PIP is scored on 12 activities: 10 for daily living and 2 for mobility. Each activity has descriptors worth 0 to 12 points, and the one that applies to you counts. You need 8 points in a component for the standard rate and 12 points for the enhanced rate.
This shows how the descriptors add up. It doesn't predict your award. A DWP decision maker chooses the descriptors, using your form, the assessment report and any evidence you send. Use it to see which descriptors matter for you, and what to explain on your form.
How a descriptor is chosen
For each activity, the descriptor that counts is the one that applies on more than half the days, looking at a 12-month period: the 3 months up to the date DWP assesses your claim from, and the 9 months after it. If two or more apply on more than half the days, the higher scoring one counts.
You only count as able to do an activity if you can do it safely, to an acceptable standard, as often as you need to, and in no more than twice the time someone without your condition would take.
Your ability is judged using any aid or appliance you normally use, or could reasonably be expected to use.
Daily living: 0 points, below the 8 points for the standard rate. 8 more points would reach the standard rate.
Mobility activities
Mobility: 0 points, below the 8 points for the standard rate. 8 more points would reach the standard rate.
Daily living 0Mobility 0
Your answers
Daily living: 0 points, below the 8 points for the standard rate. 8 more points would reach the standard rate.
Mobility: 0 points, below the 8 points for the standard rate. 8 more points would reach the standard rate.
This shows how the descriptors add up. It doesn't predict a PIP award.
What the totals mean
Each component is scored on its own. Fewer than 8 points in a component means no award for that component. 8 to 11 points is the standard rate, and 12 or more is the enhanced rate. Mobility also has an age condition, which the calculator doesn't check.
The PIP descriptors and points haven't changed since 2017. The Timms Review of PIP is due to report to the Work and Pensions Secretary in autumn 2026, and its September 2026 update listed emerging ideas but no change to descriptors or points. Any change would need new regulations with a start date.
You need at least 8 points in a component for its standard rate and at least 12 for its enhanced rate. Daily living and mobility are scored separately, so you can get one component without the other, or each at a different rate.
Do daily living and mobility points add together?
No. Activities 1 to 10 count towards daily living and activities 11 and 12 towards mobility. Each component needs its own 8 points. Someone with 20 daily living points and 4 mobility points gets the daily living component only.
Can you score points for more than one descriptor in an activity?
No. Each activity scores one descriptor: the one that applies on more than half the days over a 12-month period. If two or more apply on more than half the days, the higher scoring one counts. Points then add up across activities.
What does 'reliably' mean for PIP?
You only count as able to do an activity if you can do it safely, to an acceptable standard, as often as you need to, and in no more than twice the time someone without your condition would take. The regulations don't use the word "reliably", but this is the test advisers mean by it.
What's the highest PIP score?
84 points for daily living and 24 for mobility, taking the top descriptor in every activity. Anything from 12 points up gets the enhanced rate, so scoring more than 12 doesn't change the award.
Are the PIP points changing?
The PIP descriptors and points haven't changed since 2017. The Timms Review of PIP is due to report to the Work and Pensions Secretary in autumn 2026, and its September 2026 update listed emerging ideas but no change to descriptors or points. Any change would need new regulations with a start date.
Where this comes from
The activities, descriptors and points are copied word for word from Schedule 1 of the PIP Regulations 2013, the latest revised version on legislation.gov.uk, read on 11 October 2026. We checked every descriptor and its points against that page. The regulations number the two mobility activities 1 and 2; this page calls them 11 and 12, as DWP does.
We are not the DWP and can't see your claim. For help filling in the form or challenging a decision, Citizens Advice and Scope give free advice.