How to claim PIP, step by step
Most PIP claims are decided on two things: what you wrote on the form, and what the assessor wrote in the report. Everything else — your diagnosis, your consultant, how obviously unwell you are — matters far less than people expect. This page walks the whole process, and flags the points where claims are usually lost.
On this page
Before you pick up the phone
Two checks take ten minutes and save months.
Do you meet the basic conditions?
- Aged 16 or over and under State Pension age at the date of claim.
- You have had the difficulties for at least 3 months, and expect them to continue for at least 9 more.
- You are present and habitually resident in Great Britain, and have been present for 2 of the last 3 years.
- You are not subject to immigration control with no recourse to public funds.
Would you actually score?
PIP is scored, not judged. You need 8 points for a standard rate and 12 points for an enhanced rate, in each component separately. Run the descriptors before you claim so you know where you stand and which activities to concentrate on.
If you live in Scotland, this is not your benefit. PIP has been replaced in Scotland by Adult Disability Payment, administered by Social Security Scotland. The activities and descriptors are broadly the same, but the claim route, the assessment approach and the challenge process all differ — there are no face-to-face assessments as standard, and the first-stage challenge is a redetermination rather than a mandatory reconsideration. In Northern Ireland, PIP continues but is administered by the Department for Communities.
Step by step
- Start the claim — and protect the date
Call the PIP new claims line on 0800 917 2222 (textphone 0800 917 7777), or start the claim online if that route is open in your area. You give basic details only: name, date of birth, National Insurance number, bank details, GP, contact details, and any time spent abroad or in hospital.
The date of that first contact becomes your date of claim. Payment runs from that date onwards (subject to the three-month qualifying period), so do not delay the call while you gather evidence — the evidence can follow, the date cannot be recovered.
Someone else can make the call for you if you are with them and can give consent. If you cannot manage a call at all, you can ask for the form to be sent to you instead. - Complete the PIP2 form — this is the claim
You are sent form PIP2, How your disability affects you, and given one month to return it. A further two weeks is normally granted if you phone and ask before the deadline. Miss it without asking and the claim is usually disallowed on the spot.
This form decides more than anything else that follows. Work through it activity by activity, in the same order as the descriptors, and for each one answer the four questions the law actually asks: can you do it safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly, and within a reasonable time? A task you can do once but not three times, or that takes you an hour, counts as one you cannot do.
Describe your worst days and your typical days. The test is whether the descriptor applies on more than 50% of days, so write about frequency explicitly: "three or four days out of seven", not "sometimes". - Send the evidence you already have
You do not need new reports, and you should not pay for them at this stage. Send what exists: repeat prescription lists, clinic and discharge letters, care plans, an occupational therapy assessment, a social worker's or support worker's letter, a mental health care coordinator's notes.
A short letter from someone who sees you day to day — describing what you cannot do, not what you have been diagnosed with — is often worth more than a consultant's letter confirming a diagnosis. Return the form on time even if evidence is still coming, with a covering note saying more will follow.
Which evidence actually carries weight → - The assessment
Most claimants are then assessed by the DWP's assessment provider — by telephone, by video call, or face to face. A minority of claims are decided on the paper evidence alone, without any assessment, where the evidence is clearly sufficient.
From April 2026 the proportion of assessments held face to face is rising from roughly 7–8% to around 30%, so a face-to-face appointment is now materially more likely than it has been in recent years. You can ask for a different format, for a particular time of day, or to have someone with you.
What the assessor asks and records → - The decision
A DWP decision maker — not the assessor — makes the decision, awarding points against each of the 12 activities. You receive a decision letter setting out the points, the components awarded, the rates and the length of the award.
Ask for a copy of the assessment report straight away if you were not sent one. If the decision is wrong, the report is where you will find out why. - Payment
PIP is paid every four weeks in arrears, directly into your bank account. Your first payment includes arrears back to the start of entitlement.
