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PIP by condition · Anxiety and depression
PIP for anxiety and depression: can you get it, and how much?
More people claim PIP for anxiety and depression than for any other condition. Just under half of new claims succeed, and 44% of awards include the enhanced daily living rate. Here is what the DWP looks for, activity by activity, and how to describe the help you need.
- People getting PIP442,666
- Average award a week£115.41
- Enhanced daily living44%
- Enhanced mobility22%
Yes. 442,666 people get PIP with mixed anxiety and depression as their main condition, more than any other condition, and 48.1% of new claims were awarded in the year to July 2026, above the 44.8% average for all conditions.
Awards are worth £115.41 a week on average, and 64% are reviewed within two years. The claims that succeed describe the prompting, encouragement and support you need on most days, not what you can force yourself to do once.
awarded
The figures
Anxiety and depression and PIP in numbers.
Every figure here comes from the DWP’s own data, released each quarter. Pick another condition to compare.
| People getting PIP | 442,666 | July 2026 |
| Average award a week | £115.41 | |
| Awards with enhanced daily living | 44% | |
| Awards with enhanced mobility | 22% | |
| Reconsiderations that changed the award | 26.6% |
Source: DWP Stat-Xplore, PIP cases with entitlement (July 2026) and clearances (August 2025 to July 2026). A pattern across claimants, not your chance. Why figures differ: we count awards as a share of all decisions made after an assessment in the last 12 months.
Where claims go wrong
Why anxiety and depression claims are refused.
Around half of new anxiety and depression claims are refused after the assessment, and the reasons repeat. Having read thousands of these decisions from the inside, these are the four patterns that lose the most points.
Described on a good day
“I can wash and dress” is true on the day you manage it. The form never asked about the days you stay in bed. PIP is scored on the majority of days, so the good-day answer becomes the whole answer.
The prompting nobody counted
A partner who reminds you to eat, a parent who texts you to take your tablets, a friend who comes with you to appointments: each of those is prompting or support, and each is worth points. Help you have stopped noticing is help the assessor never hears about.
“Good eye contact, came alone”
Assessment reports often rest on informal observations: you were tidy, you made eye contact, you answered the questions. One hour on a phone or in a room is not your week. Say what it took to get there and what it cost afterwards.
“No specialist treatment”
Many people with anxiety and depression are treated by their GP, or are on a waiting list for talking therapies. The DWP sometimes reads that as mild. PIP turns on how the condition affects your days, not on who treats it; say why you are not seeing a specialist and what you are waiting for.
If your decision letter reads like one of these, the Should I challenge my PIP decision? checker shows what the points were worth and your deadline.
The rule that decides anxiety and depression claims
The reliability test: safely, repeatedly, in a reasonable time.
Under regulation 4(2A) of the Social Security (Personal Independence Payment) Regulations 2013, you only count as able to do an activity if you can do it in all four of these ways, on the majority of days. For a condition that comes and goes, this is the whole case: getting to one appointment, then spending two days in bed, is not something you can do repeatedly.
Bad spells matter in the same way. If there are weeks when you cannot wash, eat properly or leave the house, count those days: “I did not get dressed on 17 days in May” is evidence; “I have bad days” is not.
From symptoms to points
Which activities each symptom scores on.
The DWP does not score low mood or anxiety. It scores the twelve activities. This is where each symptom lands.
| Symptom | The activities it scores on | What to describe |
|---|---|---|
| Low mood and no motivation | Preparing food, taking nutrition, washing and bathing, dressing | Whether you would eat, wash or change your clothes without someone prompting you, and what happens on the days nobody does. |
| Anxiety and panic | Engaging with people, planning and following journeys | Who has to be with you to meet people or go out, what happens when you try alone, and how often you turn back. |
| Poor concentration and memory | Managing medication, budgeting, reading complex letters | Missed or doubled tablets, unopened post, bills you cannot face. Give the examples and who sorts them out. |
| Thoughts of self-harm | Managing medication, preparing food, engaging with people | Whether someone keeps your medication or checks on you, and why. If you are in crisis now, contact your GP, NHS 111 or Samaritans before anything else. |
| Poor sleep and medication side effects | Everything, through the morning | How many hours you sleep, how drowsy your tablets leave you, and how long it takes before you can do anything. |
Activity by activity
Does this apply to you?
