PIP Rates 2026/27: Daily Living and Mobility Components

What Is PIP and Who Administers It?

Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is the main disability benefit for working-age adults in the United Kingdom. It replaced Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for claimants aged 16 to 64 from 2013, with the migration of existing DLA claimants completing over subsequent years. PIP is administered by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and is available throughout Great Britain; Northern Ireland has its own equivalent programme.

Unlike many means-tested benefits, PIP is not affected by your income, savings or whether you work. It is designed to help with the extra costs that arise from having a long-term physical or mental health condition or disability. Awards are reviewed periodically and are not permanent, although ongoing awards of several years are common for claimants with stable, long-term conditions.

PIP Rates 2026/27

PIP is made up of two separate components — the daily living component and the mobility component — each with a standard rate and an enhanced rate. You can be awarded any combination: both components, one only, and at different rates within each.

The maximum possible award — enhanced daily living plus enhanced mobility — is £184.30 per week, or £9,583.60 per year. These figures reflect the April 2026 uprating in line with the September 2025 Consumer Prices Index (CPI) figure.

Who Can Claim PIP?

To be eligible for PIP you must:

• Be aged 16 or over and not yet have reached State Pension age (currently 66)
• Have a long-term physical or mental health condition or disability
• Have had difficulties with daily living or mobility for at least three months before you claim and expect those difficulties to continue for at least nine months after you claim (the three-month and nine-month rules)
• Be habitually resident in Great Britain and satisfy the past presence test (generally two years of residency out of the last three)

Terminal illness is treated differently — claimants with a terminal diagnosis generally receive the enhanced daily living rate automatically under Special Rules, and their claim is fast-tracked.

The Two Components Explained

Daily living component covers difficulties with personal care, preparing and eating food, managing medication and treatment, communicating with others, reading, managing finances, and engaging socially. It reflects how much support you need to carry out activities of daily living safely, reliably and in a timely manner.

Mobility component covers difficulties with planning and following journeys, and with physically moving around. The enhanced mobility rate focuses on people who cannot follow a route to an unfamiliar place unaided due to a cognitive, psychological or sensory condition, as well as those with severe physical mobility restrictions.

The Assessment and Points Scoring System

PIP is assessed using a descriptors-based scoring system. A healthcare professional — typically employed by an assessment provider contracted by DWP — reviews your case either on the basis of paper evidence or via a face-to-face or video assessment. They score each activity according to a set of descriptors, each carrying a specific point value.

For the daily living component, points from all ten activities are added together. A total of 8 points gives standard rate; 12 or more gives enhanced rate. For mobility, points from both activities are added; again 8 for standard, 12 for enhanced.

The scoring looks at whether you can carry out each activity safely (without risk of harm to yourself or others), reliably (to an acceptable standard), repeatedly (as many times as reasonably required), and in a timely manner (within a reasonable time period). If you can only manage an activity when using an aid or appliance, or with supervision, prompting or assistance, that affects your score.

Mandatory Reconsideration and Appeals

A large proportion of initial PIP decisions are unfavourable to claimants who have genuine difficulties. If you disagree with a decision, you have the right to request a mandatory reconsideration — a review by a different DWP decision maker. You must do this before you can appeal to an independent tribunal.

Statistics consistently show that a significant share of decisions are overturned at mandatory reconsideration or at tribunal. It is strongly advisable to challenge any decision you believe is wrong. Welfare rights organisations, Citizens Advice and disability charities can assist with appeals free of charge. Gather as much supporting evidence as possible, including letters from consultants, GPs and social workers.

PIP Versus Attendance Allowance

Once you reach State Pension age (currently 66), you can no longer make a new claim for PIP. Instead, the equivalent benefit for people over pension age is Attendance Allowance (AA). If you were already receiving PIP when you reached pension age, you continue to receive it.

Attendance Allowance has two rates rather than PIP's four, and there is no mobility component. The rates in 2026/27 mirror PIP's daily living rates:

• AA higher rate: £108.55 per week (equivalent to PIP enhanced daily living)
• AA lower rate: £72.65 per week (equivalent to PIP standard daily living)

How PIP Affects Universal Credit

The daily living component of PIP acts as a gateway to additional Universal Credit elements. If you are a Universal Credit claimant who receives the daily living component of PIP, DWP will assess you for the Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity (LCWRA) element or the Limited Capability for Work (LCW) element. A successful LCWRA assessment adds £416.19 per month to your Universal Credit award in 2026/27 and removes any work-related requirements.

The mobility component of PIP does not directly affect Universal Credit, though it can help establish eligibility for other provisions such as the Blue Badge scheme and Motability.

PIP is entirely disregarded when calculating means-tested benefits — it does not count as income for Universal Credit, Housing Benefit or any other income-related benefit.

The Motability Scheme

If you receive the enhanced rate of the mobility component, you can exchange your entire mobility payment to lease a car, powered wheelchair or scooter through the Motability scheme. The scheme handles insurance, servicing and breakdown cover within the lease arrangement. For many disabled people with limited ability to travel independently, this is one of the most significant practical benefits of the enhanced mobility award.

Standard rate mobility recipients are not eligible for the Motability scheme vehicle lease, though they may qualify for other mobility-related support.

Blue Badge Automatic Entitlement

If you score 8 or more points on the PIP mobility activity for "moving around" (the physical mobility descriptor), you are automatically entitled to a Blue Badge without a further assessment. This allows parking in designated disabled bays, closer to destinations, and for longer periods than standard parking restrictions allow.

People who score 10 or 12 points on the "planning and following journeys" descriptor may also qualify for a Blue Badge, depending on the local authority's assessment of their case.

What PIP Does Not Affect

Because PIP is non-means-tested and non-taxable, it has no negative interaction with most other entitlements. It does not:

• Count as income for Universal Credit, Housing Benefit, Council Tax Reduction or other means-tested benefits
• Reduce your entitlement to any other DWP benefit
• Affect your tax position
• Count towards the benefit cap (PIP recipients are exempt from the cap entirely)

This makes PIP one of the cleanest benefits in the system — receiving it cannot make you worse off in any other area.