The Short Answer
PTSD scores PIP points through the activities it limits, not through the diagnosis. The assessment turns on avoidance of journeys and situations. 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 PTSD is reported to affect.
How PTSD 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mobility 1 — Planning and following journeys | planning and following journeys, including journeys avoided because of overwhelming psychological distress | b, e | 4–10 |
| 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 3 — Managing therapy or monitoring a health condition | managing medication and monitoring a health condition at home | b, c | 1–2 |
| Daily living 10 — Making budgeting decisions | making simple and complex budgeting decisions, which turns on cognitive function | b, c | 2–4 |
| Daily living 1 — Preparing food | preparing and cooking a simple meal, including where prompting or supervision is needed | d, e | 2–4 |
| Daily living 4 — Washing and bathing | washing and bathing, including where supervision or prompting is needed | c | 2 |
| Daily living 2 — Taking nutrition | taking nutrition, where an underlying condition affects the ability or motivation to eat | d | 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.
- GOV.UK, Personal Independence Payment: “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.”
- 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 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 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 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 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.”
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 PTSD?
Yes, where PTSD 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 PTSD 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 the two distress descriptors on the journeys activity, worth 4 and 10 points.
Why Avoidance Scores on the Mobility Side
The functional signature of PTSD in the assessment is avoidance, and avoidance is scored where most claims do not look for it. Planning and following journeys carries two distress descriptors: needing prompting to undertake any journey to avoid overwhelming psychological distress scores 4 points, and being unable to undertake any journey because it would cause that distress scores 10. Ten points alone reaches the standard mobility rate, and 12 in the component reaches the enhanced rate.
The defined term controls both. The assessment guide states that overwhelming psychological distress means "distress related to a mental health condition or intellectual or cognitive impairment which results in a severe anxiety state in which the symptoms are so severe that the person is unable to function". A journey abandoned partway, a route changed to avoid a trigger, or a bus left at the wrong stop are the observable forms of that.
Hypervigilance and startle response reach the assessment through the activities they disrupt rather than through a descriptor of their own. Being unable to sit in a waiting room is engagement. Being unable to use a supermarket is journeys and, where money is handled under pressure, budgeting. Naming the activity converts the symptom into a score.
Reliability is where PTSD claims are most often under-recorded, because the cost of an outing lands afterwards. The guide requires consideration of whether an activity can be repeated "within a reasonable period of time and to the same standard", and directs that "the impact of completing one activity on the ability to complete others must also be considered". A journey managed on Monday that removes Tuesday is two activities affected, not one success.
Evidence That Supports a PTSD Claim
Evidence that names the activity beats evidence that names the diagnosis. Every descriptor above 0 points already assumes the condition is present.
- A diagnosis letter from a psychiatrist, psychologist or trauma service
- Records of trauma-focused therapy — EMDR, CBT or a specialist programme — with the sessions attended
- A repeat prescription list covering any medication for sleep, anxiety or mood
- Records from a veterans' mental health service, where the trauma is service-related
- A dated log of the journeys, appointments or public places that were not possible, kept over several weeks
- A written statement from a person who accompanies you, describing what they do 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.
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 ptsd.