Personal Independence Payment and Adult Disability Payment

PIP and ADP have 2 parts – a 'daily living component' and a 'mobility component'. You can get either component or both together, depending on your needs.

The daily living component

The daily living component helps cover extra costs so you can carry out your daily living activities. It's paid at 2 different rates – a standard rate and an enhanced rate.

The rate you're paid depends on whether your ability to carry out daily living activities is limited or severely limited. This is tested under the PIP assessment.

The mobility component

This component helps cover the extra costs that you may face if you have difficulties getting around.

It's paid at 2 different rates – a standard rate and an enhanced rate. The rate you're paid depends on whether your ability to carry out mobility activities is limited or severely limited. This is tested under the PIP assessment.

If you qualify for the enhanced rate, you may be able to join the Motability scheme. This lets disabled people use the enhanced rate to obtain a new car, powered wheelchair or scooter. Find out more about the scheme on the Motability website.

You also automatically qualify for the Blue Badge scheme, which allows people with mobility problems to park closer to places, services or facilities you may want to visit or use. Find out more about the Blue Badge scheme on the gov.uk website.

If you move across from PIP to ADP your Motability car will transfer with you. There will be no change to your car, payment levels or agreement.

To qualify for PIP or ADP, you must meet the following basic conditions:

• If you're making a new claim for PIP or ADP, you must be 16 or over and under State Pension age (you can check your State Pension age on the gov.uk website).
• You won't be able to make a new claim for PIP or ADP if you've reached State Pension age, but you will be able to stay on PIP or ADP if you claimed it for the first time before you reached State Pension age. If you've reached State Pension age and have care or supervision needs, then you may be able to claim Attendance Allowance. Find out more about Attendance Allowance.
• You must have been present in Great Britain (or Northern Ireland, if you live there) for 2 out of the last 3 years before claiming. If you're terminally ill, you need to be present in Great Britain but the time conditions don't apply.
• You must normally live in the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands, the Republic of Ireland or the Isle of Man. Your immigration status must not prevent you from claiming.
• You must also meet the disability conditions. The disability conditions look at your daily living needs and your mobility needs. These are worked out by the PIP or ADP assessment (see below).

You must have met the disability conditions for at least 3 months before a PIP or ADP award can be made (you won't have to wait a further 3 months for payment if you've already met the conditions for 3 months or more before making the claim).

You must also be likely to continue to meet the disability conditions for a period of 9 months in the future. If you're terminally ill, the 3- and 9-month rules don't apply for either PIP or ADP.

For PIP, the terminally ill rule asks for a medical professional to confirm that they wouldn't be surprised if their patient dies in the next 12 months.

If you meet these conditions, you'll automatically receive the enhanced rate for daily living and will be assessed on your mobility needs.

In Scotland ADP doesn't have such a time restriction. It simply asks a registered medical practitioner or registered nurse to confirm that "the individual has a progressive disease that can reasonably be expected to cause the individual's death".

If this is the case, you'll automatically receive the enhanced rate for both daily living and mobility with no assessment.

The criteria assessment is a test of your ability to take part in everyday life. The criteria are points-related, and are based on your inability to perform different activities relating to certain daily living needs and your mobility.

The number of points you score will determine whether or not you're entitled to either component of PIP or ADP and, if you are, at which rate.

The daily living activities

Your ability to carry out daily living activities is assessed by looking at 10 types of activity.

These are:

• preparing food
• taking nutrition (eating and drinking)
• managing therapy or monitoring a health condition
• washing and bathing
• managing toilet needs or incontinence
• dressing and undressing
• communicating verbally
• reading and understanding signs, symbols and words
• engaging with other people face-to-face
• making budgeting decisions.

The mobility activities

Your ability to carry out mobility activities is assessed by looking at 2 types of activity:

• planning and following journeys
• moving around.

Scoring points

Within each of the above activity headings are a series of 'descriptors' with scores ranging from 0 to 12 points. The descriptors describe related tasks of various levels of difficulty and the different types of help you need to complete each task.

You score points for the descriptor that best describes the level at which you can complete the task safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly and in a reasonable amount of time.

The highest descriptor scores from each activity heading are added together to work out your points for each component.

You can find descriptors and scores for the daily living and mobility activities in our PIP/ADP supplementary information (PDF, 180KB).

How many points do you need?

To be entitled to the standard rate of the daily living component, you need to score at least 8 points under the 10 daily living activity headings.

To be entitled to the enhanced rate, you need to score at least 12 points.

Likewise, to be entitled to the standard rate of the mobility component, you need to score at least 8 points under the 2 mobility activity headings. For the enhanced rate, you need to score at least 12 points.

