How to Fill Out the DLA1 Claim Form: Care, Mobility, and Special Rules

To fill out the DLA1 form, call the Disability Living Allowance helpline first to register your claim, then work through the form section by section describing exactly how much more care and supervision your child needs than a non-disabled child of the same age. Post the completed form to Freepost DWP DLA Child within six weeks of your call. That six-week window is the single most important thing to know before you start: it protects an earlier claim start date and, because DLA cannot be backdated, protects several weeks of payments.¹

The form runs to around 40 pages and asks detailed questions about your child’s daily life. The answers you give — how specific, how concrete, how honest about bad days — decide the rate awarded. What follows walks through each part of the form in the order you’ll meet it.

Call the Helpline Before You Download Anything

Phoning the DLA helpline sets your claim date to the date of the call, provided DWP receives the completed form within six weeks.¹ If you skip that call and simply download the PDF from GOV.UK, your claim only starts when DWP receives the completed form in the post.² Given how long the form takes to complete properly, that can cost a month or more of payments.

If you do download it, use a desktop or laptop with a proper PDF reader. Phones, tablets, and browser-based viewers won’t save your entries. You can also print it and complete it by hand. There is no fully online application; the form is posted regardless.

One boundary point before you begin. This process applies in England and Wales. If your child lives in Scotland, DLA has been replaced by Child Disability Payment, administered by Social Security Scotland.³ In Northern Ireland, DLA for children still exists but is handled by the Department for Communities using its own version of the DLA1 form.⁴

Gather Everything Before You Start Writing

Have this information to hand before you open the form. Stopping halfway to chase a phone number is how claims sit half-finished for weeks.

Your child’s full name, date of birth, address, and National Insurance number if one has been issued.
The name, address, and phone number of your child’s GP.
Contact details for any consultants, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, or mental health professionals involved in the child’s care.
The name and address of the child’s school or nursery. DWP may contact staff directly about how the child functions in a structured setting.
A full medication list with names, dosages, and how often each is given, including anything administered at school.
Any medical reports, diagnostic letters, or an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan. These aren’t compulsory, but strong third-party evidence helps the case manager understand the child’s needs.

A caveat on those supporting documents. Only send ones that accurately reflect how much help your child needs. A report that downplays difficulties can weaken a claim rather than strengthen it. If a document doesn’t match day-to-day reality, leave it out.

The Care Component: Questions 54 to 72

Questions 54 through 72 cover the help your child needs with daily activities compared to a non-disabled child of the same age. There is no minimum age for the care component, so a baby or toddler can qualify if their needs go well beyond what any child that age would require.⁵

The care component pays at three rates for 2025/26:⁶

Lowest rate, £29.20 per week: extra help during part of the day, for at least an hour in total.
Middle rate, £73.90 per week: frequent help or supervision throughout either the day or the night.
Highest rate, £110.40 per week: frequent help or supervision throughout both day and night, or a terminal illness with a life expectancy of 12 months or less.

The questions cover washing, dressing, eating, toileting, taking medication, and managing therapy routines. They also ask whether the child needs someone to watch over them for safety — because they might hurt themselves, run into danger, or have seizures.

Specificity is what separates a successful answer from a weak one. “He needs help getting dressed” tells the case manager nothing. A useful answer explains that you physically guide his arms into the sleeves because he can’t coordinate the movement, that this takes 15 minutes each morning, and that a child his age without a disability would dress independently. Every type of help wants the same treatment: what you actually do, how often, and how long it takes.

Nighttime questions deserve the same care. The form asks how often your child wakes and what help you give — repositioning, changing, calming after night terrors, administering medication. If you’re up for long stretches or checking repeatedly, write down the times and frequency. The line between middle rate (day or night) and highest rate (day and night) often turns on what you put here.

Question 72 asks for a typical day and a bad day. Write a detailed timeline from waking to bedtime, marking every point where your child needs more help than peers. On a bad day, describe what changes — more frequent meltdowns, inability to eat, refusal to move — and how that increases the care you provide. Many claims are won or lost in this box.

