PIP and ADHD: can adults claim Personal Independence Payment?

PIP isn't an ADHD benefit, and ADHD doesn't automatically qualify. It looks at how a condition affects your daily life. Here is how PIP works, what the rates are, and how ADHD might be relevant.

Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is a benefit for people with a long-term health condition or disability. It isn't specific to ADHD, and a diagnosis of ADHD doesn't automatically qualify you. What matters is how your condition affects your everyday life. For some people with ADHD, that is enough for a successful claim. For others it isn't.

What PIP is

According to GOV.UK, PIP is for people who have a long-term physical or mental health condition or disability and who have difficulty with everyday tasks or with getting around. You can claim it while working, with savings, and alongside most other benefits. Scotland uses Adult Disability Payment instead of PIP.

It's about effects, not diagnosis

The Department for Work and Pensions looks at what you can do, not what the condition is called. It considers whether you can do tasks safely, how long they take, and whether you need help or equipment. You also need to have difficulty with the tasks most of the time, which GOV.UK explains as expecting to have difficulty on more than half of days over a 12-month period.

The two parts of PIP

• ✓Daily living: help with things like preparing food, washing, managing medicines, socialising and understanding information.
• ✓Mobility: planning and following journeys and getting around, which includes difficulties that are cognitive or related to mental health, not only physical ones.

You can be awarded one or both parts. Each is paid at a standard or an enhanced rate, depending on your assessment score: 8 points for the standard rate and 12 for the enhanced.

Where ADHD might be relevant

ADHD can affect planning, memory, organisation, time management and emotional regulation. Those difficulties could be relevant to activities such as managing medication, making decisions about money, engaging with other people or planning a journey. Whether they score points depends on the detail of how often, how severely and with what help you manage. Two people with the same diagnosis can get very different outcomes.

Current rates

• ✓Daily living: £76.70 a week (standard) or £114.60 a week (enhanced).
• ✓Mobility: £30.30 a week (standard) or £80.00 a week (enhanced).
• ✓PIP is usually paid every four weeks.

These are the rates shown on GOV.UK at the time of writing. They change, so check the current figures before relying on them.

Making a claim

• ✓You claim through the government's PIP service, and there is an assessment stage.
• ✓Be specific. Describe your worst and typical days, how often difficulties happen, and what help you need, rather than general statements.
• ✓Supporting evidence can help, such as a diagnosis letter, reports from clinicians, or statements from people who see how you cope.
• ✓If you're refused, you can ask for a mandatory reconsideration and then appeal. Free advice is available from Citizens Advice and Turn2us.

For other support that doesn't depend on the diagnosis label, see ADHD support without a diagnosis, and for what comes after assessment, what happens after an ADHD diagnosis.

If you're still working out whether an assessment is right for you, our free 3-minute screener is a starting point, and our directory lists accredited private ADHD clinics across the UK.