What if my condition fluctuates?

A descriptor will apply to you if you're unable to complete a task on the majority (more than half) of days. This will be considered over a 12-month period, looking back 3 months and forward 9 months.

Where 1 descriptor is satisfied on over half the days in that period, that descriptor will apply.

Where 2 or more descriptors are satisfied on over half the days, the descriptor which scores the highest number of points will apply.

If you're not sure which descriptors apply to you, keeping a diary over a week may help you choose.

During these calls, you'll need to provide details including your personal and contact details, National Insurance number and details of your bank or building society (for payment purposes). It will help if you have this information ready when you make the call.

You'll be asked for details of your GP and hospital specialist. You should not be asked what your medical condition is or how it affects you at this stage.

What happens next?

For PIP, if you meet the basic qualifying conditions (see previous section 'Do I qualify?'), you'll be sent a form to complete called 'How your disability affects you'.

If it's clear from the information you provided when you started the claim that you don't satisfy the basic qualifying conditions for PIP, the Department for Work and Pensions will send you a letter stating that your claim has been disallowed.

If you're claiming ADP you will be offered help to make a claim by Social Security Scotland Local Delivery, or your family, support worker or appointee can make the claim for you.

The form gives you the chance to describe how your condition affects your daily life. An information booklet comes with the form. Read this first, and have a look through the form before completing any of it.

Download our PIP/ADP supplementary information (PDF, 180KB) for extra guidance, including example answers you may be able to use.

You may wish to write in pencil first, or make some notes on separate sheets of paper, before filling in the form in pen.

You can now complete the form online before printing it off to send via post, or submit it electronically.

If you have difficulty writing and don't have someone who could help fill in the form for you, contact the Parkinson's UK helpline for support.

The form will first ask for details of the professionals who are best placed to provide advice on how your disability or health condition affects you. Examples are given – they can include social workers and support workers, as well as medical professionals such as your GP.

It's advisable to put details of the professionals who know your problems best, such as your Parkinson's nurse.

Whoever you put down, contact them and let them know that you're applying for PIP or ADP and have included their contact details on the form. Make it clear that you give permission for them to discuss your condition, as this will help to speed up the process and may help you avoid having a face-to-face consultation.

Most of the form is made up of questions about your day-to-day life, relating to the points-based PIP/ADP assessment.

You get points for what you can't manage, not for what you can. It's important to be clear about the difficulties you experience, so that you're assessed accurately.

Give yourself plenty of time to complete the form – you don't have to do it all in 1 sitting.

The first 10 questions relate to the activity headings of the daily living component. The last 2 questions relate to the activity headings of the mobility component.

You can see the activity headings, the 'descriptors', and the points allocated to each descriptor by downloading our PIP/ADP supplementary information (PDF, 180KB).

When thinking about which descriptor should apply to you, ask yourself the following questions:

• Would you have problems with this sort of task at some point in the day?
• Do you need help to complete the task? If so, what kind of help do you need? Does someone physically help you, reassure you, encourage you, remind you or explain to you how to do something? Or do they need to supervise or watch over you?
• Do you use aids or appliances to help you with a task? If so, say what they are and how useful they are.
• Can you do some parts of the task but not others?
• Are you unable to do the task at all? Explain why.
• Can you do a task but it takes you at least twice as long as it should?
• Can you do this task as often as you need to throughout the day?
• Do your needs change? Explain in what way and how often. Describe your good and bad days or how your needs vary throughout the day.
• Do you regularly have accidents (such as falls) or are you at risk of having accidents if attempting the task alone?
• Do you have any side effects from doing the task? Do you experience pain, breathlessness, tiredness or stress and anxiety either before, during or after the task?

For some of these points, it might help to keep a diary of your needs.

The extra information box

The second part of each question asks you to explain what difficulties you face with each activity.

Examples are provided above the box and in the information booklet that comes with the form.

For more detailed guidance on the questions, including examples that could be written in the extra information box, please see our PIP/ADP supplementary information (PDF, 180KB).

If you can, attach photocopies of any additional evidence that you have to the form. Anything that helps an assessor understand how your condition impacts your day-to-day life is useful.

For example, you could include copies of:

• prescriptions
• care and support plans
• information from professionals such as your specialist, Parkinson's nurse, occupational therapist, physiotherapist, social worker, support worker or counsellor.

If you keep a diary of how your condition affects you, it may be helpful to include this.

What happens next will depend on whether you're claiming PIP or ADP.

If you're claiming PIP a consultation will usually be arranged (see below). If you'd prefer this to take place in the morning or in the afternoon, put this on your form, as it may help you avoid being given an inappropriate appointment time.

