PIP for Anxiety: Can You Claim, and What Scores Points

The assessment looks at 12 activities in total: 10 for the daily living part and 2 for the mobility part. You are treated as satisfying a descriptor only if you can do the activity safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly and within a reasonable time period. A descriptor applies only if it is satisfied on over 50% of the days of the required period.

• PIP is tax free, and the amount you get is not affected by your income or savings.
• You can get PIP even if you are working, have savings or are getting most other benefits.
• There are 2 parts to PIP: a daily living part and a mobility part. Whether you get one or both parts and how much you get depends on how difficult you find everyday tasks and getting around.
• The DWP assessment guide says a health condition or impairment may be physical, sensory, mental, intellectual or cognitive, or any combination of these, and that the impact of all impairment types must be taken into account across the activities.

Anxiety conditions the NHS describes:

• Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) is a common mental health condition where you often feel very anxious about lots of different things. The main symptom is feelings of stress or worry that affect your daily life and are difficult to control.
• Panic disorder is an anxiety disorder where you regularly have sudden attacks of panic or fear. Most panic attacks last between 5 and 20 minutes, and some people have attacks once or twice a month, while others have them several times a week.
• Social anxiety is a long-term and overwhelming fear of social situations. It is more than shyness: it is a fear that does not go away and affects everyday activities, self confidence, relationships and work or school life.
• Agoraphobia is a fear of being in situations where escape might be difficult or that help would not be available if things go wrong. Someone with severe agoraphobia may be unable to leave the house, whereas someone who has mild agoraphobia may be able to travel short distances without problems.
• PTSD is a mental health condition caused by very stressful, frightening or distressing events.

The NHS says anxiety is a feeling of unease that can range from mild to severe, and that panic is the most severe form of anxiety. It also says there are other types of anxiety disorder and it is common to have more than one at the same time.

Whether any of this scores points depends on the descriptors for each activity, which are set out in Schedule 1 to the PIP Regulations 2013. Our PIP descriptors guide lists all of them. Our PIP descriptors guide lists every activity and descriptor.

Daily living activities

• Activity 3, managing therapy or monitoring a health condition: descriptor b (1 point) applies if you need supervision, prompting or assistance to be able to manage medication, or to monitor a health condition. The DWP guide says this activity only applies to medication or therapy delivered in the home environment, and gives talking therapies undertaken in the home as an example of therapy.
• Activity 6, dressing and undressing: descriptor c (2 points) applies if you need prompting to be able to dress, undress or determine appropriate circumstances for remaining clothed, or prompting or assistance to be able to select appropriate clothing.
• Activity 9, engaging with other people face to face: the DWP guide says this activity is designed for limitations on social engagement deriving from mental health, cognitive and learning impairments. Descriptor b (2 points) applies if you need prompting, descriptor c (4 points) if you need social support, and descriptor d (8 points) if you cannot engage because it causes overwhelming psychological distress, or behaviour which would result in a substantial risk of harm to you or another person.
• The DWP guide says that when considering whether you can engage with others, consideration should be given to whether you can engage with people generally, not just those people you know well. An inability to engage face to face must be due to the impact of impairment and not simply a matter of preference.
• On engaging with other people, it says prompting could take the form of a person acting in a reassuring capacity, for example calming someone who is anxious about interacting with others.
• In the regulations, social support means support from a person trained or experienced in assisting people to engage in social situations. The DWP guide adds that this can include someone directly experienced in supporting you, such as a family member or carer, and that a close and comforting relationship without that training or experience is not enough.
• For descriptor d, the DWP guide says overwhelming psychological distress means 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 guide also says descriptor D of engaging with other people would only apply despite prompting and social support, and that behaviour which would result in a substantial risk of harm must be a result of an underlying health condition and your inability to control your behaviour.
• Activity 10, making budgeting decisions: descriptor b (2 points) applies if you need prompting or assistance to make complex budgeting decisions and descriptor c (4 points) if you need it for simple budgeting decisions. The DWP guide says this activity does not take into account a person's choices around budgeting, only their functional ability, and that if someone spends all their money at the start of the month and cannot prioritise spending, this must be due to a health condition to satisfy the descriptor.

