The Short Answer
Depression scores PIP points mainly through prompting descriptors, which appear in most daily living activities. Needing another person to remind or encourage you scores 2 points in cooking, washing, dressing and budgeting, 4 points in eating, and 4 points in engaging with other people. Four such descriptors reach the 8-point standard rate. The calculator above scores the seven activities involved.
How Depression Scores PIP Points
Seven activities carry most depression claims, and prompting is the descriptor that links them. Prompting descriptors are worth 2 points in most daily living activities and 4 points in taking nutrition and engaging with other people. The table sets out what each activity assesses, the descriptors that turn on the functions depression is reported to affect, and what those descriptors are worth.
| Activity | What it assesses | Descriptors typically engaged | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily living 9 — Engaging with other people face to face | engaging with other people face to face, including whether prompting or social support is needed | b, c, d | 2–8 |
| Daily living 1 — Preparing food | preparing and cooking a simple meal, including where prompting or supervision is needed | d, e, f | 2–8 |
| Daily living 2 — Taking nutrition | taking nutrition, where an underlying condition affects the ability to remember to eat or the motivation to eat | d | 4 |
| Daily living 4 — Washing and bathing | washing and bathing, including where supervision or prompting is needed | c | 2 |
| Daily living 6 — Dressing and undressing | dressing and undressing, including prompting to dress or to select appropriate clothing | c | 2 |
| Daily living 10 — Making budgeting decisions | making simple and complex budgeting decisions, which turns on cognitive function | b, c | 2–4 |
| Mobility 1 — Planning and following journeys | planning and following journeys, including journeys avoided because of overwhelming psychological distress | b, e | 4–10 |
Last checked: 7 August 2026
Where this mapping comes from
Descriptor letters and point values are reproduced from Schedule 1 of the Social Security (Personal Independence Payment) Regulations 2013. The activities listed are the ones whose published assessment guidance names the functions this condition is reported to affect. No activity is listed on any other basis.
Activities are numbered as Schedule 1 numbers them, within each component: daily living 1 to 10 and mobility 1 to 2.
- DWP PIP Assessment Guide, activity 9: “This activity is designed for limitations on social engagement deriving from mental health, cognitive and learning impairments.”
- DWP PIP Assessment Guide, activity 1: “If an individual cannot cook at all because they have never needed to learn, consider their ability to carry out activities at or above waist height and their cognitive ability to use a stove or microwave if shown how.”
- DWP PIP Assessment Guide, activity 2: “The frequency of taking nutrition should only be considered if the claimant has an underlying condition which affects their ability to remember to eat, or their motivation to eat e.g. dementia or severe clinical depression or an eating disorder.”
- DWP PIP Assessment Guide, activity 4: “Consideration should be given to the claimant's functional restrictions to see if they: could reasonably use an aid such as a grab rail to get in or out of an unadapted bath or shower (4B) or whether they require assistance (4E) to get in and out of an unadapted bath or shower.”
- DWP PIP Assessment Guide, activity 6: “Dressing and undressing may involve stretching, reaching, bending, gripping and other such movements.”
- DWP PIP Assessment Guide, activity 10: “The age of the person or whether they have ever done any household budgeting is irrelevant - it is their ability to make budgeting decisions and their level of cognitive function that is relevant.”
- GOV.UK, Personal Independence Payment: “You do not have to have a physical disability to get the mobility part. You might also be eligible if you have difficulty getting around because of a cognitive or mental health condition, like anxiety.”
The pattern in the points column matters more than any single row. Depression claims rarely rest on one severe descriptor; they accumulate. Four 2-point descriptors reach the standard-rate threshold for daily living, and adding the 4-point eating descriptor takes the total to 12. The PIP points calculator scores all 12 activities where the picture extends past the seven above.
Can You Get PIP for Depression?
Yes, where depression limits the assessed activities on more than half of the days over a 12-month period. PIP has no list of qualifying conditions, and depression appears nowhere in the regulations. What the assessment looks for is difficulty with the twelve activities, expected to last at least 12 months from when it started.
The DWP assessment guide names the condition once, on the eating activity: the frequency of taking nutrition is considered where a claimant "has an underlying condition which affects their ability to remember to eat, or their motivation to eat e.g. dementia or severe clinical depression or an eating disorder". That descriptor scores 4 points.
What Rate Could Depression Get?
The rate follows the points total in each component separately. The daily living component pays £76.70 a week at the standard rate and £114.60 at the enhanced rate. The mobility component pays £30.30 and £80.00.
Last checked: 6 August 2026
Most depression claims score their daily living points additively and their mobility points, where any apply, through the journeys activity. A daily living total of 8 pays £76.70 a week on its own; the same total with 8 mobility points pays £107.00 a week, which is £428.00 every 4 weeks.
Why Prompting Is the Descriptor That Carries Depression Claims
Depression scores across the daily living activities mainly through prompting descriptors, and prompting has a specific meaning in the assessment. It describes needing another person to remind, encourage or explain, without that person doing the task. Six of the ten daily living activities contain a prompting descriptor, which is why a claim can reach the 8-point standard-rate threshold through several 2-point descriptors rather than through any single severe one.
The assessment guide names the condition once, and it matters. On taking nutrition, the guide states that the frequency of eating is considered where a claimant "has an underlying condition which affects their ability to remember to eat, or their motivation to eat e.g. dementia or severe clinical depression or an eating disorder". Descriptor 2d scores 4 points where prompting is needed to take nutrition.
The evidence problem specific to depression is that the tasks in question happen at home and leave no record. A prescription proves treatment; it does not show that a meal was skipped or that a shower needed prompting. A short dated log kept over four to six weeks, naming the activity and who prompted it, addresses the descriptors the assessment actually uses.
Fluctuation is handled by the majority-of-days rule rather than by averaging severity. GOV.UK states the test as expecting "to have difficulty more than half of the days over a 12-month period". A descriptor that applies on 4 days in every 7 applies for scoring purposes, and the good days do not cancel it.
Evidence That Supports a Depression Claim
Evidence that records what did not happen is worth more than evidence that records how you felt. Every descriptor above 0 points already assumes the condition is present, so the diagnosis alone moves nothing. The assessment guide names severe clinical depression when explaining when the frequency of taking nutrition is considered, which is the one place the guidance points at this condition directly.
- A GP record showing the diagnosis, its duration and the treatments tried
- A repeat prescription list covering antidepressant medication
- Letters from a community mental health team, psychiatrist or talking therapies service
- A care plan, safety plan or record of a crisis team contact, where one exists
- A record of days on which washing, dressing, cooking or eating did not happen without prompting, kept over several weeks
- A written statement from a person who prompts you, describing what they prompt and how often
Send what you already have rather than waiting for a new report. Evidence describing what you can do on an ordinary day answers the descriptors; the assessment weighs it against the reliability criteria.
Work Out the Full Picture
The tool above is pre-filtered; the assessment is not. All 12 activities are scored — 10 for daily living and 2 for mobility, set out in Schedule 1 of the PIP Regulations 2013 — and points from the two components never combine.
The assessment scores all twelve activities, and depression often reaches more than the seven above. Two tools finish the picture:
- Score every activity in the PIP points calculator, which uses the same verbatim descriptors.
- Compare the tools on the all condition calculators page, where each one is pre-filtered to a different set of activities.
Where an award has already been made and backdated, the work out your pip back pay tool prices the arrears for the period involved.
Related guidance: check pip for depression.