If you claim ADP you may be asked for more information on some of your answers or asked to find supporting information, but you won't have an assessment.

You should return your completed form as soon as possible, as there's a time limit for its return (1 month for PIP and 6 weeks for ADP).

If you get new evidence that could help your claim after you've sent the form back, you should make a copy and send it to the Department for Work and Pensions.

Make a copy of the form once you've completed it, along with any supporting evidence you're sending with the form. Keep this safe.

For PIP, once your 'How your disability affects you' form has been returned, your case will be passed on to one of the companies that carry out the assessments on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions – Independent Assessment Services (previously Atos Healthcare) and Capita.

They’ll then allocate your assessment to a healthcare professional working for them. This healthcare professional may contact your GP or specialist for more information before deciding if a consultation is needed.

Social Security Scotland will make decisions about ADP without the need for a face-to-face consultation. They'll focus on the information in your claim form together with information from the medical, social care and related professionals who support you.

Social Security Scotland will ask them for supporting information that indicates you meet the criteria.

The face-to-face consultation for PIP

Before Covid-19, the healthcare professional would usually arrange to see PIP applicants at a face-to-face consultation, but these were suspended in March 2020.

These face-to-face consultations at assessment centres are slowly being reintroduced, but you can ask for a home visit or telephone assessment if you can show you're unable to attend the Assessment Centre.

Independent Assessment Services and Capita are able to offer and arrange a taxi at their cost to and from the Assessment Centre. To make sure they will cover the cost, you'll need to get their agreement before booking the taxi.

At the consultation, the healthcare professional will identify the descriptors that they believe apply to you (see our PIP/ADP supplementary information (PDF, 180KB) for more information about the descriptors).

To do this, they'll ask questions about your day-to-day life, your home, how you manage at work if you have a job, and about any social or leisure activities that you take part in (or have had to give up). They'll often ask you to describe a typical day in your life.

The healthcare professional should consider whether you can complete daily activities repeatedly, in a reasonable amount of time, to an acceptable standard and safely.

If you can't do something at 1 particular point in the day, the healthcare professional should take this into account, even if you can do that task at other times in the day.

Keep in mind that the healthcare professional is there to build a picture of how your condition affects you on a day-to-day basis over the course of 1 year. So it's important not to worry that you'll be judged on how you're feeling on the day of your consultation. Don't stop taking your medication as a way of showing how your condition affects you, as this can be dangerous.

Make sure you explain how the changing nature of Parkinson's affects you, including how you manage when your symptoms are at their worst.

• Tell them about any pain or tiredness you feel, or would feel, while carrying out each task they ask you about, and after you've carried it out. Consider how you would feel if you had to do the same task repeatedly.
• Tell them how long it takes you to do things if your Parkinson's slows you down, or if you would avoid doing the task they're asking you about because you have had accidents in the past. An example could be if you don't cook with hot pans anymore because of problems with your grip or because your tremor makes it dangerous.
• Don't overestimate your ability to do things. If your condition varies, let them know what you're like on bad days as well as good days. The healthcare professional's opinion shouldn't be based on a snapshot of your condition on the day of the consultation – they should consider the effects of your condition over time.
• It's important to say if you have problems at some stage of the day, for example, if mornings are difficult for you but you feel better once you've taken your medication. Intermittent problems can still help you get an award of PIP.
• You should only be treated as being able to perform a task if you can do so safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly and in a reasonable time period. Try to make it clear to the healthcare professional if this is not the case.

After the consultation, the healthcare professional will complete their report and send it to a Department for Work and Pensions case manager. They will then decide whether or not to award you PIP and, if it's awarded, at what rate and for how long.

They are normally paid every 4 weeks in arrears into a bank, building society or Credit Union card account.

If your claim for PIP is turned down you have 1 calendar month from the date of the decision to ask the Department for Work and Pensions to look at the decision again. For ADP you have 6 weeks to ask Social Security Scotland to reconsider.

This is called a 'mandatory reconsideration' for PIP and 'redetermination' for ADP.

You can also ask for the decision to be looked at again if you're unhappy with the level of the benefit you've been awarded or the period for which it's been awarded.

Don't be discouraged from asking for a mandatory reconsideration for PIP. Be careful, however, because when you ask for one, the Department for Work and Pensions will look at the whole award and they can take away the rate of PIP you've already been granted. If you're in any doubt, contact contact our helpline.

How to ask for a mandatory reconsideration/redetermination

To ask for a mandatory reconsideration for PIP, you should write to the address (or ring the number) on the PIP decision letter.

