The Short Answer
To claim PIP, call the DWP new claims line on 0800 917 2222, complete the PIP2 form you are sent, attend an assessment if invited, and wait for the decision letter. The line opens Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm. You can write to Freepost DWP PIP 1 instead, and some postcodes can apply fully online. Your award is backdated to the day you start the claim, so start early.
How to claim PIP?
A PIP claim has four steps, and the first one fixes the date your money runs from. However long the process takes afterwards, any pip back payment is measured back to the day you started. The journey in order:
- Start the claim. Call 0800 917 2222 with your contact details, date of birth, National Insurance number, bank details, your GP or specialist's details, and dates of any time in a care home or hospital.
- Complete the PIP2 form. The DWP posts you "How your disability affects you". Describe your difficulties against the daily living and mobility activities, with examples, and return it by the deadline it states.
- Attend the assessment. Most claims involve one, by phone, video or in person. A health professional asks how you manage the activities day to day.
- Receive the decision. The letter states your award, its length, your payment day, and the backdated amount covering your wait.
Last checked: 7 August 2026
How long does a PIP claim take?
Months rather than weeks is the honest expectation, with the assessment wait the largest part. The DWP publishes clearance statistics quarterly, and waits vary by region and by whether an assessment is needed. None of the waiting costs money. The award, once made, reaches back to step one, covered fully in How Long a PIP Claim Takes.
How long does PIP claim take?
The same answer applies however the question is phrased: expect months and claim early. A claim started today protects today's date. A claim delayed by three months loses three months of money permanently, because backdating stops at the claim date.
How to claim PIP online?
A full online PIP application exists, but only for some postcodes. Gov.uk checks your postcode and offers the online route where available; everywhere else starts by phone or letter. The paper route via Can You Apply for PIP Online? carries no disadvantage beyond post time: the claim date is set the day your request arrives.
Claiming PIP in Detail
Each step has details that decide how smooth the claim runs. The call is scripted and takes around 20 minutes of questions from the list above; someone else can call with you present, and Claiming PIP for Someone Else covers appointee claims. A textphone route exists via Relay UK on 18001 then 0800 917 2222. Every number and its hours are listed in PIP Contact Numbers.
The form is the heart of the claim. The PIP2 Form takes the activities one by one; the strongest answers describe your worse days, name the help you need, and attach professional evidence. Preparing documents before the form arrives shortens the work, and First PIP Claim Checklist lists what to gather.
The assessment tests your form against the 12 activities and their descriptors. What assessors ask, and how points are scored from your answers, is covered in The PIP Assessment: A Complete Guide. Terminally ill claimants skip most of this: PIP Under the Special Rules (SR1) explains the fast-track route with no assessment.
The decision letter ends the journey with one of the award types in PIP Decisions. Check three things on arrival: the components and rates awarded, the review date, and the backdated amount. A wrong decision starts a one-month clock for mandatory reconsideration, so read it the week it arrives. Jargon in any letter decodes at PIP Terms A-Z.
Eligibility sits underneath all four steps: 16 or over, usually under State Pension age, difficulties expected to last at least 12 months, and the residence rules, all detailed in PIP Eligibility.
Last checked: 7 August 2026
The claim timeline, step by step
Laying the four steps on a timeline shows where the waiting actually happens. The first call takes under half an hour and sets the claim date. The PIP2 form arrives by post over the following weeks, and its return deadline is printed on it; an extension is available by phone if gathering evidence takes longer. The assessment invitation follows the form, and the wait for an appointment is the longest single stretch in most claims. The decision then follows the assessment report.
| Stage | What you control | What the DWP controls |
|---|---|---|
| Starting call | When you make it (sets the claim date) | Sending the PIP2 form |
| PIP2 form | Quality of answers, meeting the deadline | Logging and reviewing it |
| Assessment | Attendance, accuracy, evidence | The appointment date and format |
| Decision | Nothing, until the letter arrives | The award and its dates |
Last checked: 7 August 2026
The table's left column is where claims are won. Strong PIP2 answers with concrete examples reduce what the assessment must establish, and complete honesty at the assessment protects the points your situation supports.
Evidence worth gathering while you wait
Evidence gathering runs in parallel with every stage, and three kinds carry most weight. Professional evidence: letters and reports from your GP, specialist or therapist that describe function, not just diagnosis. Care evidence: statements from anyone who helps you daily, describing what they do and how often. Self-evidence: a short diary of difficult days, which turns majority-of-days questions from guesswork into record. None of it requires paying for private reports, and the DWP can request records itself where it needs them.
