ADHD can significantly affect daily life, and PIP recognises this. Here’s how to make a successful claim.
How ADHD Affects PIP Activities
PIP assesses specific activities. Here’s how ADHD commonly affects each one:
Daily Living Activities
| Activity | How ADHD Can Affect It |
|---|---|
| Preparing food | Forgetting food is cooking, burning meals, inability to follow recipes, leaving the cooker on, impulsively eating unhealthy food instead |
| Eating and drinking | Forgetting to eat entirely, hyperfocusing and missing meals, medication suppressing appetite |
| Managing treatments | Forgetting medication even with reminders, missing appointments, losing prescriptions, forgetting to reorder medication |
| Washing and bathing | Forgetting to shower, hyperfocusing on something else, executive dysfunction making it impossible to start |
| Dressing | Wearing inappropriate clothes for the weather, inability to plan outfits, leaving the house without essential items |
| Reading and understanding | Inability to read letters and bills, missing important information, not understanding complex forms |
| Engaging with others | Interrupting, missing social cues, saying inappropriate things, struggling to maintain conversations, emotional dysregulation |
| Making budgeting decisions | Impulsive spending, inability to track money, forgetting to pay bills, not understanding financial consequences |
Mobility Activities
| Activity | How ADHD Can Affect It |
|---|---|
| Planning and following journeys | Getting lost, missing stops on public transport, inability to plan routes, distraction causing you to go to the wrong place, time blindness making you late |
| Moving around | Less commonly affected by ADHD alone, but co-occurring conditions (anxiety, depression) may contribute |
Where ADHD Scores Highest
The activities where ADHD claimants most commonly score points:
- Managing treatments — forgetting medication is extremely common with ADHD
- Making budgeting decisions — impulsive spending and inability to manage money
- Reading and understanding — concentration difficulties with forms, letters, and bills
- Preparing food — executive dysfunction and distraction
- Planning and following journeys — time blindness, getting distracted or lost
- Engaging with others — emotional dysregulation and social difficulties
Building Your Evidence
Essential Evidence
Formal diagnosis:
- Diagnosis letter from your psychiatrist (NHS or private)
- Should state whether you have inattentive, hyperactive-impulsive, or combined type
- If diagnosed privately, ensure the provider is on the ADHD register
Impact letters:
- Ask your psychiatrist or specialist nurse to write a letter specifically about how ADHD affects your daily functioning
- Ask your GP to provide a supporting letter
Medication records:
- Current prescriptions (methylphenidate, lisdexamfetamine, atomoxetine, etc.)
- Side effects you experience
- Times you’ve missed or forgotten medication
Supporting Evidence
| Evidence Type | Why It Helps |
|---|---|
| Occupational therapy reports | Documents functional difficulties |
| Workplace adjustments | Shows employer recognises the impact |
| Access to Work support | Government-recognised evidence of need |
| Carer’s statement | Partner/family member describing daily impact |
| Bank statements | Evidence of impulsive spending, overdrafts, missed bill payments |
| Diary of daily impact | 2–4 weeks documenting specific difficulties |
Writing Your Daily Impact Diary
Record specific incidents over 2–4 weeks:
- “Monday: Forgot to take medication. Left the house without my keys. Burned dinner because I started watching a video and forgot the cooker was on”
- “Wednesday: Missed GP appointment despite having 3 reminders. Spent £80 on items I didn’t need from an online advert”
- “Friday: Couldn’t follow the recipe for a simple meal. Got on the wrong bus and ended up 4 miles from where I needed to be”
Filling in the PIP Form (PIP2)
Key Tips for ADHD
Executive dysfunction: If you struggle to start or complete the PIP form itself, this is evidence. Note on the form: “I needed help completing this form because my ADHD makes it extremely difficult to concentrate on lengthy documents.”
Don’t minimise: People with ADHD often develop coping mechanisms and don’t recognise how much they struggle. Ask someone who lives with you what they observe.
Describe without coping strategies: PIP assesses you without aids or other people’s help. If your partner reminds you to take medication, you’d score as “needs prompting” even though the medication technically gets taken.
Variability: ADHD fluctuates. Hyperfocus days may look “fine” but the crash afterwards can be severe. Explain this pattern.
Example Answers
Preparing food:
“I cannot safely prepare a cooked meal without supervision. I have left the hob on 3 times in the last month. I forget I’m cooking if something distracts me — the fire alarm has gone off twice in the last 6 weeks. I mainly eat ready meals, sandwiches, or takeaway because I can’t sustain concentration to follow a recipe. My partner checks the kitchen every night to make sure I haven’t left anything on.”
Managing treatments:
“I take methylphenidate twice daily. Despite using a phone alarm, a pill organiser, and a note on my bathroom mirror, I forget my medication approximately 3-4 times per week. I have also forgotten to reorder my prescription twice in the last 3 months, going without medication for several days each time.”
The Assessment
ADHD-Specific Preparation
- Arrive as you normally are — don’t mask or compensate
- Bring someone who knows you — they can add context and remind you of things you forget
- Write notes beforehand — you’ll likely forget points during the assessment
- It’s OK if you ramble, interrupt, or lose track — this demonstrates your condition
- Don’t try to sit still if you normally fidget — stimming and movement are relevant evidence
What Assessors Look For
Assessors are trained to observe:
- Your concentration during the assessment
- Whether you can follow questions
- How organised your answers are
- Emotional regulation
Warning: Some assessors may write “the claimant was well-presented and engaged normally throughout the assessment.” This can be used to deny your claim. If you were masking or having a good day, state this explicitly.
Co-Occurring Conditions
ADHD rarely exists alone. Common co-occurring conditions that strengthen a PIP claim:
- Anxiety (affects ~50% of adults with ADHD)
- Depression (affects ~30-40%)
- Autism spectrum (high co-occurrence)
- Dyslexia/dyscalculia (affects reading/budgeting activities)
- Sleep disorders (affects all activities through fatigue)
Make sure all conditions are included in your claim — PIP assesses the combined effect on your daily life.
If You’re Refused
| Stage | What to Do |
|---|---|
| Mandatory Reconsideration | Request within 1 month. Submit any new evidence. Challenge specific descriptor scores |
| Tribunal Appeal | If MR unsuccessful, appeal within 1 month. ~70% of appeals are successful |
Get free help from:
- ADHD UK — charity support for adults with ADHD
- Citizens Advice — PIP appeal specialists
- IPSEA (if the claim relates to a child with ADHD)
- Scope — disability benefits advice