The Short Answer
Migraine scores PIP points through the activities it limits, not through the diagnosis. The assessment turns on attack days, prodrome and recovery counted together. Eight points in a component pays the standard rate and 12 pays the enhanced rate. The calculator above is pre-filtered to the activities whose published guidance names the functions migraine is reported to affect.
How Migraine Scores PIP Points
Each activity below is on the list for a stated reason, and the source is quoted beneath the table. Descriptor letters and point values come verbatim from Schedule 1 of the PIP Regulations 2013, and the 8 and 12-point thresholds come from regulations 5(3) and 6(3).
| Activity | What it assesses | Descriptors typically engaged | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mobility 1 — Planning and following journeys | planning and following journeys, including limitations deriving from cognitive and sensory impairment | b, c, d | 4–10 |
| Daily living 8 — Reading and understanding signs, symbols and words | reading and understanding written information, where the limitation arises from visual or cognitive impairment | b, c, d | 2–4 |
| Daily living 1 — Preparing food | preparing and cooking a simple meal, including where supervision is needed for safety | d, e, f | 2–8 |
| Daily living 3 — Managing therapy or monitoring a health condition | managing medication and monitoring a health condition at home | b, c, d | 1–4 |
| Daily living 2 — Taking nutrition | taking nutrition, where an underlying condition affects the ability to eat | b, d | 2–4 |
| Daily living 4 — Washing and bathing | washing and bathing, including where supervision or prompting is needed | c | 2 |
| Mobility 2 — Moving around | standing and then moving, judged without severe discomfort such as pain | b, c | 4–8 |
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 11: “This activity is designed for limitations on mobility deriving from mental health, cognitive and sensory impairments, whereas activity 12 is generally designed for limitations from physical problems. Cognitive impairment includes orientation (understanding of where, when and who the person is), attention, concentration and memory.”
- DWP PIP Assessment Guide, activity 8: “If the claimant cannot read, this must be as a direct result of their health condition or impairment e.g. visual impairment, cognitive impairment, learning disability.”
- 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 3: “Examples of therapy include physiotherapy, home dialysis and special diets where both attention to the nature and timing of food is integral in the management of the diet.”
- 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 12: “This activity considers a claimant's physical ability to move around without severe discomfort, such as breathlessness, pain or fatigue.”
Points are added within each component, never across the two. The PIP points calculator scores all 12 activities where the picture is wider than the ones above.
Can You Get PIP for Migraine?
Yes, where migraine limits the assessed activities on more than half of the days over a 12-month period. No condition qualifies by name, and none is excluded by name either. The two tests are duration — difficulties expected to last at least 12 months from when they started — and frequency, which GOV.UK states as difficulty "more than half of the days over a 12-month period".
What Rate Could Migraine Get?
The rate follows the points in each component separately. Daily living pays £76.70 a week at the standard rate and £114.60 at the enhanced rate. Mobility pays £30.30 and £80.00, and the highest combined award is £194.60 a week.
Last checked: 6 August 2026
For this condition the points most often come from planning and following journeys, plus the safety limb on preparing food.
Counting Attack Days, Prodrome and Recovery
Migraine is the fleet's hardest case for the majority-of-days rule, and the count is usually done wrongly in the claimant's own disfavour. GOV.UK states the test as expecting difficulty "more than half of the days over a 12-month period". Chronic migraine is defined clinically as headache on 15 or more days a month, which is already more than half — but a claim that counts only the hours of severe head pain will report far fewer days than the condition actually occupies.
Three phases count, not one. The prodrome, when concentration and vision are already affected and a journey would not be attempted. The attack itself. The postdrome, when fatigue and cognitive fog persist, often for a day or more. A headache diary recording only attack onset and end will understate the affected days by a factor of two.
The scoring activities are cognitive and sensory rather than physical, which surprises most claimants. Planning and following journeys is the highest-value activity here: photophobia, phonophobia and aura make a route impossible to follow, and the guide places sensory and cognitive limitations squarely in this activity. Reading follows the same logic where visual aura or blurring is involved.
Safety is the limb that reaches preparing food. Where an aura can begin without warning, using a hob or a sharp knife alone carries a real risk, and regulation 4 requires an activity to be done safely before it counts as done. Needing supervision to cook scores 4 points, and it applies on the days the risk is present rather than only on the days an attack occurred.
Evidence That Supports a Migraine Claim
Evidence that names the activity beats evidence that names the diagnosis. Every descriptor above 0 points already assumes the condition is present.
- A neurology or headache clinic letter confirming chronic migraine
- A headache diary covering at least three months, showing attack days and recovery days
- A repeat prescription list covering triptans, preventers and any anti-emetic
- A record of Botox, CGRP or occipital nerve block treatment, including where it is given and how often
- A record of any A&E attendance or emergency treatment for status migrainosus
- A note of the activities that were not possible on attack days, kept alongside the headache diary
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.
Two tools finish the picture:
- Score every activity in the PIP points calculator, which uses the same verbatim descriptors.
- Compare the pre-filtered tools on the all condition calculators page.
Where an award is already in place and was backdated, the work out your pip back pay tool prices the arrears.
The condition guide, covering evidence and the assessment in full, is on check pip for migraines.