent. You can apply through the Department for Work and Pensions’ online service, print the PDF yourself, ring the helpline for a printed copy, or ask for it in large print, braille or on audio CD. The helpline is 0800 731 0122.
The form’s own cover lists more formats than the GOV.UK page does: braille, British Sign Language, a hearing loop, translations, large print, Easy Read, audio, and a Welsh version, all on the same number (the AA1A claim form (PDF), checked 1 November 2026). Relay UK users dial 18001 followed by that number. Calls to 0800 numbers are free from personal mobiles and landlines.
The helpline runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm (GOV.UK, Attendance Allowance: how to claim, checked 9 September 2026). Our contact page covers the other reasons to ring it, including the changes you are obliged to report.
You cannot fill it in on a phone or tablet
GOV.UK is explicit about this: you cannot complete the form using a mobile phone or tablet. You have to use a desktop or laptop computer, or print the form and complete it by hand. It is the constraint that catches an adult child trying to help a parent from their phone.
If there is no computer in the house, the printed route is the practical one, and the helpline will send a copy rather than expecting you to find a printer (GOV.UK, Attendance Allowance claim form, checked 9 September 2026).
The route you choose sets the date your claim starts
How you get the form decides when your claim starts, and that is worth real money. Apply online and the claim starts the day you claim. Post a form and it starts the day the DWP receives it. Ring for a form and it starts on the date of your call.
That last route carries a condition: the claim runs from the date of your call only if you return the form within six weeks (GOV.UK, Attendance Allowance: how to claim, checked 9 September 2026).
The practical consequence is that ringing for a form on the day you decide to claim protects your date while you take your time over the answers. At the higher rate, six weeks is £687.60. Our Attendance Allowance pitfalls guide treats the same six weeks from the other direction, as a deadline that costs money when it passes unnoticed.
What to have in front of you before you start
GOV.UK lists five things to have ready: your National Insurance number, your address and contact details, details of the disability or health condition you need help with, details of your GP surgery or medical centre, and details of your care home, hospital or hospice if you are staying in one (GOV.UK, Attendance Allowance: how to claim, checked 9 September 2026).
None of that is difficult to find, but fetching it halfway through a 32-page form is how an evening’s work turns into two. The care home detail matters more than it looks — our guide to Attendance Allowance in care homes covers why who pays the fees changes the answer.
The form’s own checklist
Page 31 of the AA1 carries a checklist, and it names six things by question number. It is the department’s own list of the answers most worth checking before the form goes in, and it is the quickest review you can give a claim.
- Question 20 — tick the relevant box and sign the consent
- Question 64 — sign the declaration
- Question 19 — full details of your GP
- Question 17 — full details for anyone else you have seen
- Question 18 — full details for anyone else who helps you
- Question 28 — the date your care needs started
Two of those six are signatures. A form that reaches the department unsigned at question 20 or 64 is a form that cannot be decided, whatever is written in the 30 pages between them. The checklist and its question numbers are the form’s own (the AA1A claim form (PDF), checked 1 November 2026).
Send copies, never originals
Question 65 asks you to list everything you are sending with the form — a prescription list, a certificate of vision impairment, a medical report, a passport, a care plan. The form’s own instruction is to send copies, because the department cannot return what you send it.
That instruction sits on page 31 (the AA1A claim form (PDF), checked 1 November 2026), and it is expensive to discover afterwards. A passport or an original consultant’s letter posted to a freepost address is not coming back.
If you are claiming under the special rules
The form’s first question asks whether you are claiming under the special rules, which apply to people nearing the end of life and not expected to live longer than another 12 months. Answering yes means questions 21 to 46, the care questions, do not need answering at all.
The form asks for an SR1 alongside it. You get the SR1 from your doctor or specialist, you do not pay for it, and they can send it directly. If it has not arrived by the time the claim form is ready, the form’s instruction is to send the claim form anyway rather than wait, because waiting can delay payment (the AA1A claim form (PDF), checked 1 November 2026).
Where to send it
Send the completed form to Freepost DWP Attendance Allowance. GOV.UK is specific about the envelope: do not write anything except the freepost address on it, and you need neither a postcode nor a stamp. If the department posted you the form, use the envelope that came with it.
There is no postcode to look up and no stamp to buy (GOV.UK, Attendance Allowance: how to claim, checked 9 September 2026).
What happens after you send it
You will hear from the department within three weeks. GOV.UK states you will get a text or letter within three weeks that explains when you can expect a decision, so the first thing that arrives is a timetable rather than an answer (GOV.UK, Attendance Allowance: how to claim, checked 9 September 2026).
If three weeks pass with nothing at all, ring the helpline and check the form arrived. Post goes astray, and nothing about the claim tells you if it has.
If you live in Scotland
Attendance Allowance is not the benefit to claim in Scotland. GOV.UK states you need to apply for Pension Age Disability Payment instead, through Social Security Scotland rather than the Department for Work and Pensions. A DWP form completed at a Scottish address is weeks of effort spent on the wrong claim.
Our Pension Age Disability Payment guide covers the Scottish form and the deadline that applies if you have just moved. The purpose of the two benefits is broadly the same, but the form, the office and the process are different ones (GOV.UK, Attendance Allowance: how to claim and mygov.scot, Who can apply for Pension Age Disability Payment, checked 1 November 2026).
The one thing worth doing before the form goes in
Before you fill in a single care question, keep a record of a fortnight of ordinary days. The form asks how often you need help and for how long, and answers written from a diary read differently from answers written from memory on the evening the form is due.
Our printable claim diary is the version of that we hand people, and the wording checker tests what you write from it. Both cost nothing, need no account, and it is the only thing on this page that changes the outcome rather than the paperwork.