How PIP points work
PIP is scored, not judged in the round. There are 12 activities: ten daily living activities and two mobility activities. Each activity has a set of descriptors, and each descriptor carries a number of points. For each activity, only the highest-scoring descriptor that applies to you counts. Your points for the daily living activities are added together for the daily living component, and your points for the two mobility activities are added together for the mobility component. The two components are scored separately: a high daily living score does not lift a low mobility score, or the other way round.
| Points in one component | What it means |
|---|---|
| 0–7 points | No award for that component |
| 8–11 points | Standard rate for that component |
| 12 points or more | Enhanced rate for that component |
The reliability test
Every descriptor is judged on whether you can do the activity reliably. That means four things, all of which must hold:
- Safely — without a risk of harm to you or to anyone else.
- To an acceptable standard — properly, not in a way that leaves the task half done.
- Repeatedly — as often as the activity reasonably needs to be done.
- Within a reasonable time — no more than twice as long as someone without the difficulty would take.
If you can do something once, on a good day, but not repeatedly, or only at the cost of hours of recovery afterwards, that is not reliable — and the descriptor that matches your reliable performance is the one that counts. The assessment also looks at most days: what you can do on the majority of days in a typical week matters more than a single good or bad day.
A worked example
Suppose your daily living descriptors add up to 10 points and your mobility descriptors add up to 12 points. You would receive the standard daily living rate (£76.70 a week) and the enhanced mobility rate (£80.00 a week) — £156.70 a week combined. Change either total and the award changes with it: that is why evidence tied to specific activities, with frequencies and examples, matters far more than a general statement that life is difficult.
Points are not a diagnosis
Nothing in the scoring asks for a condition's name. Evidence helps when it shows what happens when you try an activity — what help you need, what goes wrong, how often, and how long recovery takes. A letter that only names a diagnosis, without describing its effects, scores nothing on its own.
Sources
Official sources for the figures on this page: GOV.UK — Personal Independence Payment; nidirect — Personal Independence Payment (Northern Ireland); DWP — Annual Benefits Statistics Compendium 2026.