The first call, question by question
The starting call follows a script, and knowing it removes its sting. After security details, the agent works through the list gov.uk publishes: your contact details, date of birth, National Insurance number, bank or building society details, your GP or health professional's details, and dates and addresses for any time spent in a care home or hospital. Nationality and recent travel feature for the residence rules. Nothing in the call explores your condition in depth; that belongs to the form and the assessment.
Two practical notes help. The call is the moment your claim date is set, so making it before every document is assembled costs nothing and protects weeks of money. And where phones are genuinely unmanageable, the letter route to Freepost DWP PIP 1 achieves the same start, with the claim effective from the DWP's side of the process rather than your postmark, so post promptly.
Last checked: 7 August 2026
Filling in the PIP2 without losing points
The form's twelve activity sections reward one discipline above all: concrete, worst-realistic examples. For each activity, state whether you can do it, describe what actually happens when you try, name the help or aids involved, and say how many days a week it goes that way. Space is short and extra sheets are allowed. The three phrases that undersell claims, I manage, I cope and I get by, all translate to descriptor a unless the sentence after them explains the cost.
Attach copies of existing evidence rather than waiting for perfect new letters, list your medications with doses, and keep a photocopy or photographs of the completed form. The assessment will test the form's account, and matching answers, form to phone call, is the simplest credibility asset a claim can hold.
After the decision arrives
The letter's arrival forks three ways, and each fork has a page of its own. An award you accept needs only checking: components, rates, length, review date and the backdated amount against your own arithmetic. An award you dispute starts the one-month mandatory reconsideration clock, and the challenge sequence runs from there to tribunal if needed. And no award at all leaves the same challenge route plus, where circumstances change, the option of a fresh claim with a new claim date.
Whichever fork applies, keep the letter. Every later stage, from bank queries to tribunal bundles, works from its dates and figures.
Claiming for someone else, and the fast-track route
Two claim variants replace steps rather than adding them. A claim made with or for someone else runs the same course, with the other person present on calls, helping with the form, or formally appointed where the claimant cannot manage the claim; the claim date rules and backdating work identically. And claimants nearing the end of life use the special rules: a clinician provides the SR1 form, no assessment takes place, the daily living component pays at the enhanced rate, and decisions are fast-tracked ahead of the normal queue.
Neither variant needs special knowledge to start. The same new claims line handles both, and saying the situation plainly at the start of the call routes the claim correctly.
The claim in numbers
Reduced to its numbers, the journey is compact. One phone call sets the claim date. Twelve activities structure the form and the assessment. Eight points reach a component's standard rate and twelve reach enhanced. One decision letter ends the wait, with one month to challenge anything wrong in it, and every waiting week priced into the backdated amount at £30.30 to £194.60 depending on the award. The paperwork feels bigger than that arithmetic; the arithmetic is what actually decides the money.
Last checked: 6 August 2026
Claims for specific conditions change none of the numbers. Rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, anxiety and every other diagnosis run through the same steps and the same scoring, with the condition shaping only the evidence: which activities your form emphasises and which professionals write your letters. The condition-by-condition detail lives in the conditions cluster, and the scoring it feeds into is checkable at any time with the points calculator.
Mistakes that cost claims, and their cheap preventions
Most failed first claims fail on process, not entitlement, and the recurring mistakes are all preventable. Missing the PIP2 deadline closes claims that would have succeeded; the prevention is returning the form early or phoning for an extension before the date. Best-day answers on the form and at the assessment score the wrong descriptors; the prevention is the majority-of-days discipline throughout. Unreturned calls and missed assessment appointments end claims administratively; the prevention is treating every DWP contact as deadline-bearing. And giving up after a refusal abandons money that reconsiderations and tribunals recover every day; the prevention is reading the decision letter as a first offer, not a verdict.
None of the preventions needs an adviser, though advisers help. Each is a calendar entry, a writing habit or a phone call, applied at the right stage of the same four-step journey this page maps.
If you remember three things
A claim rewards three memories above all others. The claim date is money: every week from the first call is priced into the eventual award, and no week before it ever is. The form and the assessment are the same test twice: both score the 12 activities, so consistent, majority-of-days answers carry both. And refusals are the middle of the process, not the end: reconsiderations and tribunals overturn decisions routinely, on the same evidence better presented. A claimant holding those three points, with the contact numbers saved and the deadlines diarised, is better equipped than most who start the journey.
The journey above looks long written out, and most of it is waiting rather than doing. The doing fits in a dozen hours across four stages, and each hour is mapped on this page or one link from it. Start with the call, keep copies of everything, answer for your real days, and let the backdating rule turn the waiting into money rather than loss.
Every step above links deeper; the journey starts with one call.
Work Out Your Number
Before or during a claim, the points system shows what your difficulties could score. Answer the 12 activities and see the award they support: work out your claiming PIP position with the points calculator.