These are the six activities where anxiety and depression most often scores, with every descriptor and its points. Pick the one that fits you on most days in each activity and see roughly where you stand. Eight points in a component is the standard rate; twelve is enhanced.
Preparing foodActivity 1 · up to 8 pts
Whether you would make a meal at all without someone prompting you, whether you can concentrate long enough to cook safely, and what you eat on the days you cannot face it.
Managing therapy or monitoring a health conditionActivity 3 · up to 8 pts
Whether you need reminding to take your medication, whether someone keeps it for you because of a risk of overdose, and support to attend therapy.
Washing and bathingActivity 4 · up to 8 pts
Whether you would wash without someone prompting or encouraging you, and how many days go by when you do not.
Engaging with other people face to faceActivity 9 · up to 8 pts
Meeting people you do not know: whether you need someone with you, what happens if you try alone, and how long it takes to recover afterwards.
Making budgeting decisionsActivity 10 · up to 6 pts
Paying bills, checking change and planning what you can afford. Low mood and poor concentration often mean someone else does it for you.
Planning and following journeysActivity 11 · up to 12 pts
Going out at all: whether you need someone with you to avoid overwhelming distress, and whether there are days you cannot leave the house even with them.
The DWP counts the highest descriptor that applies in each activity. The six activities here are a guide for anxiety and depression; the calculator covers all twelve, including dressing, taking nutrition and reading, where low mood and poor concentration can also score.
What to write
Weak and strong descriptions, side by side.
The DWP scores what you write against the descriptors. The same difficulty, described two ways, gets two different results.
“I get anxious around people and I don’t like going out much.”
“I cannot talk to people I do not know without my sister with me; she knows how my anxiety works and talks me through it. When I have tried alone, at the GP reception and the jobcentre, I had a panic attack and had to leave. This happens every time I have to meet someone new, and even with my sister there I can manage about ten minutes. Afterwards I spend the rest of the day in bed.”
“I don’t go out much because of my anxiety.”
“I have not made a journey on my own for over a year. Even to the shop five minutes away I need my partner with me to get me out of the door and keep me calm, and about three times a month we turn back before the end of the road. The last time I tried the bus alone I had a panic attack and could not get off at my stop.”
More worked examples, for six activities: PIP appeal letter examples. If you would rather it was written for you, every answer on the PIP2 form, in this language, for your conditions, is our PIP2 Form Answers service.
Evidence
The evidence that helps an anxiety and depression claim.
Anxiety and depression have no scan or blood test, so the DWP leans on what you and the people around you describe, and on your treatment history. These six carry the most weight, in this order.
The assessment
What to expect at an anxiety and depression assessment.
Most assessments are by phone or video and last 45 to 90 minutes. The assessor is a health professional, not a doctor who knows your case, and they write a report that the DWP decision maker scores. Three things make the difference for anxiety and depression.
The questions are about activities, not your feelings
“How did you get here today?” is about planning journeys. “Do you see friends?” is about engaging with people. Answer every question with the activity in mind: what you do, how often, who prompts or goes with you, and what happens when nobody does.
The assessor is watching as well as listening
The report records how you looked, whether you made eye contact and whether you seemed distressed. If you are holding it together for the hour, say so, and say what it took to get there and what tomorrow will look like.
Have someone with you, and your diary in front of you
A partner or friend can step in when you freeze or lose your thread, and can give their own account. Your diary gives you the numbers when you are asked how often.
Our PIP assessment checklist walks through the week before, the day itself and the week after. Ask for a copy of the assessor’s report (the PA4) as soon as you get your decision; it is where most reconsiderations are won.
The official rules on claiming, assessments and payments are on GOV.UK’s PIP pages, and free independent advice is on Citizens Advice’s PIP pages.
Refused or underpaid?
What happens next, and what it is worth.
You have one month from the date on the decision letter to ask for a mandatory reconsideration. In the last year 26.6% of anxiety and depression reconsiderations changed the award, and if the reconsideration fails, 67% of PIP appeals decided at a tribunal hearing go the claimant’s way (Ministry of Justice, April to June 2026). An award is backdated to the date of your claim, so a standard daily living award overturned after nine months is worth around £3,000 on the day it is granted, before the weekly payments start.
