The Short Answer
Stroke scores PIP points through the activities it limits, not through the diagnosis. The assessment turns on the specific deficits left behind — weakness, speech, vision or cognition — scored activity by activity. 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 a stroke is reported to affect.
How Stroke 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 2 — Moving around | standing and then moving, including gait, speed and the risk of falls | b, c | 4–8 |
| Daily living 6 — Dressing and undressing | dressing and undressing, including one-handed dressing and fastenings | b, d, e | 2–4 |
| Daily living 4 — Washing and bathing | washing and bathing, including balance and getting in and out of a bath or shower | b, c, e | 2–3 |
| Daily living 7 — Communicating verbally | communicating verbally, where aphasia or dysarthria affects expressing or understanding speech | b, c, d | 2–8 |
| Daily living 8 — Reading and understanding signs, symbols and words | reading and understanding written information, where a visual field or cognitive deficit is the cause | b, c, d | 2–4 |
| Daily living 1 — Preparing food | preparing and cooking a simple meal, including grip, dexterity and sequencing | b, c | 2 |
| Daily living 10 — Making budgeting decisions | making budgeting decisions, which turns on cognitive function | b, c | 2–4 |
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 12: “This includes, but is not limited to, the claimant's gait, their speed, the risk of falls and symptoms or side effects that could affect their ability to complete the activity, such as pain, breathlessness and fatigue.”
- DWP PIP Assessment Guide, activity 6: “Dressing and undressing may involve stretching, reaching, bending, gripping and other such movements.”
- 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 7: “This activity considers a claimant's ability to communicate verbally with regard to expressive (conveying) communication and receptive (receiving and understanding) communication in one's native language.”
- 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: “For example, if a claimant cannot chop vegetables without an aid due to weakness in their hands, then it would be expected that they would struggle to undertake other activities requiring similar dexterity.”
- 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.”
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 Stroke?
Yes, where a stroke 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 Stroke 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 several activities at once, which is why a stroke claim usually reaches a rate through addition rather than through one severe descriptor.
Why a Stroke Claim Is Usually Several Claims at Once
A stroke rarely affects one function, and the assessment rewards describing each affected activity separately. Points are added across all ten daily living activities, so a claim that reaches 2 points in four activities is at the standard rate without any single severe difficulty. Hemiparesis alone touches dressing, washing, cooking and moving around.
Aphasia is scored under communicating verbally, and the descriptors distinguish complex from basic verbal information. The guide states the activity "considers a claimant's ability to communicate verbally with regard to expressive (conveying) communication and receptive (receiving and understanding) communication in one's native language". Word-finding difficulty that survives a slow conversation still counts.
Visual field loss reaches the reading activity, but only through the causation rule. The guide requires that an inability to read "must be as a direct result of their health condition or impairment e.g. visual impairment, cognitive impairment, learning disability". A homonymous hemianopia is exactly that, and naming it is what makes the descriptor available.
Fatigue after stroke is captured by reliability rather than by a descriptor. The guide names fatigue among the symptoms to weigh when deciding whether an activity can be repeated "within a reasonable period of time and to the same standard", and directs that the impact of one activity on the ability to complete others is considered too.
Evidence That Supports a Stroke Claim
Evidence that names the activity beats evidence that names the diagnosis. Every descriptor above 0 points already assumes the condition is present.
- A stroke unit discharge summary, naming the territory affected and the deficits recorded
- A neurology or stroke clinic follow-up letter
- Physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech and language therapy assessments
- A record of aids and adaptations supplied — a frame, a stair rail, a perching stool, a wet room
- A repeat prescription list covering anticoagulation, spasticity or mood medication
- A written statement from a person who assists with dressing, washing or communication
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 stroke.