The Mobility Component: Questions 43 to 53

Questions 43 through 53 cover how your child gets around outdoors. Unlike the care component, mobility has age restrictions.⁶

Higher rate, £77.05 per week, from age 3: for children who cannot walk, can only walk very short distances, have a severe visual impairment, are both deaf and blind, or have a severe mental impairment combined with serious behavioural difficulties and qualify for the highest rate of the care component.
Lower rate, £29.20 per week, from age 5: for children who can physically walk but need substantially more guidance or supervision outdoors than a non-disabled child of the same age.

For a physical walking difficulty, the form asks about distance, speed, balance, pain, and breathlessness. Be concrete. “She can walk about 20 metres on flat ground before her legs give way and she needs to sit down” is far more useful than “she has trouble walking.” Note any wheelchair, walking frame, or other aids, and describe what happens without them.

For a child whose mobility difficulties come from behaviour or cognition rather than a physical impairment, questions 49 through 53 focus on the need for guidance and supervision in unfamiliar places. The form asks whether the child understands danger, can follow a familiar route, or would run into traffic without being physically held. A child with severe autism who has no sense of road safety, for example, may qualify for the higher rate as “virtually unable to walk” in any practical sense, even though their legs work normally.

Question 38: The Statement From Someone Who Knows Your Child

Question 38 has to be completed by someone other than the parent who knows your child’s disability and its daily effects — a health professional, social worker, teacher, or carer. They write a short statement confirming the care or mobility needs you’ve described elsewhere in the form.

Choose someone who sees your child regularly and understands the gap between what your child can do and what a non-disabled child of the same age can do. A teacher who witnesses daily meltdowns or a physiotherapist who measures walking ability carries more weight than a family friend giving general support.

If Your Child Has a Terminal Illness: Special Rules

If your child has been diagnosed with a terminal illness and is not expected to live more than 12 months, the claim goes through Special Rules and is processed much faster, typically within about two weeks.⁷ You still complete the DLA1, but question 1 covers the Special Rules pathway, and you don’t need to fill in the detailed care questions from 54 onward.

You’ll also need an SR1 medical condition report from the child’s doctor, specialist, or consultant. The SR1 describes the conditions and treatments and is provided free of charge. Send it with the claim form. If the SR1 isn’t ready and the six-week deadline is approaching, post the form anyway with a letter explaining that the SR1 will follow. That preserves your claim start date.

Posting the Form

Post the completed form and any supporting documents to:

Freepost DWP DLA Child

Write nothing else on the envelope. No postcode, no extra address lines. No stamp needed.² Many parents pay for tracked or signed-for delivery for proof that DWP received the package. Either way, photocopy or scan the whole completed form before you post it. If something goes missing, or you later need to challenge the decision, you’ll want a record of exactly what you wrote.

The six-week deadline matters. If you called the helpline to request the form, DWP has to receive the completed application within six weeks of that call to keep the earlier claim start date.¹ If it arrives later, your claim starts on the date DWP receives it.

After You Post It

DWP will send an acknowledgement confirming they received the form and noting your claim start date. A case manager then reviews everything, and may contact your child’s GP, consultant, or school directly to verify or clarify what you’ve written. Face-to-face assessments aren’t usually needed for a child’s DLA claim; most decisions are made on the paperwork alone.

When the decision is made, DWP sends a detailed letter setting out whether the claim was successful, which component rates were awarded, the weekly amount, the start date, and how long the award runs before renewal. Award lengths vary from a year or two up to several years, depending on the child’s condition and expected prognosis. Keep the decision letter with your photocopy of the form. If any part of the award doesn’t match what you described, both documents are what you’ll need to ask for a reconsideration.

1
GOV.UK. Disability Living Allowance for Children – How to Claim
2
GOV.UK. Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for Children Claim Form
3
Citizens Advice. Child Disability Payment
4
nidirect. DLA Child Claim Form and Guidance Notes – DLA1
5
GOV.UK. Disability Living Allowance for Children – Eligibility
6
GOV.UK. Benefit and Pension Rates 2025 to 2026
7
Citizens Advice. Claiming DLA for a Terminally Ill Child