The Short Answer
The DWP starts the move from child DLA to PIP, and there is nothing to do until the letter arrives. DLA continues while the PIP claim is decided, so there is no gap to bridge. The transfer is a fresh assessment against twelve activities rather than a conversion, and it can raise, lower or end the amount received. At 16 the young person becomes the claimant.
What Happens, in Order
The table below sets out the position, with each figure taken from the source named beneath it.
| Stage | What happens |
|---|---|
| Approaching 16 | The DWP writes inviting a PIP claim |
| The claim | Made by the young person, or by an appointee |
| The form | 'How your disability affects you', returned within 1 month |
| While it is decided | Child DLA continues in payment |
| The decision | PIP starts and DLA ends, or DLA ends without a PIP award |
Last checked: 7 August 2026
The Assessment Is Genuinely New
Child DLA and PIP ask different questions. DLA uses care and mobility components with their own rules; PIP scores 12 activities — 10 for daily living and 2 for mobility — with descriptors and points set out in Schedule 1 of the PIP Regulations 2013.
The rate structures do not line up either. DLA care pays £30.30, £76.70 or £114.60 a week in 2026/27 and DLA mobility £30.30 or £80.00, against PIP's £76.70 or £114.60 for daily living and £30.30 or £80.00 for mobility. Three rates on one side, two on the other.
Last checked: 6 August 2026
The lowest DLA care rate has no PIP equivalent, which is one reason a transfer can reduce an award even where nothing about the condition has changed.
Filling In the Form as a New Claim
Describe the current activities, not the DLA award. A form written as a renewal leaves activities unanswered, and unanswered activities score zero.
For a young person the practical difficulty is that a parent has usually done the tasks for years, so the help given is invisible in the household. Both belong on the form: what the young person can do reliably decides the descriptor, and what the helper does — prompting, supervision, assistance — shows which descriptor applies. The assessment guide defines prompting as "reminding, encouraging or explaining by another person", which is the form most of that help takes.
Who Makes the Claim
The young person, once they are 16. Where they cannot manage their own benefit affairs, the DWP can appoint an appointee, which is a DWP arrangement rather than a legal one and is separate from a power of attorney.
A parent who was receiving DLA on the child's behalf does not automatically become the appointee. The DWP satisfies itself that the arrangement is necessary before agreeing to it. The claim itself starts on the PIP new claims line, 0800 917 2222, Monday to Friday 8am to 5pm.
Last checked: 7 August 2026
Timing and Deadlines
The form is returned within 1 month, and the postal copy usually arrives within 2 weeks of the claim being registered. The DWP's published median at January 2026 was 20 weeks end to end for a normal rules new claim.
Last checked: 7 August 2026
DLA continues throughout, so the wait does not create a gap in payment. What it does mean is that the decision, and any challenge to it, can run well past the sixteenth birthday.
Where This Sits
Scotland runs a different route: Child Disability Payment continues to 18, and Adult Disability Payment replaces PIP for adults. ADP pays the same four weekly rates as PIP — £76.70, £114.60, £30.30 and £80.00 in 2026/27 — but allows 42 calendar days to challenge a decision rather than 1 month. The equivalent adult transfer is on check dla to pip, and the claim process in full is on check claiming pip.