- The 'How your disability affects you' form asks about 12 activities. You usually have 1 month to return it, and you can often complete it online if you started your claim by phone.1
- Each activity has descriptors worth set points. You need 8 points for the standard rate and 12 for the enhanced rate, separately for daily living and for mobility.25
- Answer for a typical week, not your best day. A descriptor counts if it applies on more than half of the days.4
- For every activity, say whether you can do it safely, to an acceptable standard, more than once, and in a reasonable time. If you cannot, the law treats you as unable to do it.3
What are the rules that decide your points?
Two rules matter more than anything else on the form. The first is the reliability rule: you can only be treated as able to do an activity if you can do it safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly, and within a reasonable time, which the regulations define as no more than twice as long as someone without your condition would take.3 Write about all four. 'I can wash, but it takes me 40 minutes and I have to sit down twice' is a different answer from 'I can wash'.
The second is the 50% rule. A descriptor applies if it applies on more than 50% of the days in the period being looked at, the 3 months before and the 9 months after the decision. If your condition fluctuates, count your bad days and say so: 'On 4 or 5 days a week I need my partner to help me out of the bath.'4
Only the highest-scoring descriptor in each activity counts, and points from different activities add up. So two or three points in several activities often make the difference between no award and the standard rate.2
Daily living activities 1 to 5: food, eating, treatment, washing, toilet
1. Preparing food (up to 8 points). This is about making a simple hot meal for one from fresh ingredients, using a conventional cooker. Say if you rely on a microwave, cannot safely use knives or hot pans, lose concentration and forget the hob, or need prompting to cook at all. Ready meals and takeaways because you cannot cook count as evidence.2
2. Eating and drinking (up to 10 points). Mention if someone cuts up your food, you need prompting to eat enough, you use a feeding tube, or you cannot get food to your mouth. Choking risk and needing someone present also count.
3. Managing treatments (up to 8 points). Covers medication and monitoring a condition, and therapy at home. Say who reminds you, who sorts your tablets, and how many hours a week someone helps with therapy such as physiotherapy exercises or dialysis. The points rise with the hours: more than 3.5, 7 and 14 hours a week.2
4. Washing and bathing (up to 8 points). Getting in and out of a bath or shower unaided is part of it. Mention shower chairs, grab rails, needing someone nearby in case you fall, and whether you can wash your hair and lower body. Needing help to get in or out of a bath or shower alone scores 3 points.2
5. Managing toilet needs (up to 8 points). Include aids such as a raised seat or commode, needing help to clean yourself, and incontinence of bladder, bowel or both, including how you manage pads or a stoma.
Daily living activities 6 to 10: dressing, talking, reading, people, money
6. Dressing and undressing (up to 8 points). Buttons, zips, socks and shoes are the usual problems. Say if you need help with your upper or lower body, use aids such as a sock aid, or need prompting to change clothes or to choose clothes suitable for the weather.
7. Communicating verbally (up to 12 points). This is about speaking and understanding speech in your own language. Hearing aids, needing someone to explain complex information, or not being able to communicate basic information without support all score.
8. Reading and understanding (up to 8 points). Glasses and contact lenses do not count as an aid, but a magnifier or screen reader does. Say if you need help to understand letters, bills or appointment notices.2
9. Engaging with other people face to face (up to 8 points). This is where anxiety, autism, psychosis and other conditions that make meeting people distressing often score. Describe what happens: panic, shutting down, needing a trusted person with you. 'Social support' means support from someone trained or experienced in helping you, which can include a family member who knows you well.
10. Making budgeting decisions (up to 6 points). From working out change in a shop to paying household bills. Say if someone else manages your money, or you overspend or forget to pay because of your condition.
Mobility activities 11 and 12: journeys and moving around
11. Planning and following journeys (up to 12 points). This is about mental and sensory barriers, not physical ones: anxiety that stops you leaving home, getting lost or confused, or sight loss. Say whether you can follow a familiar route alone, an unfamiliar one, and what happens if a bus is cancelled or a route changes.
12. Moving around (up to 12 points). This is the physical distance you can walk, safely and repeatedly, on a flat surface. The key distances are 20 and 50 metres: being able to stand and move no more than 20 metres scores 12 points, which alone gives the enhanced mobility rate. Measure your distance in something concrete, such as from your front door to a neighbour's house, and say what makes you stop: pain, breathlessness, dizziness or falling.2
Enhanced mobility (12 points) is £80.00 a week in 2026/27 and can give access to the Motability Scheme.5
What do people most often leave off the PIP form?
Help that has become normal. Many people have relied on a partner, parent or friend for so long that they no longer think of it as help. If someone prompts, reminds, supervises or physically assists you, write it down.
The cost of doing a task. Pain, exhaustion, needing to lie down afterwards, or being unable to do anything else that day are all part of whether you can do something 'repeatedly'.
Safety. Falls, burns, scalds, choking and near misses, and whether you need someone around in case they happen.
The things you avoid. If you never cook, never bathe, never go anywhere new, say so and say why. Not doing something because of your condition is as relevant as doing it badly.
Worked example: how small points add up
Someone with arthritis in both hands and knees fills in the form honestly but in detail. No single activity scores high, but the points add up across the daily living activities.
| 1. Preparing food: uses aids (perching stool, kettle tipper) | 2 |
| 4. Washing: needs help to wash lower body | 2 |
| 5. Toilet needs: uses a raised seat and rails | 2 |
| 6. Dressing: needs help with lower body | 2 |
| Daily living total | 8 points |
| Standard rate daily living, a week | £76.70 |
That is £3,988.40 a year. Had the form said only 'I manage with some difficulty' for each activity, the likely score would have been 0. If walking is also limited to between 50 and 200 metres, that adds 4 mobility points, which is not enough for a mobility award on its own.
- Return the 'How your disability affects you' form within 1 month; ask the PIP enquiry line if you need more time.1
- 10 daily living activities and 2 mobility activities; 8 points gives the standard rate and 12 the enhanced rate of each component.2
- A descriptor applies if it applies on more than 50% of days.4
- You must be able to do an activity safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly and in a reasonable time, or you are treated as unable to do it.3
- 2026/27 rates: daily living £76.70 or £114.60 a week, mobility £30.30 or £80.00 a week.5