If you phone, put your request in writing as well. You can download a CRMR1 mandatory reconsideration request form from the gov.uk website but you're not obliged to do so. Keep a copy of your request.

For ADP call 0800 182 2222 or complete a redetermination paper form.

Building a case

For PIP you can ask for a copy of the assessment and any other medical information used by the decision-maker. When you receive this evidence, you should get a better idea of why the decision was made.

In most cases, there will be a report produced by the healthcare professional at the consultation. Compare their report with what you wrote on the 'How your disability affects you' form. Look for differences of opinion.

For example, you may have written that you couldn't walk more than 20 metres without severe discomfort, but the healthcare professional noted that they thought you could manage about 100 metres.

Where you find such differences, try to get medical evidence showing that what you said on the form was correct. For example, you could ask for a letter from your GP, specialist or Parkinson's nurse describing the difficulties you have in walking, which backs up what you said.

Once you've got evidence to support your case, send a copy of it to the address on the decision letter. If you need more time to get the evidence, tell the Department for Work and Pensions how long this is likely to take, so that they don't make a decision straight away.

A Department for Work and Pensions case manager will look at any further evidence you send. They will then either change the decision in your favour, or let you know that they're unable to change the decision.

You then have 1 calendar month from the date of this 'mandatory reconsideration notice' to appeal to an independent tribunal.

For ADP, asking for the medical evidence the decision-maker used will allow you to challenge the decision in the same way as for PIP. You will have 31 days from the outcome of your redetermination to ask to make an appeal.

How to appeal

For PIP, you can appeal against a decision by downloading the official appeal form, the SSCS1, from the gov.uk website.

For ADP call Social Security Scotland on 0800 182 2222.

You must usually appeal within 1 month of the date on the mandatory reconsideration/redetermination notice.

The appeal form will ask if you would like your appeal to be considered with or without an oral hearing. Choosing an oral hearing and attending the tribunal can greatly improve your chances of a successful outcome.

The appeal will be considered by an independent appeal tribunal. These tribunals are informal – they're not like the courts. If you have a carer, they can attend as well to provide information they have about your needs.

You can contact our helpline or a local advice centre such as Citizens Advice to see if they can give you any support and possibly provide a representative to present your case at the hearing. Visit the Citizens Advice website.

If you're awarded PIP or ADP and there's a change in your condition sometime in the future, you can ask for the award to be looked at again due to a change in your circumstances.

Always get in touch with the Department for Work and Pensions immediately if you're receiving PIP and your circumstances change. They can't take into consideration any deterioration in your health before the time you contact them.

Be aware that the Department for Work and Pensions and Social Security Scotland will look at the whole award and they can take away the rate of PIP/ADP you've already been granted.

Before you do anything, make sure that you meet the conditions for the new component or the higher rate. See our PIP/ADP supplementary information (PDF, 180KB) for more information on the conditions for PIP/ADP.

You need to have satisfied the conditions for the new component or the higher rate for at least 3 months and expect it to last for at least 9 months more before your award can be increased. If you're in any doubt, contact our helpline.

Hospital stays

You can make a claim for PIP or ADP if you're in hospital, but payment can only start once you leave.

If you pay your own fees for the hospital without help from the council or health service, your PIP or ADP can continue to be paid.

If you're already getting PIP or ADP and you go into hospital, payment will stop after a total of 4 weeks (either in 1 stay, or several stays where the gaps between stays are less than 4 weeks each time). It can restart when you return home.

If you're under 18, your PIP or ADP can be paid for the whole time you're in hospital.

Care homes

If you pay your own fees for your care home without help from the council or health service, your PIP or ADP can continue to be paid.

If the council helps with your fees, the PIP or ADP daily living component will stop after 4 weeks. This can be in 1 stay, or several stays where the gaps between stays are no more than 4 weeks each time. It can restart if you return home.

The mobility component is not affected even if the council helps with your fees.

If a nursing home is paid for by the health service, both the daily living and mobility components will usually stop after 4 weeks, but can restart when you return back home.

PIP and ADP can be paid in addition to other social security benefits. They are not counted as income in the calculation of means-tested benefits.

However, your local authority can take PIP into account when considering whether you need to contribute towards the cost of any care and support services you receive.

Download our Personal Independence Payment and Adult Disability Payment (PDF, 511KB) information sheet. 

You can also download our PIP/ADP supplementary guidance (PDF, 180KB) for extra guidance on how to fill in a claim for PIP, including example answers you may be able to use.

We know lots of people would rather have something in their hands to read rather than look at a screen, so you can order printed copies of our information by post, phone or email.