The Short Answer
To claim PIP, call the DWP new claims line on 0800 917 2222, complete the PIP2 form you are sent, attend an assessment if invited, and wait for the decision letter. The line opens Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm. You can write to Freepost DWP PIP 1 instead, and some postcodes can apply fully online. Your award is backdated to the day you start the claim, so start early.
How to claim PIP?
A PIP claim has four steps, and the first one fixes the date your money runs from. However long the process takes afterwards, any pip back payment is measured back to the day you started. Once an award is made, you can download proof of it through GOV.UK, as explained in Check Your PIP Award Online. The journey in order:
- Start the claim. Call 0800 917 2222 with your contact details, date of birth, National Insurance number, bank details, your GP or specialist's details, and dates of any time in a care home or hospital.
- Complete the PIP2 form. The DWP posts you "How your disability affects you". Describe your difficulties against the daily living and mobility activities, with examples, and return it by the deadline it states.
- Attend the assessment. Most claims involve one, by phone, video or in person. A health professional asks how you manage the activities day to day.
- Receive the decision. The letter states your award, its length, your payment day, and the backdated amount covering your wait.
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How long does a PIP claim take?
Months rather than weeks is the honest expectation, with the assessment wait the largest part. The DWP publishes clearance statistics quarterly, and waits vary by region and by whether an assessment is needed. None of the waiting costs money. The award, once made, reaches back to step one, covered fully in How Long a PIP Claim Takes. A claim started today protects today's date; a claim delayed by three months loses three months of money permanently, because backdating stops at the claim date.
How to claim PIP online?
A full online PIP application exists, but only for some postcodes. GOV.UK checks your postcode at the start and offers the online route where it is available; everywhere else starts by phone or letter. The paper route carries no disadvantage beyond post time, because the claim date is set the day your request arrives. Who can apply for PIP online, and how the postcode check works, is set out separately.
How do you apply for PIP by phone, post or online?
You can apply for PIP by phone on 0800 917 2222, by letter to Freepost DWP PIP 1, or fully online in some postcode areas. All three routes start the same claim with the DWP. GOV.UK sets out each one:
| Route | How it works | Suited to |
|---|---|---|
| Phone | 0800 917 2222, Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm. Relay UK: 18001 then 0800 917 2222. From abroad: +44 191 218 7766 | Most new claims |
| Post | A letter saying you want to start a PIP claim, with your name and address, sent to Freepost DWP PIP 1 | Claimants who cannot manage a phone call |
| Online | GOV.UK: "You can make your full application online in some areas." A postcode check runs first | Claimants whose postcode qualifies |
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Whichever route starts the claim, the next step is the same form, "How your disability affects you". GOV.UK asks you to "return the form by post or complete it online within 1 month". A claim started by phone or letter can still use the online version of the form.
GOV.UK also states: "You can ask someone else to call on your behalf - you'll need to be with them when they call." A Welsh speaker is available on request, and GOV.UK notes that you "may be able to get a home visit from a Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) officer to help you with your claim".
What do you need before you call to claim PIP?
Have your National Insurance number, bank details and your doctor's or health worker's details ready before you call, along with the dates of any hospital, care home or overseas stays. GOV.UK lists eight things the adviser asks for:
- Your contact details, for example a telephone number
- Your date of birth
- Your National Insurance number, if you have one
- Your bank or building society account number and sort code
- Your doctor or health worker's name, address and telephone number
- Dates and addresses for any time spent in a care home or hospital
- Dates for any time spent abroad for more than 4 weeks at a time, and the countries visited
- Information about any money or support you or a close family member get from an EEA country or Switzerland
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None of the eight is about your condition. The call records who you are and how to pay you; the detail of your difficulties belongs to the form and the assessment. A missing item does not stop the call, so making it before every document is to hand still protects the claim date.
What happens after you apply for PIP?
After the call, the DWP posts the "How your disability affects you" form, which is due back within 1 month, and most claims then go to an assessment before a decision letter is sent. GOV.UK describes the assessment this way: "The assessment can take place at an assessment centre, at your home, over the phone or by video call. It usually takes 1 hour."
