PIP Activity 9: Engaging with People - Complete Scoring Guide

Activity 9 covers engaging with other people face to face. This is PIP2 Question 11. This is the most important activity for anyone with mental health conditions, autism or learning disabilities. It can score up to 8 points and is one of the strongest single-activity scorers in PIP. Descriptor c at 4 points (social support) is a clean single-activity score that is well worth pursuing where the need is genuine.

The Descriptors and Points

a. Can engage with other people unaided - 0 points.

b. Needs prompting to be able to engage with other people - 2 points. Someone encourages you to interact, helps you in social situations or prompts you to respond appropriately.

c. Needs social support to be able to engage with other people - 4 points. You need someone with you to help you interact. They may speak for you, calm you down, help you understand social cues or support you in managing anxiety. What makes this social support rather than prompting is who has to give it: the person must be trained or experienced in helping people engage, which can include a family member or carer directly experienced in supporting you. This is the critical 4-point descriptor.

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 points. Social interaction causes panic attacks, severe anxiety, dissociation or complete shutdown, or it triggers aggression or other behaviour that puts you or someone else at real risk. You avoid all social contact.

"Engaging" Means More Than Talking

The regulations define "engage socially" as interacting with others in a contextually and socially appropriate manner, understanding body language and establishing relationships. A relationship here can last ten minutes or ten years: the DWP guide says every form of face-to-face social engagement counts, and the question is whether you can engage with people generally, not just those you know well. It includes understanding social norms, recognising when someone is upset or angry, responding appropriately to social cues. If you misread social situations, say inappropriate things or cannot establish or keep relationships, this activity is affected.

Conditions That Score Highest Here

Social anxiety disorder (cannot face people), agoraphobia (cannot leave house), autism (cannot read social cues), PTSD (triggered by people), schizophrenia (paranoia around others), severe depression (complete social withdrawal), personality disorders (difficulty maintaining relationships), bipolar disorder (inappropriate behaviour during episodes).

Why Descriptor c (Social Support) Is a Strong Single-Activity Score

The proposed "4-point rule" (needing 4+ points in a single daily living activity) was Clause 5 of the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill, and it was removed on 1 July 2025. It is not coming. Any future eligibility changes rest with the independent Timms Review, due to report in Autumn 2026.

That said, descriptor c (needs social support, 4 points) remains a powerful single-activity score for many people with mental health conditions, autism or learning disabilities. If someone trained or experienced in helping you engage has to go with you to appointments or into shops so that you can get through the interaction, that is social support. Someone simply doing the interaction for you (shopping for you or speaking to people on your behalf while you stay away) is not social support, because the descriptor is about help that lets you engage yourself. It is evidence that you cannot engage, which reaches descriptor d only if the reason is overwhelming psychological distress or behaviour that would put you or someone else at risk. Clear evidence of social support need is easier for assessors to award than scattered 2-point descriptors, which is good claim-writing technique regardless of any threshold rule.

What "Engaging" Actually Means

This isn't about whether you WANT to socialise. It's about whether you CAN: interact appropriately with people face to face, understand body language, establish relationships and cope with social situations without overwhelming distress. Conditions like autism, anxiety, BPD, schizophrenia and agoraphobia often score highest on this activity.

Psychological Distress

Descriptor d is worth 8 points on this activity alone, but it has two precise limbs: you cannot engage with other people because engaging would cause you overwhelming psychological distress, or because it would cause you to behave in a way that puts you or another person at substantial risk of harm. "Psychological distress" is defined in the regulations as distress related to an enduring mental health condition or an intellectual or cognitive impairment, and the DWP guide reads "overwhelming" as a severe anxiety state in which you cannot function. Any risky behaviour must come from your condition and your inability to control it, and the guide says descriptor d applies only where prompting or social support would not get you through the engagement. In practice this means: panic attacks in social situations, dissociation when speaking to strangers, complete shutdown or aggressive outbursts from sensory overload. Describe what actually happens: "When I'm in a room with more than two people, I experience a panic attack - racing heart, difficulty breathing, dizziness and an overwhelming need to leave. This happens on every occasion I try to engage with people."

