Parkinson’s disease significantly affects daily living and mobility, and most people with moderate-to-severe Parkinson’s qualify for PIP. The condition’s unique features — tremor, rigidity, slowness, ‘off’ periods, and falls risk — directly map onto PIP descriptors across multiple activities.
This guide covers Parkinson’s first, then multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, stroke and dementia. See our PIP guide for a full overview of how PIP works.
Key Parkinson’s Symptoms and Their PIP Impact
| Symptom | How it affects PIP activities |
|---|---|
| Tremor | Preparing food, dressing, washing, managing medication |
| Rigidity | Dressing, washing, mobility |
| Bradykinesia (slow movement) | All activities take longer than “reasonable time” |
| Freezing of gait | Moving around — unpredictable, dangerous |
| Postural instability (falls) | Moving around, washing/bathing, planning journeys |
| ‘Off’ periods | Fluctuating ability — unreliability across all activities |
| Hypophonia (quiet voice) | Communicating verbally (Act. 7) |
| Dysphagia (swallowing) | Eating and drinking (Act. 2) |
| Cognitive changes | Planning journeys, engaging with others |
| Fatigue | Reliability across all activities |
Most Important PIP Activities for Parkinson’s
Daily Living Activity 1: Preparing Food
Parkinson’s affects grip strength, arm control, tremor, and the ability to stand at a hob safely.
| Descriptor | Points |
|---|---|
| Needs to use an aid (one-touch tin opener, electric can opener, adapted utensils) | 2 |
| Needs supervision or assistance to prepare or cook a simple meal | 4 |
| Cannot prepare and cook food | 8 |
Describe which specific tasks you cannot do: “I cannot hold a saucepan steady — I have spilled boiling water twice. I cannot peel or chop vegetables due to tremor in both hands. I rely on ready meals or my wife to cook.”
Daily Living Activity 3: Managing Therapy
Parkinson’s medication is complex: often multiple doses throughout the day, strictly timed. If someone has to remind you or check each dose is taken on time, or you need an aid such as a pill dispenser to manage it, that scores.
See the managing therapy descriptors for the points.
Help with tablets scores 1 point. Help with prescribed physiotherapy or speech therapy exercises at home scores more, depending on how many hours a week your helper spends on it; clinic appointments don’t count.
Daily Living Activity 6: Dressing and Undressing
Buttons, zips, belts, socks, and laces are all directly affected by tremor and rigidity.
| Descriptor | Points |
|---|---|
| Needs an aid to dress or undress | 2 |
| Needs assistance to dress or undress the lower body | 2 |
| Needs assistance to dress or undress the upper body | 4 |
| Cannot dress or undress at all | 8 |
Be specific: “I cannot do up shirt buttons, use a belt, or tie shoes. My wife has to do all fastenings.”
Mobility Activity 2: Moving Around
Freezing of gait, festination (involuntary speeding up), and falls risk are key:
| Functional walking distance | Points |
|---|---|
| 50–200m, aided or unaided | 4 |
| 20–50m unaided | 8 |
| 20–50m with a walking aid | 10 |
| 20m or less | 12 (enhanced Mobility) |
If you use a rollator or stick, use the ‘with aid’ row. If freezing episodes mean you may fall at any point, document that walking is not reliable — even if you can sometimes walk further.
‘Off’ Periods — How to Describe Them on Your Claim
‘Off’ periods are when medication wears off before the next dose and symptoms worsen. This is critical for PIP because:
- PIP requires activities to be completed reliably — ‘off’ periods mean you cannot reliably do anything during those hours
- ‘Off’ periods typically last 1–2 hours and occur multiple times per day in advanced Parkinson’s
- During ‘off’ periods, tremor and rigidity may make dressing, cooking, and walking unsafe or impossible
How to document: “I have four ‘off’ periods per day, each lasting approximately 90 minutes. During these periods I cannot safely stand, cook, or go out. I am unable to complete the activities described above during these periods.”
