The Short Answer
Disability Living Allowance is being replaced by PIP for most working-age adults, and the DWP starts the process rather than the claimant. GOV.UK states you keep DLA if you are under 16 or were born on or before 8 April 1948; everyone born after that will be invited to apply. Until the invitation arrives there is nothing to do unless your circumstances change.
Who Moves and Who Does Not
Date of birth decides it.
| Situation | What happens |
|---|---|
| Under 16 | Keeps DLA |
| Born on or before 8 April 1948 | Keeps DLA |
| Born after 8 April 1948 | Will be invited to apply for PIP |
Last checked: 7 August 2026
GOV.UK states the position for the third row: "If you were born after 8 April 1948, DWP will invite you to apply for PIP. You do not need to do anything until DWP writes to you about your DLA unless your circumstances change."
That last clause matters. A change of circumstances is still reportable while on DLA, and reporting one can bring the invitation forward.
The Two Benefits Are Not the Same Test
Different criteria, different rates, different outcomes. DLA uses care and mobility components with their own rules; PIP uses twelve activities with descriptors and points.
The rate structures do not line up either. DLA care pays £30.30, £76.70 or £114.60 a week in 2026/27 and DLA mobility £30.30 or £80.00, against PIP's £76.70 or £114.60 for daily living and £30.30 or £80.00 for mobility. Three rates on one side, two on the other.
Last checked: 6 August 2026
A person who received the middle rate care component of DLA has no guaranteed PIP equivalent, because the assessments ask different questions. Transfers can raise an award, lower it, or end it — and the direction is decided by the descriptors, not by what DLA paid.
Approaching the PIP2 form as a fresh claim rather than a renewal is the practical consequence. The form asks how your condition affects each assessed activity now, and a form that describes the DLA award instead will be scored against activities it never addressed.
What Happens to the DLA Award Meanwhile
It continues while the PIP claim is decided. Payment does not stop when the invitation arrives or when the claim is made; it ends when the PIP decision takes effect.
That removes the pressure people expect. There is no gap to bridge and no need to rush the form at the cost of describing the difficulties properly — the deadline that matters is the one printed on the form. The PIP2 form, 'How your disability affects you', is returned within 1 month, and the postal copy usually arrives within 2 weeks of the claim being registered.
Last checked: 7 August 2026
Arrears Across the Change
A PIP award following a DLA transfer runs from its own effective date, not from the start of the DLA claim. The two are separate entitlements, and the PIP award reaches back to the date PIP entitlement arose rather than to the beginning of the DLA period.
Cash value is not the guide to whether anything is owed. DLA middle rate care and PIP standard daily living both pay £76.70 a week in 2026/27, so a transfer that changes nothing about the weekly amount can still produce arrears where the effective dates differ.
Where a transfer decision is challenged and later increased, the arrears run to that same effective date. The principle is the one set out in pip back pay explained, applied to the PIP award only.
Where arrears are owed on the DLA award itself, the DLA Back Pay Calculator prices that period on the DLA rates, and the PIP back pay calculator prices the PIP period on the PIP rates.
The equivalent transfer for a young person leaving child DLA is a different sequence again, and it is set out on From Child DLA to PIP at 16.