The Short Answer
Bipolar Disorder can qualify for PIP where it limits the assessed activities on more than half of the days over a 12-month period. The assessment looks across a 12-month period, which is how a condition with distinct episodes is scored. Points come from the descriptors the condition engages, not from the diagnosis, and both components can reach either rate.
How Bipolar Disorder Affects the 12 Activities
The activities below are the ones whose published assessment guidance names the functions bipolar disorder is commonly reported to affect.
| 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.”
The remaining activities are not closed; they are simply less often engaged. Where bipolar disorder coexists with another condition, the whole assessment is in play, and a claim described under one heading alone will leave those activities blank.
Points You Could Score
8 points in a component pays the standard rate; 12 points pays the enhanced rate. Regulations 5 and 6 of the PIP Regulations 2013 set both thresholds, and the two components are scored separately so their points never combine.
Bipolar disorder scores mainly through prompting descriptors, which appear in six of the ten daily living activities. Four 2-point descriptors reach the standard rate.
To score your own case activity by activity, use PIP for Bipolar Disorder, which is pre-filtered to the activities above.
Evidence and Assessment
Evidence that names an activity beats evidence that names the diagnosis. The diagnosis is rarely disputed; what the descriptors ask about is what happens when you attempt a task.
- 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
Episode records are the strongest evidence here, because they date what happened. A mood diary, admission records and care coordinator notes together answer the more-than-half-the-days test in a way a diagnosis letter cannot.
At the appointment itself, the reliability criteria are what to keep in view: an activity counts as done only where it can be done safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly and in a reasonable time. Those four elements come from regulation 4 of the PIP Regulations 2013, and each is a separate ground on which a task can fail. What the PIP assessment guide covers, and how to prepare, is set out on the assessment hub.
Rates and Back Pay for Bipolar Disorder Claims
The same rates as any award, and the same backdating rules.
| Award | Weekly | Every 4 weeks |
|---|---|---|
| Daily living standard | £76.70 | £306.80 |
| Daily living enhanced | £114.60 | £458.40 |
| Mobility standard | £30.30 | £121.20 |
| Mobility enhanced | £80.00 | £320.00 |
Last checked: 6 August 2026
An award runs from the date of the claim, so the months spent waiting for a decision are paid as arrears rather than lost. Where a claim is refused and later won at reconsideration or tribunal, the award still reaches back to the original claim date.
Where Bipolar Disorder Sits Among Other Conditions
No condition ranks above another, because the regulations name none of them. Bipolar Disorder is assessed on the same 12 activities as every other condition, and the list of conditions that can qualify for PIP exists to show how each maps onto those activities rather than to rank them.