How MS Symptoms Map to PIP Descriptors
Daily Living
| Activity | How MS may affect it | Max points |
|---|---|---|
| Preparing food | Fatigue, grip weakness, coordination problems | 8 |
| Managing therapy and medication | Needing someone’s prompting or help with injections or other medication | 8 |
| Washing and bathing | Fatigue, balance, weakness in arms/legs | 8 |
| Dressing and undressing | Weakness, poor grip, fatigue — may need help with buttons, zips | 8 |
| Managing toilet needs | Bladder and bowel dysfunction very common in MS | 8 |
| Communicating verbally | Speech affected in some MS types; cognitive slowing | 12 |
| Making budgeting decisions | Cognitive MS (‘cog fog’) — difficulty with planning, memory, concentration | 6 |
| Engaging with other people | Fatigue and cognitive symptoms limiting social interaction | 8 |
Mobility
With MS, spasticity, weakness and fatigue often limit how far you can walk, and the distance you can manage at the end of the day may be much shorter than in the morning. Describe the distance you can walk reliably and repeatedly (moving around descriptors). Cognitive symptoms, worry about a relapse while out, or bladder urgency can also make it hard to plan and follow a journey alone.
The Variability Problem: Relapsing-Remitting MS
Relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) is the most common type and creates a key challenge for PIP claims: symptoms fluctuate. DWP must assess your condition over a 12-month period, meaning relapses count.
What to do:
- Document relapses: dates, duration, symptoms, treatment required
- Describe both your in-relapse and out-of-relapse ability separately
- State how many relapses you have had per year
- Explain that even in remission, some symptoms persist (residual fatigue, cognitive effects)
DWP guidance requires assessors to consider the whole 12-month period — your award should not be set at your best-day ability.
Worked Example: Priya, 45, Relapsing-Remitting MS
Worked examples on this page use 2026/27 rates. Priya has RRMS diagnosed 6 years ago. She has 2–3 relapses per year, chronic fatigue, bladder urgency, and walking difficulties. On most days she can walk no more than 50 metres with a stick before needing to rest, and she cannot walk at all during relapses.
Daily living (11 points):
- Managing toilet needs: 2 points (needs incontinence pads, an aid)
- Washing and bathing: 3 points (needs help getting in and out of the shower on most days)
- Dressing: 2 points (needs help dressing her lower body)
- Preparing food: 4 points (needs supervision because fatigue and poor coordination make cooking unsafe)
- → Standard daily living: £76.70/week
Mobility (10 points):
- Moving around: 10 points (can walk more than 20 but no more than 50 metres, using a stick)
- → Standard mobility: £30.30/week (12 points are needed for the enhanced rate)
Priya’s total PIP: £107.00/week = £5,564/year
How Epilepsy Maps to PIP Descriptors
The key concept for epilepsy in PIP is supervision — many activities require another person to be present to assist you if a seizure occurs, and DWP must account for this.
Daily Living Activities
| Activity | How epilepsy may affect it | Max points |
|---|---|---|
| Preparing food | Cannot safely use a cooker, knives, or hot liquids without supervision due to seizure risk | 8 |
| Managing therapy and medication | Needs prompting to take anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs); monitoring for seizures | 8 |
| Washing and bathing | Cannot bathe alone — drowning risk; may need to shower with supervision or special precautions | 8 |
| Dressing and undressing | Post-ictal confusion may require assistance after a seizure | 8 |
| Managing toilet needs | Post-ictal incontinence in some people | 8 |
| Communicating verbally | Post-ictal confusion or aphasia affects communication temporarily | 12 |
| Engaging with other people | Anxiety about having seizures in public limits social activities | 8 |
Mobility: Planning and Following Journeys
Activity 1 — Planning and following journeys is often the most significant PIP activity for epilepsy. The Upper Tribunal has held that the route-following descriptors can apply if you need another person with you for safety, for example because of the risk of seizures:
| Scenario | Score |
|---|---|
| Cannot follow the route even of a familiar journey without another person present (for safety) | 12 points (enhanced mobility) |
| Cannot follow the route of an unfamiliar journey without another person | 10 points (standard mobility) |
If your epilepsy means you cannot go out alone safely because of seizure risk, you may qualify for the mobility component even without physical walking limitations. Describe how often seizures happen, whether you get any warning, and what has happened when you were out alone.
