The Short Answer
Bipolar Disorder scores PIP points through the activities it limits, not through the diagnosis. The assessment turns on episodes counted across the whole year. Eight points in a component pays the standard rate and 12 pays the enhanced rate. The calculator above is pre-filtered to the activities whose published guidance names the functions bipolar disorder is reported to affect.
How Bipolar Disorder Scores PIP Points
Each activity below is on the list for a stated reason, and the source is quoted beneath the table. Descriptor letters and point values come verbatim from Schedule 1 of the PIP Regulations 2013, and the 8 and 12-point thresholds come from regulations 5(3) and 6(3).
| Activity | What it assesses | Descriptors typically engaged | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily living 9 — Engaging with other people face to face | engaging with other people face to face, including whether prompting or social support is needed | b, c, d | 2–8 |
| Daily living 10 — Making budgeting decisions | making simple and complex budgeting decisions, which turns on cognitive function | b, c, d | 2–6 |
| Daily living 3 — Managing therapy or monitoring a health condition | managing medication and monitoring a health condition at home | b, c | 1–2 |
| Mobility 1 — Planning and following journeys | planning and following journeys, including limitations deriving from mental health and cognitive impairment | b, c, e | 4–10 |
| Daily living 1 — Preparing food | preparing and cooking a simple meal, including where prompting or supervision is needed | d, e | 2–4 |
| Daily living 2 — Taking nutrition | taking nutrition, where an underlying condition affects the ability to remember to eat or the motivation to eat | d | 4 |
| Daily living 4 — Washing and bathing | washing and bathing, including where supervision or prompting is needed | c | 2 |
| Daily living 6 — Dressing and undressing | dressing and undressing, including prompting to dress or to select appropriate clothing | c | 2 |
Last checked: 7 August 2026
Where this mapping comes from
Descriptor letters and point values are reproduced from Schedule 1 of the Social Security (Personal Independence Payment) Regulations 2013. The activities listed are the ones whose published assessment guidance names the functions this condition is reported to affect. No activity is listed on any other basis.
Activities are numbered as Schedule 1 numbers them, within each component: daily living 1 to 10 and mobility 1 to 2.
- DWP PIP Assessment Guide, activity 9: “This activity is designed for limitations on social engagement deriving from mental health, cognitive and learning impairments.”
- DWP PIP Assessment Guide, activity 10: “The age of the person or whether they have ever done any household budgeting is irrelevant - it is their ability to make budgeting decisions and their level of cognitive function that is relevant.”
- DWP PIP Assessment Guide, activity 3: “Examples of therapy include physiotherapy, home dialysis and special diets where both attention to the nature and timing of food is integral in the management of the diet.”
- DWP PIP Assessment Guide, activity 11: “This activity is designed for limitations on mobility deriving from mental health, cognitive and sensory impairments, whereas activity 12 is generally designed for limitations from physical problems. Cognitive impairment includes orientation (understanding of where, when and who the person is), attention, concentration and memory.”
- DWP PIP Assessment Guide, activity 1: “If an individual cannot cook at all because they have never needed to learn, consider their ability to carry out activities at or above waist height and their cognitive ability to use a stove or microwave if shown how.”
- DWP PIP Assessment Guide, activity 2: “The frequency of taking nutrition should only be considered if the claimant has an underlying condition which affects their ability to remember to eat, or their motivation to eat e.g. dementia or severe clinical depression or an eating disorder.”
- DWP PIP Assessment Guide, activity 4: “Consideration should be given to the claimant's functional restrictions to see if they: could reasonably use an aid such as a grab rail to get in or out of an unadapted bath or shower (4B) or whether they require assistance (4E) to get in and out of an unadapted bath or shower.”
- DWP PIP Assessment Guide, activity 6: “Dressing and undressing may involve stretching, reaching, bending, gripping and other such movements.”
Points are added within each component, never across the two. The PIP points calculator scores all 12 activities where the picture is wider than the ones above.
Can You Get PIP for Bipolar Disorder?
Yes, where bipolar disorder limits the assessed activities on more than half of the days over a 12-month period. No condition qualifies by name, and none is excluded by name either. The two tests are duration — difficulties expected to last at least 12 months from when they started — and frequency, which GOV.UK states as difficulty "more than half of the days over a 12-month period".
What Rate Could Bipolar Disorder Get?
The rate follows the points in each component separately. Daily living pays £76.70 a week at the standard rate and £114.60 at the enhanced rate. Mobility pays £30.30 and £80.00, and the highest combined award is £194.60 a week.
Last checked: 6 August 2026
For this condition the points most often come from budgeting during elevated periods and prompting descriptors during depressive ones.
How an Episodic Condition Is Counted Across the Year
Bipolar claims are decided by the majority-of-days rule applied across the whole period, not to the week of the assessment. GOV.UK states the test as expecting "to have difficulty more than half of the days over a 12-month period". A condition that is manageable for three months and severe for four does not stop qualifying because the assessment falls in a stable stretch.
That makes the counting exercise the substance of the claim. Set out the pattern rather than the current state: how many weeks in the last year were depressive, how many were elevated, how many were stable, and which activities each phase affected. A decision maker cannot infer a cycle from a snapshot, and a form written during a stable period frequently reads as a stable condition.
The two phases score under different activities, which is why describing only one loses points. Depressive periods engage the prompting descriptors across cooking, eating, washing, dressing and engagement. Elevated periods engage budgeting most sharply — the guide defines complex budgeting decisions as "calculating household and personal budgets, managing and paying bills and planning future purchases", and impulsive spending during a manic episode is a failure of exactly that function.
Medication monitoring is a scoring activity in its own right and is often left blank. Where a mood stabiliser requires regular blood tests, and someone else prompts or arranges them, the descriptor for needing supervision, prompting or assistance to monitor a health condition applies. It is worth 1 point, which is small on its own and decisive at 7 or 11.
Evidence That Supports a Bipolar Disorder Claim
Evidence that names the activity beats evidence that names the diagnosis. Every descriptor above 0 points already assumes the condition is present.
- A psychiatry letter confirming the diagnosis and the pattern of episodes
- A repeat prescription list covering mood stabilisers or antipsychotics, and any blood monitoring record
- A care plan or Care Programme Approach record naming the support in place
- Records of hospital admissions, crisis team contacts or a relapse prevention plan
- Bank statements or arrears letters showing the financial effect of a manic episode, where money is the issue
- A written statement from a person who prompts or supervises, describing what they do between episodes as well as during them
Send what you already have rather than waiting for a new report. Evidence describing what you can do on an ordinary day answers the descriptors; the assessment weighs it against the reliability criteria.
Work Out the Full Picture
The tool above is pre-filtered; the assessment is not. All 12 activities are scored — 10 for daily living and 2 for mobility, set out in Schedule 1 of the PIP Regulations 2013 — and points from the two components never combine.
Two tools finish the picture:
- Score every activity in the PIP points calculator, which uses the same verbatim descriptors.
- Compare the pre-filtered tools on the all condition calculators page.
Where an award is already in place and was backdated, the work out your pip back pay tool prices the arrears.
The condition guide, covering evidence and the assessment in full, is on check pip for bipolar disorder.