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The health professional writes a report for the DWP, and a DWP case manager makes the decision. What happens after the assessment, from the report to the letter, is covered step by step on its own page. The decision letter states the award, and GOV.UK confirms: "You can challenge a decision about your claim. This is called asking for 'mandatory reconsideration'." GOV.UK states that you usually need to ask for it within one month of the date of the decision.
Background on the benefit itself, its two components and who it is for, is on What Is PIP (Personal Independence Payment)?
Can you claim PIP if you are working?
Yes. GOV.UK states: "You can get PIP if you're working or have savings." PIP is not an out-of-work benefit and not means-tested: GOV.UK confirms that "PIP is tax free. The amount you get is not affected by your income or savings." The claim steps are identical for someone in full-time work.
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What work can change is the evidence. A job does not disqualify a claim, but what you do at work, and the help or adjustments you need to do it, can inform how the assessor reads the activities. How working and PIP fit together, including reporting a change once an award is in payment, is covered in the work and money cluster.
Claiming PIP in Detail
Each step has details that decide how smooth the claim runs. The call is scripted and takes around 20 minutes of questions from the list above; someone else can call with you present, and Claiming PIP for Someone Else covers appointee claims. A textphone route exists via Relay UK on 18001 then 0800 917 2222. Every number and its hours are listed in PIP Contact Numbers.
The form is the heart of the claim. The PIP2 Form takes the activities one by one; the strongest answers describe your worse days, name the help you need, and attach professional evidence. Preparing documents before the form arrives shortens the work, and First PIP Claim Checklist lists what to gather.
The assessment tests your form against the 12 activities and their descriptors. What assessors ask, and how points are scored from your answers, is covered in The PIP Assessment: A Complete Guide. Terminally ill claimants skip most of this: PIP Under the Special Rules (SR1) explains the fast-track route with no assessment.
The decision letter ends the journey with one of the award types in PIP Decisions. Check three things on arrival: the components and rates awarded, the review date, and the backdated amount. A wrong decision starts a one-month clock for mandatory reconsideration, so read it the week it arrives. Jargon in any letter decodes at PIP Terms A-Z.
Eligibility sits underneath all four steps: 16 or over, usually under State Pension age, difficulties expected to last at least 12 months, and the residence rules, all detailed in PIP Eligibility.
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The claim timeline, step by step
Laying the four steps on a timeline shows where the waiting actually happens. The first call takes under half an hour and sets the claim date. The PIP2 form arrives by post over the following weeks, and its return deadline is printed on it; an extension is available by phone if gathering evidence takes longer. The assessment invitation follows the form, and the wait for an appointment is the longest single stretch in most claims. The decision then follows the assessment report.
| Stage | What you control | What the DWP controls |
|---|---|---|
| Starting call | When you make it (sets the claim date) | Sending the PIP2 form |
| PIP2 form | Quality of answers, meeting the deadline | Logging and reviewing it |
| Assessment | Attendance, accuracy, evidence | The appointment date and format |
| Decision | Nothing, until the letter arrives | The award and its dates |
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The table's left column is where claims are won. Strong PIP2 answers with concrete examples reduce what the assessment must establish, and complete honesty at the assessment protects the points your situation supports.
Evidence worth gathering while you wait
Evidence gathering runs in parallel with every stage, and three kinds carry most weight. Professional evidence: letters and reports from your GP, specialist or therapist that describe function, not just diagnosis. Care evidence: statements from anyone who helps you daily, describing what they do and how often. Self-evidence: a short diary of difficult days, which turns majority-of-days questions from guesswork into record. None of it requires paying for private reports, and the DWP can request records itself where it needs them.
The first call, question by question
The starting call follows a script, and knowing it removes its sting. After security details, the agent works through the list gov.uk publishes: your contact details, date of birth, National Insurance number, bank or building society details, your GP or health professional's details, and dates and addresses for any time spent in a care home or hospital. Nationality and recent travel feature for the residence rules. Nothing in the call explores your condition in depth; that belongs to the form and the assessment.
Two practical notes help. The call is the moment your claim date is set, so making it before every document is assembled costs nothing and protects weeks of money. And where phones are genuinely unmanageable, the letter route to Freepost DWP PIP 1 achieves the same start, with the claim effective from the DWP's side of the process rather than your postmark, so post promptly.
