The Short Answer
Nine of the twelve PIP activities can score on mental health grounds. Two of them — engaging with other people, and planning and following journeys — are described in the DWP assessment guide as designed for limitations deriving from mental health, cognitive and learning impairments. Seven more score through prompting, supervision and cognitive descriptors. Only moving around, which assesses physical capacity, is effectively closed. The calculator above scores all nine.
How Mental Health Scores PIP Points
The scoring surface is wider than most claims use, and the table shows where it extends. Each activity is listed with what it assesses, the descriptors that turn on mental health, cognitive or learning function, and what those descriptors are worth.
| 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 |
| 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 10 — Making budgeting decisions | making simple and complex budgeting decisions, which turns on cognitive function | b, c, d | 2–6 |
| Daily living 1 — Preparing food | preparing and cooking a simple meal, including the cognitive ability to use a stove or microwave | d, e, f | 2–8 |
| 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 3 — Managing therapy or monitoring a health condition | managing medication and monitoring a health condition at home | b, c | 1–2 |
| 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 |
| Daily living 8 — Reading and understanding signs, symbols and words | reading and understanding written information, where the limitation arises from cognitive impairment | c, d | 2–4 |
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 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 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 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 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 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.”
- DWP PIP Assessment Guide, activity 8: “If the claimant cannot read, this must be as a direct result of their health condition or impairment e.g. visual impairment, cognitive impairment, learning disability.”
Two rows carry the most weight and are worth reading first. Engaging with other people runs from 2 points for prompting to 8 points for being unable to engage at all, which alone reaches the daily living standard rate. Planning and following journeys runs to 12 points, which alone reaches the enhanced mobility rate. The PIP points calculator scores all twelve activities including the physical ones.
Can You Get PIP for a Mental Health Condition?
Yes, and on the same terms as any other condition. PIP scores function rather than diagnosis, so a mental health condition is neither privileged nor disadvantaged by the regulations. The tests are that the condition is long-term, that it causes difficulty with the assessed tasks, and that the difficulty applies on more than half of the days over a 12-month period.
GOV.UK removes the most common misreading directly: "You do not have to have a physical disability to get the mobility part. You might also be eligible if you have difficulty getting around because of a cognitive or mental health condition, like anxiety." The mobility component is open to a claim with no physical limitation at all.
What Rate Could a Mental Health Claim Get?
Either rate of either component, and often both. 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. The highest possible award is £194.60 a week, or £778.40 every 4 weeks.
Last checked: 6 August 2026
A claim reaching 12 points on daily living through prompting and social support descriptors, and 10 on mobility through the journeys activity, receives £114.60 plus £30.30, which is £144.90 a week. The same claim scoring 12 on mobility instead receives £194.60. The rates by condition page sets out what the common combinations pay.
Where Mental Health Scores Across All Twelve Activities
Nine of the twelve activities can score on mental health grounds, and only three are closed to them. The assessment guide is explicit about two: engaging with other people "is designed for limitations on social engagement deriving from mental health, cognitive and learning impairments", and planning and following journeys "is designed for limitations on mobility deriving from mental health, cognitive and sensory impairments". Moving around is the physical counterpart and is the main activity a mental-health claim does not reach.
That distribution explains a pattern in refused claims. A claim described entirely as a mental health claim is often scored only under engaging with other people and planning and following journeys, which together cap at 8 daily living points and 12 mobility points. The daily living activities that carry the rest — preparing food, taking nutrition, managing medication, washing, dressing, budgeting, reading — each contain a prompting or supervision descriptor that turns on the same functions.
Activity 10, making budgeting decisions, is the clearest example of guidance overriding assumption. The guide states that "it is their ability to make budgeting decisions and their level of cognitive function that is relevant", and adds that reduced vision or mobility does not itself score here. Difficulty managing bills during an episode is assessed under this activity, whatever the diagnosis.
One boundary is worth stating plainly, because it is where claims are most often mis-framed. The activities test what you can do reliably, not how distressing you find it. Two people with the same diagnosis and different support arrangements score differently, and that is the design of the assessment rather than a fault in it.
Evidence That Supports a Mental Health Claim
The strongest evidence describes a task and its outcome, with a date. Clinical letters establish the condition; they rarely describe whether a meal was cooked or a journey completed. Nine of the twelve activities can score on mental health grounds, so evidence that covers only engagement and journeys leaves seven scoring activities unaddressed.
- A GP record or summary printout showing each diagnosis, its duration and current treatment
- A repeat prescription list covering psychiatric medication
- Letters from a community mental health team, psychiatrist, psychologist or talking therapies service
- A care plan, crisis plan or Care Programme Approach record, where one exists
- Records of hospital admissions or crisis team contacts
- A written statement from a carer, family member or support worker describing the help given and how often
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.
Nine activities is most of the assessment, and the remaining three still count. Three routes finish the picture:
- Score every activity in the PIP points calculator.
- Read what the assessment itself looks for in a mental health claim on the assessment by condition page.
- Compare the pre-filtered tools on the all condition calculators page.
The full guidance on claiming, evidence and awards is on the check pip for mental health page.