"Social Support" - What Counts

Descriptor c (4 points) hinges on "social support". The regulations define this as support from a person trained or experienced in assisting people to engage in social situations. The DWP guide accepts that this can be a friend, family member or carer who is directly experienced in supporting you, but a close and comforting relationship on its own is not enough: it is the training or experience that must make the help work, and if the same help would work coming from anyone, descriptor c is not met. The support can be given before the engagement as well as during it. Examples:

• Mental health support worker
• Family member, friend or carer directly experienced in supporting you to engage
• Mentor or advocate
• Specialist autism support worker
• Carer trained to manage your needs
• Peer support worker

The support must be necessary to enable engagement - not just nice to have. A BSL interpreter is communication support, which scores under Activity 7 rather than here. Deaf claimants are not excluded from Activity 9, but the DWP guide says the need here must be for help to engage, for example because anxiety arising from the hearing loss means you cannot manage face-to-face interaction without support.

Common Activity 9 Qualifying Patterns

• Autism: Often descriptor c (4 pts) - needs social support to navigate interactions
• Social anxiety: Often descriptor d (8 pts) - overwhelming distress
• Severe depression: Often descriptor b (2 pts) - prompting needed
• BPD: Often descriptor c-d (4-8 pts) - relationships unsustainable
• Schizophrenia: Often descriptor c-d (4-8 pts) - paranoia, suspicion of others
• PTSD: Often descriptor c-d (4-8 pts) - triggered by strangers, crowds
• Agoraphobia: Often descriptor d (8 pts) where face-to-face contact itself causes overwhelming distress; fear of leaving home on its own belongs under mobility Activity 1
• Learning disability: Often descriptor b-c (2-4 pts) - need support to interpret social situations
• Dementia: Often descriptor c-d (4-8 pts) - needs an experienced person to follow conversations; d where contact causes overwhelming distress or unsafe behaviour
• Severe hearing loss: the BSL interpreter scores under Activity 7; descriptor c (4 pts) here only if you also need support to engage, for example because of anxiety
• Aphasia post-stroke: the communication need scores under Activity 7; descriptor c (4 pts) here if you also need an experienced person to help you take part in conversation

Sample Strong Wording

• "I cannot engage with people I do not already know. The presence of strangers triggers panic attacks within minutes. I have not had a new social contact in 18 months."
• "My partner accompanies me to every medical appointment because I cannot interact with healthcare professionals due to severe social anxiety. They speak on my behalf or I dissociate entirely."
• "My autism means I cannot read social cues. I have offended family members repeatedly without understanding why. I now avoid all family events because the social anxiety is too great."
• "I experience auditory hallucinations triggered by stressful interactions. I cannot engage with new people because my voices become unmanageable."

The Difference Between Activity 7 and Activity 9

• Activity 7 (Communicating verbally): Ability to express and understand speech
• Activity 9 (Engaging with others): Ability to interact appropriately, establish relationships, manage social situations

Both can score - a person with autism may score on Activity 7 (cannot follow complex verbal info) AND Activity 9 (cannot manage social situations) for combined high scores.

Why "I See My Family" Doesn't Disqualify You

Many claimants worry that mentioning any social contact disqualifies them. It doesn't. You can:

• See close family but not strangers - still scores
• Manage one-on-one interactions but not groups - still scores
• Cope at quiet times but not in busy environments - still scores
• Engage briefly but with severe distress afterwards - still scores

The test is reliable engagement - not absolute social isolation.

Frequently Asked Questions

I talk to people online. Does that mean I can engage?

No. This activity is specifically about FACE TO FACE engagement. Online communication is entirely different - you control the pace, you can disengage instantly, there's no body language to read, no sensory overload. Being able to text friends doesn't mean you can engage with people in person.

I live alone. How do I show I can't engage?

Living alone can actually strengthen your claim. If you live alone because you can't maintain relationships, if no one visits, if you avoid answering the door, if your only human contact is medical appointments, describe this pattern. Social isolation IS evidence of inability to engage.

What if I see a therapist regularly?

Therapy attendance is engagement with one trusted, paid professional in a structured setting. Different from general social engagement. Many therapy patients cannot engage in other contexts.

I have a partner - does that mean I can engage?

Engaging with a partner you know intimately is different from engaging with strangers/colleagues/acquaintances. Many people with severe social anxiety can manage close family but not anyone else.

What if I went on holiday last year?

Holidays with family/friends with significant support are common. Describe what support was needed and the impact. Going on a single supported trip does not disqualify you.

Do I need to give up social media to qualify?

No. Social media activity is irrelevant to face-to-face engagement scoring. You can be active online and still qualify.

How do I describe being non-verbal or selectively mute?

Selective mutism, non-verbal autism, post-stroke aphasia all qualify. Document: when you cannot speak, in what contexts, how this is managed (writing, communication boards, BSL) and the social isolation that results.