PIP for Vertigo and Ménière's Disease: Points, Rates and How to Qualify

The Short Answer

Yes, you can get PIP with vertigo or Ménière's disease if its effects score at least 8 points in a component on more than half of the days; the diagnosis alone does not decide it. The activities most often engaged are preparing food, washing and bathing, moving around, and planning and following journeys. Each descriptor must be met safely, and attacks count under the 50% rule. Twelve points in a component gives the enhanced rate.

Can You Get PIP for Vertigo or Ménière's Disease?

Yes, PIP can be awarded for vertigo or Ménière's disease when the effects on the 12 assessed activities score at least 8 points in the daily living or mobility component. Neither condition is named in the PIP Regulations 2013. The PIP conditions list shows how each condition is mapped to the 12 activities instead.

Regulations 5 and 6 set the thresholds: 8 points in a component gives the standard rate and 12 points gives the enhanced rate. GOV.UK lists one more condition: you expect the difficulties to last for at least 12 months from when they started.

Which PIP Activities Can Vertigo Affect?

Four activities use wording that turns on balance-related tasks: preparing food, washing and bathing, moving around, and planning and following journeys. Schedule 1 defines "cook" as heat food at or above waist height, and "bathe" to include get into or out of an unadapted bath or shower. It defines "supervision" as the continuous presence of another person for the purpose of ensuring safety.

Last checked: 30 September 2026

The full set of descriptors and points for moving around is on its own page, and the Washing and Bathing activity has the same for bathing.

The PIP Assessment Guide separates two kinds of fall. It says the risk to safety arising from a physical inability to move safely would ordinarily be applicable under moving around. Where the fall arises as a result of a sensory or cognitive impairment, the risk would be applicable under planning and following journeys. The assessor decides which applies in a given case.

How Does the 'Safely' Test Apply to Dizziness and Falls?

A task counts as done safely only where it is done in a manner unlikely to cause harm to the person or to another person, either during or after the activity. That is the definition in regulation 4(4)(a). Regulation 4(2A) sets out the four PIP reliability criteria: safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly and within a reasonable time.

The PIP Assessment Guide adds this guidance on safety:

• The risk of harm occurring also has to be higher than that for a non-disabled person completing the same activity.
• Even if the impact of the risk is significant, there must still be a real possibility that it will occur.
• The assessor must consider whether the risk and the severity of the harm are great enough to require continuous supervision for the duration of the task.

Where a task can be done safely only with another person present, the descriptor that refers to supervision applies. That is why the table lists the supervision descriptors for preparing food and for washing and bathing.

How Do Vertigo Attacks Count Under the 50% Rule?

Attacks count in proportion to the days they cover, because regulation 7 scores the descriptor that applies on over 50% of the days of the required period. The PIP Assessment Guide bases the choice on a 12-month period and, where there is variability, on what is needed on the majority of days.

The examples below are arithmetic on a 365-day year. They are illustrations of the rule, not forecasts.

• Fewer than half of the days. Attacks limit walking to 20 to 50 metres on 40 days, which is 11%. Descriptor a of moving around (0 points) applies on the other 325 days, or 89%, so it is the descriptor scored.
• Descriptors that combine. Descriptor b applies on 100 days, c on 60 days and e on 35 days, a total of 195 days or 53%. No single descriptor passes 50%, so regulation 7(1)(c) gives the descriptor satisfied for the greater proportion of days. That is b, which scores 4 points.

Under regulation 7(2), a descriptor is satisfied on a day if it is likely that, had the person been assessed that day, they would have satisfied it.

How Many PIP Points Could You Score With Vertigo?

Vertigo has no fixed points total, because each component adds the highest descriptor that applies in each of its activities. The two components are scored separately.

Last checked: 30 September 2026

The table is an arithmetic example using Schedule 1 points. In washing and bathing, 4e scores higher than 4c, so only 4e counts. Balance conditions that come with hearing loss are also covered in PIP for Hearing Loss. To test your own combination, work out your mobility points, then add the points from both components.

What Evidence Supports a Vertigo Claim?

Evidence that records how often each task is affected, and whether it can be done safely, answers both the 50% rule and the safely test. Suitable evidence includes:

• ENT or balance clinic letters recording the diagnosis and the tasks it limits
• A dated record of attacks and falls, with the tasks affected on each day
• The same record for days between attacks, which shows whether a descriptor applies on ordinary days
• A statement from a person who is present during washing, cooking or journeys

Keep the record across the required period where you can. The PIP appeal evidence guide sets out what a decision maker reads.

How Much PIP Would You Get With Vertigo, and Is It Backdated?

PIP pays the same four weekly rates whatever the condition: £76.70 or £114.60 for daily living and £30.30 or £80.00 for mobility in 2026/27. Vertigo and Ménière's disease carry no amount of their own.

Last checked: 30 September 2026

These are the GOV.UK amounts, and PIP rates by component are set out on the rates page. An award runs from the date of the claim, so the wait for a decision is paid as arrears. The calculator lets you estimate your backdated award on the same basis as any other claim.