Post-Ictal Effects: The Often-Overlooked Factor
The post-ictal period (after a seizure) can be as disabling as the seizure itself:
- Confusion and disorientation lasting minutes to hours
- Severe fatigue requiring bed rest for 24–48 hours
- Temporary memory loss, difficulty speaking (Todd’s paresis)
- Inability to carry out any activities independently
When describing your epilepsy on the PIP2 form, always include the post-ictal period and its effects on each activity.
Worked Example: Nadia, 32, Focal Onset Seizures
Nadia has focal onset impaired awareness seizures, averaging 3 per week. Each seizure lasts 1–2 minutes followed by 2 hours of confusion. She cannot travel alone, cannot use the cooker unsupervised, and cannot bathe without someone in the house.
Daily living (9 points):
- Preparing food: 4 points (cannot use the cooker without supervision)
- Washing and bathing: 2 points (needs someone in the house to supervise when she bathes)
- Managing medication: 1 point (needs reminders to take her AEDs)
- Engaging with others: 2 points (needs prompting to engage with people)
- → Standard daily living: £76.70/week
Mobility (12 points):
- Planning and following journeys: 12 points (cannot follow the route even of a familiar journey without another person, because of seizure risk)
- → Enhanced mobility: £80.00/week
Nadia’s total PIP: £156.70/week = £8,148.40/year
How Stroke Affects PIP Activities
Different strokes affect different functions. The right-hand column shows which part of the PIP assessment applies.
| Stroke effect | Daily Living activity affected | Mobility affected |
|---|---|---|
| Arm/hand weakness (hemiplegia) | Preparing food, dressing, washing | — |
| Leg weakness or paralysis | — | Moving around (Mob. 2) |
| Aphasia/dysphasia (speech) | Communicating (Act. 7), Reading (Act. 8) | — |
| Cognitive impairment | Planning journeys, engaging with others | Planning journeys (Mob. 1) |
| Balance/falls risk | Moving around | Moving around (Mob. 2) |
| Fatigue | All activities (reliability) | All mobility activities |
| Vision changes | Reading, managing medication | Planning journeys |
| Swallowing difficulties (dysphagia) | Eating and drinking (Act. 2) | — |
Key PIP Activities for Stroke Survivors
Mobility Activity 1: Planning and Following Journeys
This is often the most significant activity for stroke survivors with cognitive effects:
After a stroke, cognitive effects most often mean you cannot plan a route (8 points) or cannot follow an unfamiliar route without someone with you (10 points), or 12 if you cannot follow even a familiar one; see the journeys descriptors.
Cognitive impairment and difficulty reading or interpreting signs can all affect this activity. If you cannot follow even a familiar route safely without someone with you, you can score the enhanced mobility rate even without physical walking limitations. (Anxiety counts through the “psychological distress” descriptors, worth 4 or 10 points. In the PIP descriptors, psychological distress means distress related to an enduring mental health condition or an intellectual or cognitive impairment.)
Mobility Activity 2: Moving Around
| Walking distance | Points |
|---|---|
| Can walk 50–200m, aided or unaided | 4 |
| Can walk 20–50m unaided | 8 |
| Can walk 20–50m only with an aid | 10 |
| Can walk 20m or less | 12 (enhanced mobility) |
Lower limb weakness, spasticity, or falls risk from stroke all reduce functional walking distance. Use your worst day — if your leg fatigues or you fall after 50m, document that.
Daily Living Activity 7: Communicating Verbally
For stroke, aphasia usually scores through the communication support descriptors (4 points for complex information, 8 for basic information), or 12 if you cannot express or understand verbal information at all: see the communicating descriptors.
