The Short Answer
Depression can qualify for PIP where it limits the assessed activities on more than half of the days over a 12-month period. The DWP assessment guide names severe clinical depression directly when explaining when the frequency of eating is considered — the one place the guidance points at this condition by name. Points come from the descriptors the condition engages, not from the diagnosis, and both components can reach either rate.
How Depression Affects the 12 Activities
The activities below are the ones whose published assessment guidance names the functions depression is commonly reported to affect.
| 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 remaining activities are not closed; they are simply less often engaged. Where depression coexists with another condition, the whole assessment is in play, and a claim described under one heading alone will leave those activities blank.
Points You Could Score
8 points in a component pays the standard rate; 12 points pays the enhanced rate. Regulations 5 and 6 of the PIP Regulations 2013 set both thresholds, and the two components are scored separately so their points never combine.
Depression scores mainly through prompting descriptors, which appear in six of the ten daily living activities. Four 2-point descriptors reach the standard rate; adding the 4-point prompting-to-eat descriptor takes the total to 12 and the enhanced rate.
To score your own case activity by activity, use PIP for Depression, which is pre-filtered to the activities above.
Evidence and Assessment
Evidence that names an activity beats evidence that names the diagnosis. The diagnosis is rarely disputed; what the descriptors ask about is what happens when you attempt a task.
- 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
- A dated log of the days washing, dressing, cooking or eating did not happen without prompting
- A written statement from a person who prompts you, describing what they prompt and how often
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. Four to six weeks of dated entries naming the activity and who prompted it addresses the descriptors the assessment actually uses.
At the appointment itself, the reliability criteria are what to keep in view: an activity counts as done only where it can be done safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly and in a reasonable time. Those four elements come from regulation 4 of the PIP Regulations 2013, and each of them is a separate ground on which a task can fail. What the PIP assessment guide covers, and how to prepare, is set out on the assessment hub.
Rates and Back Pay for Depression Claims
The same rates as any award, and the same backdating rules.
| Award | Weekly | Every 4 weeks |
|---|---|---|
| Daily living standard | £76.70 | £306.80 |
| Daily living enhanced | £114.60 | £458.40 |
| Mobility standard | £30.30 | £121.20 |
| Mobility enhanced | £80.00 | £320.00 |
Last checked: 6 August 2026
An award runs from the date of the claim, so the months spent waiting for a decision are paid as arrears rather than lost. Where a claim is refused and later won at reconsideration or tribunal, the award still reaches back to the original claim date.
The full rate table for both components is on the PIP rates hub, and pip back pay explained sets out how the owed-from date is fixed.
Where Depression Sits Among Other Conditions
No condition ranks above another, because the regulations name none of them. Depression is assessed on the same 12 activities as every other condition, and the list of conditions that can qualify for PIP exists to show how each maps onto those activities rather than to rank them.