Personal Independence Payment (PIP) in the UK is not about what diagnosis you have, but how your long‑term condition affects your daily living and mobility over time.

What can you claim PIP for?

You can claim PIP if all of these are broadly true:

  • You are 16 or over and under State Pension age.
  • You have a long‑term physical or mental health condition or disability.
  • You have difficulty with certain everyday tasks and/or getting around.
  • These difficulties have lasted (or will last) at least about 12 months.

It can cover both:

  • Daily Living (extra help with day‑to‑day activities)
  • Mobility (extra help with getting around)

You do not need to have worked or paid National Insurance to claim, and it is not means‑tested, so savings and most income do not affect it.

Examples of conditions people commonly claim PIP for

PIP is awarded for the impact of your condition, but some of the most common groups of conditions include:

  • Psychiatric / mental health conditions
    • Depression
    • Anxiety disorders
    • Bipolar disorder
    • PTSD and other trauma‑related conditions
    • Personality disorders
  • Musculoskeletal conditions (general and regional)
    • Arthritis (osteoarthritis, rheumatoid)
    • Chronic back or neck problems
    • Fibromyalgia and chronic widespread pain
    • Joint problems affecting hips, knees, shoulders, hands
  • Neurological conditions
    • Epilepsy
    • Multiple sclerosis (MS)
    • Parkinson’s disease
    • Neuropathy, migraines, certain brain injuries
  • Respiratory and cardiac conditions
    • COPD, severe asthma
    • Heart failure, serious heart rhythm problems
  • Other long‑term conditions
    • Diabetes with complications (e.g. neuropathy, sight loss, hypo awareness issues)
    • Learning disabilities
    • Autism spectrum conditions
    • Sensory impairments (sight and hearing loss)

But you can get PIP for less “obvious” or invisible conditions too, as long as they cause enough functional difficulty day to day.

What “counts” – the activities they look at

PIP looks at how your condition affects specific activities, not just how bad you feel. The law sets out a list of activities; you score points depending on what you can and cannot do reliably (safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly, and in a reasonable time).

Daily living activities include things like

  • Preparing and cooking food
  • Eating and drinking
  • Managing treatments and taking medication
  • Washing and bathing
  • Managing toilet needs or incontinence
  • Dressing and undressing
  • Communicating (talking, listening, understanding)
  • Reading and understanding written information
  • Mixing with other people face to face
  • Making decisions about money

If you need help, prompting, supervision, or special aids/adaptations for these, you may score daily living points.

Mobility activities include

  • Planning and following journeys (including issues linked to anxiety, orientation, or cognitive problems)
  • Physically moving around (walking, standing, using mobility aids)

If you can only walk short distances, need a stick/walker/wheelchair, or cannot go out alone due to mental health or cognitive reasons, you may score mobility points.

How PIP is structured (what you actually get)

PIP has two components , each paid at either a standard or enhanced rate:

  • Daily Living component
  • Mobility component

You can get:

  • Daily living only
  • Mobility only
  • Both together

The amount you get depends on how many points you score across the relevant activities. Points are added up separately for daily living and mobility.

A quick example to make it clearer

Imagine someone who:

  • Has severe anxiety and depression
  • Needs their partner to motivate them to wash and dress most days
  • Often forgets medication unless reminded
  • Cannot go out alone due to panic attacks and needs someone with them

They might:

  • Score points for washing and bathing, dressing, taking medication, and mixing with people.
  • Score mobility points because they cannot plan or follow a journey without support.

Even though they can physically walk, they could still qualify for both daily living and mobility components because of the psychological impact.

Common misconceptions

  • You do not need to be in a wheelchair.
  • You do not need a specific diagnosis list – it’s about the effect, not the label.
  • You can work and still get PIP if you meet the criteria.
  • PIP is separate from benefits like Universal Credit or Employment and Support Allowance.

Quick HTML table: what you can claim PIP for

Below is a simple HTML table summarising what PIP can cover:

html

<table>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th>Area</th>
      <th>Examples of difficulties</th>
      <th>Type of PIP support</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>Daily living</td>
      <td>Preparing food, eating, washing, dressing, taking medication, social interaction, managing money</td>
      <td>Daily living component (standard or enhanced)</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Mobility</td>
      <td>Walking distance, balance, using aids, needing someone with you to go out, planning/following journeys</td>
      <td>Mobility component (standard or enhanced)</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Physical conditions</td>
      <td>Musculoskeletal problems, neurological conditions, respiratory or cardiac issues, sensory loss</td>
      <td>Either or both components, depending on impact</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Mental health conditions</td>
      <td>Anxiety, depression, bipolar, PTSD, schizophrenia, autism, learning disability</td>
      <td>Either or both components, depending on impact</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

If you’re thinking about claiming now

Because rules and practice do change, it’s worth checking the most up‑to‑date official guidance and, if possible, getting personalised advice. Good starting points:

  • Government PIP eligibility and how to claim pages
  • Citizens Advice or a local welfare rights/disabled people’s organisation

They can help you work through how your specific difficulties map onto the PIP activities and how to describe this clearly on the form.

TL;DR: You can claim PIP for any long‑term physical or mental health condition that makes everyday tasks or getting around difficult over at least about a year, as long as those difficulties meet the daily living and/or mobility criteria. Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.