Aphasia is commonly underestimated in PIP claims. Describe specific examples: “I cannot follow a conversation if more than one person is speaking,” “I lose words mid-sentence and the listener has to guess what I mean.”
Daily Living Activity 6: Dressing and Undressing
One-sided weakness (hemiplegia) often scores points here:
| Descriptor | Points |
|---|---|
| Needs an aid, or prompting, to dress | 2 |
| Needs assistance to dress the lower body | 2 |
| Needs assistance to dress the upper body | 4 |
| Cannot dress or undress at all | 8 |
Buttoning, zipping, pulling socks/tights, and fastening bras are all commonly affected. Describe what you genuinely cannot do unaided.
Dementia: PIP or Attendance Allowance?
| Situation | Benefit to claim |
|---|---|
| Under State Pension age (66) when you claim | PIP |
| Over State Pension age when you claim (and no PIP in the last 12 months) | Attendance Allowance |
| Living in Scotland | Consult Social Security Scotland — Adult Disability Payment (ADP) replaces PIP |
If a person with dementia is already on PIP and reaches state pension age, they continue receiving PIP — they do not switch to Attendance Allowance.
How Dementia Affects PIP Activities
Daily Living Activities
| Activity | How dementia typically affects it | Points available |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Preparing food | Forgetting to turn off hobs; fire/burn risk; unable to follow recipe steps | Up to 8 |
| 2. Eating and drinking | Forgetting to eat, choking risk in later stages | Up to 10 |
| 3. Managing therapy | Forgetting medication, taking incorrect doses | Up to 8 |
| 4. Washing and bathing | Forgetting to wash; unable to remember the steps; safety risk | Up to 8 |
| 5. Managing toilet needs | Incontinence in moderate/late dementia | Up to 8 |
| 6. Dressing | Forgetting how to dress, putting clothes on incorrectly | Up to 8 |
| 7. Communicating | Word-finding difficulties, inability to follow conversation | Up to 12 |
| 9. Engaging with others | Social withdrawal, paranoia, confusion in social situations | Up to 8 |
| 10. Making budgeting decisions | Unable to manage money, susceptible to financial exploitation | Up to 6 |
Activity 10 (budgeting decisions) is particularly significant for dementia — if the person cannot manage everyday financial transactions (paying for shopping, avoiding scams, managing bills), this scores points that many other conditions do not generate.
Mobility Activities
| Activity | How dementia affects it | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Planning journeys | Cannot plan or follow a route safely; gets lost; road safety issues | Up to 12 (enhanced Mobility) |
| 2. Moving around | Generally preserved in early dementia; reduced in later stages | Up to 12 |
Mobility Activity 1 is critical for dementia: if the person cannot follow even a familiar route without someone with them (because they get lost or are unsafe near roads), this scores 12 points and the enhanced Mobility rate (£80.00/week) regardless of physical walking ability.
Dementia: How to Claim as an Appointee
- Call DWP on 0800 917 2222 and explain the person lacks capacity to claim
- Ask to become an appointee: DWP will arrange to see you (and usually the person you are claiming for) before appointing you
- Complete the PIP2 form on the person’s behalf, describing their limitations in the third person (e.g. “Joan cannot prepare meals safely because…”)
- Attach medical evidence — a GP letter, memory clinic assessment, or dementia care plan
- Use the carer’s/family member’s perspective — describe what you observe them struggling with daily
For how much each component pays this year, see PIP rates.
The most PIP can pay is the enhanced rate of both components: £194.60 a week.
Getting Help with Your Claim
- Parkinson’s UK: helpline 0808 800 0303 — specialist advisers can help complete the PIP2 form and gather evidence
- Citizens Advice: PIP appeals and mandatory reconsideration support
- Your Parkinson’s nurse: can write a detailed supporting letter describing your functional difficulties
For more see how to claim PIP, PIP assessment tips, and Carer’s Allowance for a Parkinson’s carer.