Estimate arrears on a successful claim →
How long it takes
Clearance times move constantly. These are realistic planning figures rather than guarantees — check the current published clearance statistics if the timing matters to you.
| Stage | Typical timing | Your deadline |
|---|---|---|
| First call to PIP2 form arriving | Around 2 weeks | — |
| Returning the PIP2 form | — | 1 month from the date on the form |
| Form received to assessment appointment | Several weeks to several months | — |
| Assessment to decision letter | 2 to 8 weeks | — |
| Requesting a mandatory reconsideration | — | 1 month from the decision letter |
| Appealing to the tribunal | — | 1 month from the MR notice |
What you get if the claim succeeds
PIP has two components, each payable at two rates. They are assessed separately — you can be awarded one and not the other.
| Component | Rate | Points needed | Weekly 2026/27 | Every 4 weeks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daily living | Standard | 8–11 | £76.70 | £306.80 |
| Enhanced | 12+ | £114.60 | £458.40 | |
| Mobility | Standard | 8–11 | £30.30 | £121.20 |
| Enhanced | 12+ | £80.00 | £320.00 | |
| Both components at the enhanced rate | £194.60 | £778.40 | ||
A PIP award unlocks more than PIP. The daily living component can create an underlying entitlement to Carer's Allowance for someone who looks after you, add a carer element to their Universal Credit, exempt you from the shared accommodation rate if you are under 35 and renting, and support a claim for a Blue Badge or a disabled person's travel pass. The enhanced mobility rate additionally gives access to the Motability scheme. The secondary entitlements are frequently worth more to a household than the award itself.
Claiming under the special rules
If you have a progressive illness and your death can reasonably be expected within 12 months, PIP can be claimed under the special rules for end of life. A clinician completes form SR1, which replaced the DS1500.
- The claim is fast-tracked, normally decided within days.
- The daily living component is awarded at the enhanced rate automatically, with no points test.
- There is no assessment and no face-to-face appointment.
- The three-month qualifying period does not apply.
- Mobility is still assessed in the normal way, so the mobility part of the form should still be completed.
- You do not have to be told about, or discuss, your prognosis — someone else can make the claim for you.
Where claims are usually lost
Writing about the diagnosis instead of the difficulty
PIP does not score conditions. It scores what you can and cannot do. "I have fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue" earns nothing. "I can prepare a simple meal but I have to sit down twice and it takes me around 50 minutes, and three days a week I do not manage it at all and eat something cold" is a descriptor argument.
Answering as if you were on a good day
People consistently understate. The legal test is what you can do on more than half the days across the 12 months looked at, done safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly and in a reasonable time. If you can shower but need to hold the wall and have fallen doing it, you cannot do it safely — and the descriptor applies.
Leaving out mental health because the claim is "physical"
Several of the highest-scoring daily living activities — engaging with other people, making budgeting decisions, planning and following a journey, managing medication — are largely cognitive and psychological. Claims made on a physical basis routinely miss 8 or more points sitting in those activities.
Not mentioning aids and appliances
Needing an aid to do something scores points even if you manage the task perfectly with it. A perching stool, a shower seat, a grab rail, a pill organiser, an adapted kettle, even holding furniture to move around the house — each of these can score. So can needing an aid you do not have but reasonably ought to.
Treating the assessment as a medical examination
It is not. It is an evidence-gathering exercise in which informal observations carry weight — how you sat, whether you made eye contact, whether you drove yourself there, how you described your day. Answer about your typical day rather than today, and say so if today is unrepresentative.
Giving up after the mandatory reconsideration
Only around 22–25% of mandatory reconsiderations change the decision, and most people stop there. Around 66% of PIP appeals that reach a tribunal succeed. Stopping at the reconsideration stage is the single most expensive decision most claimants make.
After the decision
Decision wrong?
Build a mandatory reconsideration letter that argues the descriptors, with your one-month deadline calculated for you.
Open the letter builder →Reconsideration refused?
The SSCS1 form, tribunal hearings, what the panel asks and how to prepare for it.
Read the appeal guide →Award made?
Current rates, payment dates, award lengths, reviews and what to report if things change.
PIP rates and reviews →Want the form checked before you send it?
We read PIP2 forms against the descriptors and tell you where the argument is thin — while there is still time to fix it, rather than after a refusal.
Book a consultation — £50 Read the descriptors in full