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SR1 Form (formerly DS1500)

Checked: 04-10-2024 by Rob Adams Next Review: 02-10-2026

Overview

The Special Rules allow people nearing the end of life to:

get faster, easier access to certain benefits
get higher payments for certain benefits
avoid a medical assessment

An adult or child is nearing the end of life when they are likely to have less than 12 months to live.

The Special Rules apply to anyone who may be nearing the end of life due to age or illness. There are no negative consequences for the clinician or patient if a patient who claims under the Special Rules lives longer than expected (1).

An introductory video and link to an e-learning module are available (see Resources section at bottom of this page).

SR1 Form for Clinicians

Clinicians can be asked to provide medical evidence on an SR1 form to support a benefit claim made under the Special Rules.

The SR1 form has replaced the DS1500 form.

A clinician should complete an SR1 form promptly if they believe that their patient:

has a progressive disease, and
as a consequence of that disease, it would not be a surprise if their patient were to die within 12 months

A clinician may be:

a GP
a consultant
a specialty doctor
a hospice doctor, or
a senior specialist nurse (such as a clinical nurse specialist, advanced nurse practitioner or similar)

Claiming Process for Patients

The SR1 form does not replace the need for the patient to submit a claim form but does provide the evidence a patient needs when making a claim under the Special Rules.

The process for patients is available below:

Get benefits if you're nearing the end of life - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

SR1 Completion

Electronic Form in EMIS (for GPs)

The SR1 form is available as an EMIS template for BNSSG GPs. Once completed and saved it cannot be sent unless it is converted into a .pdf document. Your medical secretary may be able to do this for you. It should then be emailed from a secure email address (e.g @nhs.net) to form.e-SR1@dwp.gov.uk

Forms not sent in a .pdf format will be rejected.

Paper Form

You cannot print out an electronic form to complete but you must obtain a book of paper forms. These can be ordered from from the government website. One you have completed a paper SR1 form and signed it then the original can be given to the patient to submit with their claim or it can be sent to the address below:

Personal Independence Payment (10)
Mail Handling Site A
Wolverhampton
WV98 1AE

NHS Spine Portal (although not for all users)

This service may be available from the NHS Portal on your desktop. You will need an NHS smartcard to access the service. Once you have accessed the NHS Portal, click on ‘Launch Digital SR1 Service’ and complete the SR1 form online.

Once you have submitted the SR1 form online, you can download a copy of the form and save it to your patient’s medical record.

However, this does not seem to be available to some users and this system may well be phased out in the future.

SR1 Claim

A fee is claimable for completion of a SR1 form if the person completing is a GMC registered doctor.

The claim form is also available as an EMIS template but again must be converted into a .pdf format before submitting it to form.e-SR1@dwp.gov.uk

Paper claim forms can also be submitted and sent to the same address as the SR1 form (the claim form should not be given to the patient).

You cannot submit claim forms via the NHS portal.

Resources

(1) The ‘Special Rules’: how the benefit system supports people nearing the end of life - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

(2) Get benefits if you're nearing the end of life - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Supporting Information for GPs

Efforts are made to ensure the accuracy and agreement of these guidelines, including any content uploaded, referred to or linked to from the system. However, BNSSG ICB cannot guarantee this. This guidance does not override the individual responsibility of healthcare professionals to make decisions appropriate to the circumstances of the individual patient, in consultation with the patient and/or guardian or carer, in accordance with the mental capacity act, and informed by the summary of product characteristics of any drugs they are considering. Practitioners are required to perform their duties in accordance with the law and their regulators and nothing in this guidance should be interpreted in a way that would be inconsistent with compliance with those duties.

Information provided through Remedy is continually updated so please be aware any printed copies may quickly become out of date.