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Filling in the PIP2 without losing points
The form's twelve activity sections reward one discipline above all: concrete, worst-realistic examples. For each activity, state whether you can do it, describe what actually happens when you try, name the help or aids involved, and say how many days a week it goes that way. Space is short and extra sheets are allowed. The three phrases that undersell claims, I manage, I cope and I get by, all translate to descriptor a unless the sentence after them explains the cost.
Attach copies of existing evidence rather than waiting for perfect new letters, list your medications with doses, and keep a photocopy or photographs of the completed form. The assessment will test the form's account, and matching answers, form to phone call, is the simplest credibility asset a claim can hold.
After the decision arrives
The letter's arrival forks three ways, and each fork has a page of its own. An award you accept needs only checking: components, rates, length, review date and the backdated amount against your own arithmetic. An award you dispute starts the one-month mandatory reconsideration clock, and the challenge sequence runs from there to tribunal if needed. And no award at all leaves the same challenge route plus, where circumstances change, the option of a fresh claim with a new claim date.
Whichever fork applies, keep the letter. Every later stage, from bank queries to tribunal bundles, works from its dates and figures.
Claiming for someone else, and the fast-track route
Two claim variants replace steps rather than adding them. A claim made with or for someone else runs the same course, with the other person present on calls, helping with the form, or formally appointed where the claimant cannot manage the claim; the claim date rules and backdating work identically. And claimants nearing the end of life use the special rules: a clinician provides the SR1 form, no assessment takes place, the daily living component pays at the enhanced rate, and decisions are fast-tracked ahead of the normal queue.
Neither variant needs special knowledge to start. The same new claims line handles both, and saying the situation plainly at the start of the call routes the claim correctly.
The claim in numbers
Reduced to its numbers, the journey is compact. One phone call sets the claim date. Twelve activities structure the form and the assessment. Eight points reach a component's standard rate and twelve reach enhanced. One decision letter ends the wait, with one month to challenge anything wrong in it, and every waiting week priced into the backdated amount at £30.30 to £194.60 depending on the award. The paperwork feels bigger than that arithmetic; the arithmetic is what actually decides the money.
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Claims for specific conditions change none of the numbers. Rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, anxiety and every other diagnosis run through the same steps and the same scoring, with the condition shaping only the evidence: which activities your form emphasises and which professionals write your letters. The condition-by-condition detail lives in the conditions cluster, and the scoring it feeds into is checkable at any time with the points calculator.
Mistakes that cost claims, and their cheap preventions
Most failed first claims fail on process, not entitlement, and the recurring mistakes are all preventable. Missing the PIP2 deadline closes claims that would have succeeded; the prevention is returning the form early or phoning for an extension before the date. Answers that describe only your good days, on the form and at the assessment, score the wrong descriptors; the prevention is the majority-of-days discipline throughout. Unreturned calls and missed assessment appointments end claims administratively; the prevention is treating every DWP contact as deadline-bearing. And giving up after a refusal abandons money that reconsiderations and tribunals recover every day; the prevention is reading the decision letter as a first offer, not a verdict.
None of the preventions needs an adviser, though advisers help. Each is a calendar entry, a writing habit or a phone call, applied at the right stage of the same four-step journey this page maps.
If you remember three things
A claim rewards three memories above all others. The claim date is money: every week from the first call is priced into the eventual award, and no week before it ever is. The form and the assessment are the same test twice: both score the 12 activities, so consistent, majority-of-days answers carry both. And refusals are the middle of the process, not the end: reconsiderations and tribunals overturn decisions routinely, on the same evidence better presented. A claimant holding those three points, with the contact numbers saved and the deadlines diarised, is better equipped than most who start the journey.
The journey above looks long written out, and most of it is waiting rather than doing. The doing fits in a dozen hours across four stages, and each hour is mapped on this page or one link from it. Start with the call, keep copies of everything, answer for your real days, and let the backdating rule turn the waiting into money rather than loss.
Every step above links deeper; the journey starts with one call.
Work Out Your Number
Before or during a claim, the points system shows what your difficulties could score. Answer the 12 activities and see the award they support: work out your claiming PIP position with the points calculator.