A reconsideration letter that works goes through the decision letter and the assessor’s report point by point, in the DWP’s own language, and attaches the evidence the report ignored. Ours is written by the team and reviewed by Neil, a former DWP decision maker, within 48 hours, for a flat £49. We never take a percentage of your backpay. Use the deadline calculator first so you know your date, and the backpay calculator to see what winning is worth.
Other benefits
Other benefits for anxiety and depression.
PIP is not the only benefit an anxiety and depression claim can lead to, and the rules change if you are over State Pension age or in Scotland.
Keeping up
What changed in 2026.
Kept current by our quarterly data refresh and weekly checks of GOV.UK. Last reviewed .
Related conditions
Conditions that often go with anxiety and depression.
List every condition on your form; each one can score on different activities. Guides for these are being added; until then each link opens the condition’s own figures.
Questions
Anxiety and depression and PIP: your questions.
Yes. Mixed anxiety and depression is the most common main condition on PIP: 442,666 people get it, and 48.1% of new claims were awarded in the year to July 2026, against 44.8% for all conditions.
PIP is decided on how the condition affects your daily life, not on the diagnosis. What counts is the prompting, supervision and support you need to cook, wash, take medication, meet people and go out.
£115.41 a week on average, close to the £118.77 average for all conditions. 44% of awards include enhanced daily living (above the 34% average) and 22% enhanced mobility. The 2026/27 rates are £76.70 or £114.60 a week for daily living and £30.30 or £80.00 for mobility.
Yes, through planning and following journeys (activity 11). If you need someone with you to make any journey without overwhelming distress, that is 4 points; if you cannot make any journey at all because of the distress, it is 10 points.
Ten points alone gives the standard mobility rate. 22% of anxiety and depression awards include enhanced mobility, usually where a physical condition scores on moving around as well.
No. A GP diagnosis is enough, because PIP is decided on how the condition affects you, not on who treats it. Letters from a mental health team or talking therapies help, so send any referral or waiting list letter you have.
How you spend a typical day, whether you go out and who with, how you get on with people, whether you cook and wash, how you manage medication and money, and whether you have thoughts of harming yourself. Each question maps to an activity.
The assessor also notes how you present. If you are holding it together for the hour, say so, and say what a usual day looks like.
Challenge it. Eye contact during one call says little about whether you can meet strangers, go out or look after yourself on most days. In your mandatory reconsideration, describe your usual days and point to the evidence the report ignored. 26.6% of anxiety and depression reconsiderations changed the award in the last year, and 67% of PIP appeals decided at a hearing go the claimant’s way.
Mostly short. 64% of awards are for up to two years and 34% for two to five years; only 2% are longer or ongoing. Expect a review form (the AR1) before the end date, and describe your days again in full rather than writing “no change”.
Yes. PIP is not means-tested and does not depend on whether you work. Describe what you cannot do outside work, and what work takes out of you, on most days.
48.1% of new mixed anxiety and depression claims decided after an assessment were awarded in the year to July 2026. The DWP records related conditions separately: 46.0% for depressive disorder and 37.7% for generalised anxiety disorder.
It is a pattern across claimants, not your chance. Your chance depends on how your form describes your days.
List every diagnosis you have, and every other condition too. The DWP records one main condition, but it scores the combined effect of everything, and a physical condition can add points on activities your mental health does not reach.
Refused, underpaid, or starting your claim?
Upload your decision letter for a free case review by the team, with Neil’s eye over it. If you go ahead, your letter is written for you, for a flat £49. We never take a percentage. You keep 100% of your backpay.
PIPAppeal is a letter-drafting service, not a law firm. It isn’t regulated by a legal body and doesn’t represent claimants at hearings. The DWP decides your claim and the tribunal decides your appeal.
Sources: Social Security (Personal Independence Payment) Regulations 2013, Schedule 1 and regulation 4(2A) · DWP Stat-Xplore, PIP statistics to July 2026 · Ministry of Justice, Tribunal Statistics Quarterly, April to June 2026 · NICE guideline NG222 on depression in adults · NICE guideline CG113 on generalised anxiety disorder and panic disorder · GOV.UK, PIP rates 2026/27.
Last reviewed