The Short Answer
Every figure on this site traces to one of five institutions: GOV.UK, legislation.gov.uk, the DWP's statistical releases, the Ministry of Justice tribunal statistics, or Citizens Advice. Each source below is listed with what we take from it and what we never use it for. If a claim on this site cannot be traced to one of these, report it and we will correct or remove it.
The Sources, and What Each One Supplies
GOV.UK supplies the operational facts of PIP: eligibility rules, how to claim, contact numbers, payment arrangements, and the current weekly rates. The DWP's annual benefit and pension rates publications on GOV.UK are our authority for every rate year, current and historical, that prices PIP back pay estimates.
legislation.gov.uk supplies the law itself: the Social Security (Personal Independence Payment) Regulations 2013 in their latest revised form. The 12 activities, every descriptor, every point value and the 8-point and 12-point thresholds on this site are reproduced from that text, never paraphrased from secondary sources.
DWP Stat-Xplore and statistical releases supply caseload and processing statistics, such as clearance times and award rates, where a page needs them. We use official statistics or none: no estimated, modelled or invented numbers appear anywhere on the site.
Ministry of Justice tribunal statistics supply the appeals picture: SSCS tribunal outcomes and waiting times. Pages about challenging decisions draw their numbers from these quarterly releases.
Citizens Advice supplies advice-sector consensus on the practical timescales government does not publish, such as the normal 4 to 6 week wait for money after a tribunal win. Where we rely on it, the page says so.
| Source | What we take from it | What we never use it for |
|---|---|---|
| GOV.UK | Rates, rules, processes, contact details | Legal wording of descriptors |
| legislation.gov.uk | Descriptors, points, thresholds, legal tests | Current operational practice |
| DWP statistics | Clearance times, award and caseload figures | Individual-case predictions |
| MoJ tribunal statistics | Appeal outcomes and waiting times | Advice on individual appeals |
| Citizens Advice | Typical timescales, practical process detail | Rates or legal wording |
Last checked: 7 August 2026
Precedence between the sources is fixed in advance. Where operational guidance and the legislation appear to differ, the legislation's wording wins for legal statements and GOV.UK's wins for process descriptions, and the page says which it is using. Where a statistic exists in both a press summary and the underlying release, the release is the source.
How Sourcing Shows Up on the Page
Each substantive page lists its sources in a references block, and each figure carries a Last checked date recording when we verified it. Calculators go further: the rates inside them are generated directly from the publications above, and each tool states its method and sources beneath the interface.
The rules governing all of this, including corrections, are in the Editorial and Fact-Checking Policy. Anything that appears to break them can be reported through Contact Us.
Two absences from the list are deliberate. Forums, social media and press coverage never source figures here, however often they circulate them, because recirculated numbers drift from their originals. And no commercial data supplier sits behind any page: the official publications are free, current and authoritative, which leaves nothing for a middleman to add. When a new institution earns a place on this list, it will appear with the same two columns as the rest: what we take from it, and what we never use it for.