The Short Answer
Daily living activity 9 assesses engaging with other people face to face, and the guide states it is designed for limitations deriving from mental health, cognitive and learning impairments. It covers interacting appropriately, understanding body language and establishing relationships. Descriptors run from 2 points for prompting, through 4 for social support, to 8 for being unable to engage at all.
| Activity | Daily living activity 9: Engaging with other people face to face |
|---|---|
| Component | Daily living, scored under regulation 5(3) |
| Descriptors | 4, lettered a to d |
| Points range | 0 to 8 |
| Reaches a threshold alone | Yes — the top descriptor alone reaches the 8-point standard rate |
The Engaging With Other People Descriptors
One descriptor is scored, the highest that applies on more than half of the days.
| Descriptor | Points |
|---|---|
| a. Can engage with other people unaided. | 0 |
| b. Needs prompting to be able to engage with other people. | 2 |
| c. Needs social support to be able to engage with other people. | 4 |
| d. Cannot engage with other people due to such engagement causing either – (i) overwhelming psychological distress to the claimant; or (ii) the claimant to exhibit behaviour which would result in a substantial risk of harm to the claimant or another person. | 8 |
Last checked: 7 August 2026
Reproduced verbatim from Schedule 1 of the Social Security (Personal Independence Payment) Regulations 2013, as amended. The highest descriptor this activity can score is 8 points.
Eight points for the top descriptor reaches the daily living standard rate on its own. No other mental-health-route activity in the daily living component does that.
What Engaging Means
Three things, considered together. The guide defines the activity as the ability to "a) interact face-to-face in a contextually and socially appropriate manner b) understand body language c) establish relationships", and adds that "the different aspects of the ability to engage with other people needs to be considered in the round".
It then states the design intent plainly: "This activity is designed for limitations on social engagement deriving from mental health, cognitive and learning impairments."
Last checked: 7 August 2026
Two clarifications widen it. The activity "encompasses all forms of social engagement, whether the 'relationship' established lasts 10 minutes, 10 days or 10 years" — a shop transaction counts. And "when considering whether claimants can engage with others, consideration should be given to whether they can engage with people generally, not just those people they know well".
Prompting Against Social Support
The two-point step that decides more claims here than anywhere else. Descriptor b, prompting, scores 2. Descriptor c, social support, scores 4.
Social support means support from a person trained or experienced in helping with social engagement, and family or friends can provide it. The functional distinction is timing: prompting is being reminded or encouraged before the interaction; social support means needing that person during it, because the engagement fails without them.
A claim describing someone who comes to appointments and speaks on your behalf is describing social support. It is frequently written down as prompting, and the two points are lost.
The Top Descriptor
Descriptor d has two alternative limbs, and either is enough. The engagement must cause either "overwhelming psychological distress to the claimant" or "the claimant to exhibit behaviour which would result in a substantial risk of harm to the claimant or another person".
Overwhelming psychological distress is defined: "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".
The behaviour limb carries a qualification: it "must be as a result of an underlying health condition and the claimant's inability to control their behaviour". The guide also directs that before descriptor d applies, it "should be considered whether prompting" would make engagement possible — if it would, a lower descriptor fits.
Vulnerability and Sensory Impairment
Two points the guide makes that claims rarely use. First: "Vulnerability to the actions of others needs to be considered. For example, someone with cognitive or learning impairment may be less risk aware and vulnerable to manipulation or abuse."
Second, on overlap: "Where an individual with sensory impairment(s) has scored under activity 7 and/or 8, they are not excluded from activity 9 ... it may be that anxiety arising from their impairment means they also reasonably need help to engage with others face to face."
Conditions That Commonly Score Here
Mental health conditions, autism, learning disability and cognitive impairment. Anxiety, depression, PTSD and social phobia reach it through prompting, social support and the distress limb. Autism reaches it through the social support descriptor most often. Learning disability reaches it through the vulnerability consideration. Dementia reaches it through appropriate interaction and understanding body language.
Check Your Score
Engaging with other people is one of ten daily living activities, and points add across all of them. Score it alongside the rest in the PIP points calculator, or read the full set on all 12 PIP descriptors.