PIP eligibility: Can I claim personal independence payments?

Personal independence payment (PIP) provides help with extra living costs if you have both:

a disability or long-term physical or mental health condition
trouble getting about or doing certain everyday tasks because of your disability or condition

In this guide, we go through the eligibility criteria for PIP in detail.

Who can claim PIP?

You should be able to get PIP if you:

are 16 or over
are under state pension age (if you haven’t had PIP before)
have a disability or long-term physical or mental health condition
you struggle to do everyday tasks or get around
you expect these struggles to last for at least 12 months from the date they started

PIP and other benefits

You can get PIP alongside all other benefits, apart from the armed forces independence payment.

If you get the war pensioners’ mobility supplement, you won’t get the mobility part of PIP.

If you get constant attendance allowance, you’ll get less of the daily living part of PIP.

Where you live and PIP

To apply for PIP, you usually need to:

have lived in England, Scotland or Wales for at least two of the last three years
be living in England or Wales when you apply

If you live in Scotland, you need to apply for adult disability payment instead of PIP.

Find out about PIP in Northern Ireland.

You might be able to get PIP outside the UK if you:

work for the armed forces (or a family member does)
live in the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein (you’ll only get the part of PIP that helps cover the cost of daily living tasks)

To claim PIP if you’re not a British citizen, you must:

normally live or intend to settle in the UK, Ireland, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands
not be subject to immigration control (unless you’re a sponsored immigrant)

You might be able to get PIP if you’re a refugee or have humanitarian protection status.

graphic of house with calculator and coins

Is there an age limit for PIP?

If you’re already getting PIP, you’ll carry on receiving it when you reach state pension age.

You won’t usually be able to make a new claim for PIP once you reach state pension age, unless you:

had a PIP award that stopped in the last year
are getting DLA or it stopped in the last year

You can’t claim PIP if you were born before 9 April 1948.

If you can’t claim PIP, you might be able to get attendance allowance instead.

PIP list of eligible conditions

There isn’t a specific list of conditions that you can get PIP for. The qualifying criteria are you must have:

a disability or long-term physical or mental health condition
trouble getting about or doing certain everyday tasks because of your disability or condition

Having said that, Benefits and Work has come up with a list of more than 500 conditions arranged in order of how hard it is to get a PIP award.

The overall success rate for PIP claims is 52% but it varies greatly depending on the condition.

Awards for continence-related conditions fall below the average success rate, while awards for arthritis are above the average.

Awards for mental health conditions vary enormously, with anxiety disorders generally less likely to be successful than awards for bipolar affective disorder and schizophrenia.

Claims for certain conditions are highly likely to be successful, including:

dementia
motor neurone disease
Down's syndrome
Creutzfeldt – Jacob disease

The key thing is not the specific condition but how it affects your ability to carry out certain daily-living and mobility tasks.

FAQs

How much you have in savings won’t affect whether you can apply for or continue to receive PIP.

Yes, you can get PIP if you’re working, regardless of how much you’re earning. PIP isn’t means tested.

If your anxiety means you struggle to get about and complete everyday tasks, you may be able to get PIP. The analysis carried out by Benefits and Work into the success rate of PIP applications for different conditions found that 38.8% of anxiety claims are successful. This compares to an average success rate for all conditions of 52%

If your arthritis affects your ability to move about and complete day-to-day tasks, you may be able to get PIP.

According to Benefits and Work, the success rate of PIP applications for arthritis is above the overall average (52%) for all conditions. Applications for PIP for:

• osteoarthritis of a single joint (not knee or hip) have a success rate of 56.5%
• osteoarthritis of the knee have a success rate of 64.2%
• osteoarthritis of the hip have a success rate of 73.8%
• primary generalised osteoarthritis have a success rate of 74%
• rheumatoid arthritis have a success rate of 74.7%

If your eye problem affects your mobility and/or your ability to carry out day-to-day tasks, you may qualify for PIP. There isn’t a definitive list of eligible conditions for PIP. You will be assessed on how the condition affects your everyday life.

Benefits and Work have an online PIP test that allows you to see how you might score in a PIP assessment.
Take the online PIP test.

During the PIP assessment, you’ll be tested and scored on your ability to complete certain daily-living and mobility tasks. One of the mobility tasks is moving around. To assess your ability in this area, you’ll be asked how far you can walk using any aids or appliances you need. You will have to pick from the following options:

• I can’t stand and move even with aids or appliances
• less than 20 metres
• between 20 and 50 metres
• between 50 and 200 metres
• 200 metres or more
• it varies

If you can’t stand and then walk more than 20 metres, you’ll get 12 points.

If you can stand and then walk between 20 and 50 metres, you’ll get eight points.

If you can stand and then walk between 50 and 200 metres, you’ll get four points.

If you can stand and then walk more than 200 metres, you’ll get no points.