Mobility activities

• The DWP guide says mobility activity 1 is designed for limitations on mobility deriving from mental health, cognitive and sensory impairments.
• Descriptor b (4 points) applies if you need prompting to be able to undertake any journey to avoid overwhelming psychological distress. The DWP guide says this descriptor applies where undertaking any journey causes overwhelming psychological distress and you need prompting on the majority of days to be able to undertake the journey, and that overwhelming psychological distress may occur in conditions such as generalised anxiety disorder, panic disorder, dementia, or agoraphobia.
• The guide gives the example of a claimant who becomes panicked before any journey and is only able to get out of the door if someone provides encouragement and reassurance that there are no dangers or threats as a result of going outside, but who can then follow a route independently without help, who would satisfy descriptor b.
• Descriptor e (10 points) applies if you cannot undertake any journey because it would cause overwhelming psychological distress. The guide says this descriptor is likely to apply to claimants with severe mental health conditions, for example severe agoraphobia, panic disorder or psychotic illness associated with severe paranoia.
• If you can manage to leave the home to undertake a journey once on a day, the guide says descriptor e is not satisfied on that day, even if you are unable to undertake other journeys during the same day.
• A claimant cannot satisfy both descriptors e and f. The guide says consideration must first be given to whether the claimant meets descriptor f, based on their functional capacity and supporting evidence. Descriptor f may apply where the claimant can undertake a familiar journey on the majority of days, with support (another person, an assistance dog, or an orientation aid), and can do so reliably.
• If the evidence shows you cannot undertake any journey due to overwhelming psychological distress, or cannot undertake a familiar journey reliably even with support on the majority of days, the guide says descriptor e applies.
• Descriptor d (10 points) applies if you cannot follow the route of an unfamiliar journey without another person, assistance dog or orientation aid, and descriptor f (12 points) if you cannot follow the route of a familiar journey without another person, an assistance dog or an orientation aid.
• GOV.UK says you might be eligible for a Motability Scheme vehicle if you get the higher mobility rate of PIP.

The NHS says you may start to avoid certain situations because you fear they will trigger another panic attack.

What the sources say about difficulty that varies:

• The PIP2 form asks, for each difficulty, how often you have it and asks you to tell DWP about both good and bad days.
• For each activity DWP asks you to tell it what the difficulty is, how often you have good days and bad days, and how or why your condition varies over the course of a day, week or year.
• For a condition that varies, the DWP guide says the descriptor choice should be based on a 12 month period, and that where there is variability the health professional should consider what the need is on the majority of days.
• DWP's guidance says a snapshot view of your condition on a particular day at a particular time is not an adequate assessment.
• A descriptor applies only if it is satisfied on over 50% of the days of the required period.
• The DWP guide says the timing of the activity should be considered, and that if you take medication which allows you to carry out activities reliably when you need to throughout the day, you can still complete the activity reliably when required.
• It also says that if the medication did not start to work for a significant period such as to delay you going about your daily business, a scoring descriptor should be considered.

There are 2 parts to PIP: a daily living part and a mobility part. Whether you get one or both parts and how much you get depends on how difficult you find everyday tasks and getting around. These are the weekly amounts from April 2026:

You need at least 8 points for the standard rate and at least 12 for the enhanced rate. The maximum combined award is £194.60 per week. PIP is usually paid every 4 weeks. PIP is tax free.

GOV.UK says to include supporting documents with your form if you have them, for example prescription lists, care plans, or information from your doctor or others involved in your care. DWP's booklet says to send information about how your health condition or disability affects your daily life, and documents you already have available.

DWP's booklet lists these examples of what you could send:

• Reports or care or treatment plans from occupational therapists, GPs or consultants, social workers, community psychiatric nurses, learning disability support teams, district nurses or physiotherapists
• Reports, statements or diaries from carers or family members
• Hospital discharge or outpatient clinic letters about your condition or diagnosis, and letters from your consultants about your condition or diagnosis
• Your current repeat prescription list

DWP's booklet says not to send:

• Appointment cards or letters
• General information or fact sheets about your condition
• Fact sheets about your medication

• If you disagree with a decision about your claim, you can ask for mandatory reconsideration. You usually need to ask for mandatory reconsideration within one month of the date of the decision.
• You can send evidence, for example new medical evidence, or reports or care plans from specialists, therapists or nurses.
• DWP statistics to July 2026 say that for initial PIP decisions following an assessment between April 2021 and March 2026, 15% of completed mandatory reconsiderations (excluding withdrawn) resulted in a change to the award.
• If you still disagree, you can appeal to the Social Security and Child Support Tribunal, which is impartial and independent of government. It is free to appeal, and you appeal within one month of getting your mandatory reconsideration decision.
• In the Ministry of Justice's tribunal statistics for April to June 2026, the overturn rate in favour of the claimant for PIP cases cleared at a tribunal hearing was 67%.
• The claimant has a right to see the consultation report and can request a copy from the DWP.
• You can get free help and advice from Citizens Advice, Advicenow or an adviser near you on Advicelocal.