An enhanced annuity application starts with health and lifestyle questions; answer them fully and accurately, because your income rests on them.
Taking a pension as a guaranteed income is a decision for the rest of your life, so it helps to know what is asked before you sit down with the form. Pension Wise, from MoneyHelper, is free, impartial guidance backed by government. Your own health and pension may change the answers, and the short form here starts a free call-back from an adviser with FCA authorisation.
How to apply for an enhanced annuity
Applying is usually part of buying an ordinary pension annuity rather than a separate process: the health questions sit inside the quote, and the answers decide whether a higher offer comes back. Aviva, for example, covers its Enhanced Pension Annuity in the same key features document as its standard Pension Annuity. At the point where you pick a provider and set the annuity up, you will usually be asked medical questions and to confirm any optional extras. In practice the journey runs in a few steps.
- Know what you are buying. Decide how much of the pot goes in, and whether you want income that rises, or cover for a partner. What a pension annuity is explains the choices.
- Ask for quotes with your health details included. Each provider then works from your details and the options above, plus the health and lifestyle questions.
- Compare. Whether or not your current provider offers a guaranteed rate, MoneyHelper's guidance is to compare what different providers will pay you. Comparing annuity rates covers the routes.
- Complete the provider's own application. Aviva's key features refer to signing an application form, and the provider may check what you told it.
What changes the size of an offer is the subject of enhanced annuity rates, and which conditions count is in who qualifies for an enhanced annuity. This page stays with the paperwork and the questions.
What the enhanced annuity health questionnaire asks
The questionnaire asks about your medical history and your lifestyle. Legal & General, for one, says its quote journey asks about your medical history and lifestyle factors, such as whether you have been diagnosed with health conditions or if you smoke. Expect questions in these areas:
- Diagnoses and history: the conditions you have been diagnosed with.
- Treatment and medication: the same insurer asks you to share full details of any medication you take or treatment you are undergoing.
- Smoking and other lifestyle habits.
- Your dependant, if the annuity will carry on paying a partner: Aviva's key features say a dependant may be asked to complete a health questionnaire too (see joint life annuities).
The same guide notes that every provider has its own list of conditions, so the same answers can lead to different offers. How a particular firm lays out its questions is down to that firm; the adviser firm that rings back after you use the form here can explain, free, what the one you are given involves.
Will I need a medical examination or a doctor's report?
Not always: one provider rules an examination out, others say one is possible, and a report from your doctor can be asked for either way. Aviva's key features say you will not be required to attend a medical examination, but that it may ask you, or a dependant, to complete a health questionnaire and may ask your doctor for a medical report. Legal & General says the provider may ask for an examination, or just a report from your doctor. MoneyHelper notes that the provider might ask your doctor for more information or for you to attend a medical examination.
Providers can also check what you have told them. Aviva's key features say it may ask your permission to approach your doctor, or ask you to carry out a medical test, to confirm that your information is correct. Refusing permission or the test can count against you, as the next section shows. Which of these steps a firm would use for your circumstances is for that firm to say when you ask for a quote.
Why your answers need to be complete and accurate
The income offered is built on what you declare, so errors cost you. Aviva sets it out directly: giving inaccurate information, or refusing a medical test or permission to consult your doctor, may mean a reduction in the income payments and recovery of payments already made. Its list of things to do before buying adds that if questions are not answered fully, truthfully and accurately, income may be reduced to its standard rates and overpayments recovered.
Legal & General says much the same: a provider might change or withdraw the rate it offers, or you might have to repay overpayments based on what you originally told it. Aviva also says that if you supply medical information and your doctor cannot support it, the income may fall to standard rates unless further medical evidence is provided.
So before you answer, check your own records: repeat prescriptions, hospital letters, the dates of diagnoses. If you are unsure whether something counts, say so and ask the provider rather than leaving it out. An adviser can talk through which details to gather before you request quotes; ask for that call through the form here if you would like it.
Between quote and start date: what can change
An illustration is not the end of the process. Aviva's key features say annuity rates may change after you have submitted your application, so the income quoted could change before you take out the annuity, and it will contact you if the income has reduced. The same document asks you to tell Aviva if the medical details or other information you gave change between signing the application form and the start of the plan.
Once you go ahead, there is a short way out. MoneyHelper says most annuities have a 30-day cooling-off period in which you can cancel and ask for your money back, but after it an annuity cannot be cancelled. That is why the questions and the options deserve care first; is an annuity worth it weighs the alternatives, and annuity transfer rules cover what happens once one is running.
Getting the application right: free help and what to weigh
You can use Pension Wise to talk through your options before you apply, and you can approach several providers yourself. An adviser is a different service and may charge, so see free annuity advice and annuity fees for the costs on each route.
- Protection. Each protection you add, such as a guarantee period, will usually lower the income, so quotes with and without show the cost.
- Your existing pension. If your current provider has a guaranteed annuity rate, check it before you move.
- Age. What age to buy an annuity covers the limits.
- Scams. MoneyHelper warns not to access your pension or buy an annuity because of a cold call, visit, email or text; it is likely a scam. See the FCA's pension scams page.
Aviva's own pages are in Aviva pension annuity rates, and what a pot might buy is in how much annuity income you would get.
Enhanced annuity form and questionnaire: common questions
Is there an enhanced annuity quotation request form?
Each provider works from its own paperwork; Aviva's key features, for instance, refer to its own application form. Ask each firm whether it collects the health details in the quote or after it.
How long does the enhanced annuity health form take?
That depends on the provider, so it is worth asking when you request a quote. For a sense of what to have ready beforehand, the adviser firm behind this page's form can go through it free when it calls back.
Do I need my GP to fill anything in?
Not necessarily. Aviva says it may ask your doctor for a medical report, and Legal & General says a provider may want a report from your doctor in place of an examination.
What if I forget to mention a condition or a tablet?
Raise it with the provider. Inaccurate information can lead a provider to change or withdraw its rate, or to recover overpayments, according to Legal & General.
Can my annuity income go down after I send the form?
It can. Aviva's key features say rates may change after the application is submitted, and that income could be reduced if your doctor cannot support what you declared.
Does the questionnaire apply to a partner as well?
If income is to continue to a dependant, Aviva says it may ask them to complete a health questionnaire as well. Other providers' practice differs.
Your next step
Gather your diagnoses, medication and smoking details, ask more than one provider for a quote, and check each answer before you sign. Should you want to go through it with someone, an FCA-authorised adviser, reached through the form below, can cover your pots, tax and health in a single conversation.
Sources: MoneyHelper, annuities explained (archived copy, accessed 21 October 2026); Aviva, Key features of the Pension Annuity (AN15036); Legal & General, enhanced annuities explained.