Do You Qualify for PIP? Free 30-Second Quiz

How the PIP eligibility quiz works

This quiz asks six quick questions about your conditions, where you live and how your conditions affect your daily life, then estimates how likely you are to qualify for PIP based on the kinds of difficulties the assessment looks at. It collects no personal details and nothing is stored. The result is a guide, not a decision. Your actual award depends on how you describe your difficulties on the PIP2 form.

What counts as qualifying for PIP

PIP is not based on your diagnosis. It is based on how your condition affects 12 everyday activities, from preparing food and washing to moving around and planning a journey. You score points for each activity depending on how much help you need. You need 8 points for the standard rate or 12 for the enhanced rate, in the daily living part, the mobility part or both. Many people qualify even when they did not expect to, because the assessment looks at difficulty, not diagnosis.

What to do with your result

Who can claim PIP? The basic rules

PIP is not means-tested, so your income, savings and whether you work do not affect it. What matters is how your condition affects your daily life. You can usually claim if all of the following apply:

• Age: you are 16 or over and under State Pension age when you claim. If you are over State Pension age, you would usually look at Attendance Allowance instead.
• The 3 and 9 month rule: you have had these difficulties for at least 3 months and expect them to continue for at least another 9 months. You can start a claim before the 3 months are up, but PIP is only paid once they have passed. People who are nearing the end of life can claim under special rules with no waiting period.
• Residency: in England or Wales, you usually need to be living there when you apply and to have lived in England, Scotland or Wales for at least 2 of the last 3 years. In Northern Ireland, PIP is run separately by the Department for Communities: you need to live in Northern Ireland, and nidirect explains the rules there. In Scotland, PIP has been replaced by Adult Disability Payment, which works in a similar way: our sister site ADPexpert covers it.
• Impact, not diagnosis: a diagnosis on its own does not award PIP. The DWP scores how your condition affects 12 everyday activities, so two people with the same condition can get very different results depending on how they are affected.

PIP has two separate parts, and you can be awarded one or both:

• Daily living covers things like preparing food, washing, dressing, managing medication, reading, communicating and engaging with other people.
• Mobility covers planning and following a journey, and moving around.

Each part is scored in points. You need 8 points for the standard rate or 12 points for the enhanced rate. A rule many people miss is that you only score if you can do an activity safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly and in a reasonable time. If you can technically manage something but not reliably, that still counts in your favour.

This reliability test decides most claims, and it is where the words you use on the PIP2 form matter most. Our free preview shows you, for one activity, how to describe your difficulties in the way the assessment scores.

PIP eligibility questions, answered