PIP is decided using a points system based on two groups of activities: daily living and mobility. Understanding how the points and descriptors work helps you see what the assessment is really measuring and how to describe your difficulties accurately. This guide explains the activities, how points are scored, the thresholds for each rate, and the reliability rules that often make the difference.
The two components
PIP looks at two separate things. The daily living component is about managing everyday tasks, and the mobility component is about getting around. They are scored separately, and you can qualify for one without the other. Your points for daily living do not add to your points for mobility, so each is judged on its own set of activities.
The daily living activities
There are ten daily living activities: preparing food, taking nutrition (eating and drinking), managing therapy or monitoring a health condition, washing and bathing, managing toilet needs, dressing and undressing, communicating verbally, reading and understanding signs and words, engaging with other people face to face, and making budgeting decisions. Each one looks at how well, how safely and how independently you can carry out that task.
The mobility activities
There are two mobility activities: planning and following a journey, and moving around. Planning and following a journey covers things like being able to work out and follow a route, and whether you can go out alone, including the effect of anxiety or distress. Moving around looks at how far you can walk and how, taking into account pain, breathlessness, the need to stop, and the use of aids.
How descriptors and points work
Each activity has a list of statements called descriptors, describing different levels of difficulty, from doing the task without help to being unable to do it at all. Each descriptor is worth a number of points, usually from 0 up to 12. For each activity, only the one descriptor that best fits you counts, and you take the points for the highest-scoring descriptor that applies to you on the majority of days. Your points are then added up across all the activities in each component.
The points you need
For each component, the thresholds are the same. You need at least 8 points for the standard rate, and at least 12 points for the enhanced rate. So you could, for example, score 10 points for daily living and 4 for mobility, giving you the standard daily living component and no mobility component. Because the components are separate, it is worth looking carefully at both, as people sometimes focus on one and overlook points they could score on the other.
The reliability rules
One of the most important parts of the assessment is reliability. You are only counted as able to do an activity if you can do it safely, to an acceptable standard, as often as you need to (repeatedly), and in a reasonable time. If doing a task is unsafe, leaves you exhausted, has to be repeated, takes far longer than normal, or you can only manage it occasionally, then you should not be counted as able to do it. Always think about these four words when describing each activity.
The 20-metre rule for mobility
For the moving around activity, the distance you can walk matters. Being able to stand and then move more than 20 metres, but no more than 50, reliably scores points for the standard rate, while being unable to walk more than 20 metres reliably scores enough for the enhanced rate. The key word again is reliably: if you can only manage 20 metres in severe pain, very slowly, or by stopping repeatedly, that should be reflected in your score.
What about the 4-point rule?
You may have read that new claimants would need to score at least 4 points in a single daily living activity. This was a change proposed in 2025, but the relevant clauses were removed from the legislation in July 2025, and the rule is not law and is not in force. Points are still added up across all the daily living activities in the normal way, with 8 needed for the standard rate and 12 for the enhanced rate. Any future change would follow the Timms Review.
Putting it together: an example
Imagine someone who needs an aid to prepare food (2 points), needs help to wash below the waist (2 points), needs prompting to manage medication (1 point), needs support to engage with other people (4 points), and needs help to make complex budgeting decisions (2 points). That adds up to 11 points for daily living, enough for the standard rate but just short of the enhanced rate, which shows how every activity can matter.
Only the highest descriptor counts
Within each activity, you do not add up several descriptors; you take only the single highest-scoring descriptor that applies to you on the majority of days. So if more than one statement fits, choose the one that best reflects your usual difficulty and gives the points that match it. Across the ten daily living activities, and separately across the two mobility activities, those single scores are then added together to reach your totals.
Why aids and appliances matter
Needing an aid or appliance to do a task reliably scores points, even if the aid lets you complete the task. A perching stool to prepare food, a shower seat to wash, an adapted utensil to eat, or a stick to walk all count, because they show you cannot do the activity unaided to the required standard. Make sure every aid you use, however ordinary it seems, is mentioned, as people often overlook them.
Why both components are worth checking
Because daily living and mobility are scored separately, it is easy to focus on one and miss points on the other. Someone with a physical condition may concentrate on mobility but overlook daily living points for cooking, washing or managing medication, while someone with a mental health condition may overlook the mobility activity of planning and following a journey. Going through every activity carefully makes sure you do not leave points unclaimed.
Daily living and mobility are independent
It is worth repeating that the two components stand entirely apart. You might score highly on daily living and not qualify for mobility, or qualify for enhanced mobility while getting no daily living component at all. Neither result is unusual, and one does not depend on the other. When you describe your difficulties, treat each component on its own merits and give full attention to every activity, because points missed in one area cannot be made up by a strong score in the other.
Check your decision against the rules
When your decision arrives, it helps to compare it against the descriptors to see whether the points awarded match your real difficulties. If they do not, that is a strong basis for a challenge through a Mandatory Reconsideration. Understanding the points system is therefore useful not only when you claim, but also when you check whether the decision you received is actually right.
Where to get help
Understanding the descriptors helps you describe your difficulties in the way the assessment measures them. Citizens Advice and welfare rights services can help you map your condition onto the activities and points. For practical help putting this into your claim, see our guides to filling in the PIP2 form and the assessment.
