PIP Mandatory Reconsideration: Daily Living, Mobility, and Getting the Enhanced Rate

How PIP Components and Rates Work

PIP has two separate components — Daily Living and Mobility — each scored independently. Points from the 10 daily living activities add up for the daily living component, and points from the 2 mobility activities add up for the mobility component. The thresholds are the same for both:

• 8 to 11 points — Standard rate
• 12 or more points — Enhanced rate
• Below 8 points — No award for that component

For 2026/27, the weekly rates are: Standard Daily Living £76.70, Enhanced Daily Living £114.60, Standard Mobility £30.30, Enhanced Mobility £80.00. Over a year, the difference between Standard and Enhanced Daily Living is nearly £2,000 — and Enhanced Mobility unlocks the Motability scheme and vehicle excise duty exemption, which Standard does not.

If your MR is about moving from Standard to Enhanced, you are typically looking for 1 to 4 extra points. That can come from a single descriptor being scored one level higher, or from picking up small scores across activities where you were awarded zero.

Challenging a Daily Living Score

Look at the score breakdown on your decision letter. Identify each activity where you were scored lower than your evidence supports. Common underscored daily living activities include:

• Activity 3 (managing therapy or monitoring a health condition) — if you need daily prompting to manage medication, monitor a health condition, or carry out therapy at home, and the assessor recorded that you manage independently, the evidence needs to show the prompting.
• Activity 1 (preparing food) — if you cannot safely cook a simple meal without help on the majority of days, but the assessor noted you can "make a sandwich."
• Activity 4 (washing and bathing) — needing a shower stool, grab rails, or another person present for safety. Aids you already use should be reflected in the score.
• Activity 9 (engaging with other people) — if social anxiety, cognitive difficulties, or sensory overload mean you need support to engage, and the assessor based their score on the assessment conversation alone.

For each activity you challenge, state the score the DWP awarded, the score you believe applies, and explain how the reliability criteria (safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly, in a reasonable time) support the higher descriptor.

Challenging a Mobility Score

The mobility component has only two activities, so every point matters:

Activity 12 — Moving around. This is about your reliable walking distance, taking into account pain, breathlessness, fatigue, and safety. The key descriptors:

• Can stand and then move more than 200 metres aided or unaided — 0 points
• Can stand and then move more than 50 metres but no more than 200 metres — 4 points
• Can stand and then move more than 20 metres but no more than 50 metres — 8 points unaided, or 10 points using an aid or appliance
• Can stand and then move more than 1 metre but no more than 20 metres — 12 points
• Cannot stand or move more than 1 metre — 12 points (Enhanced threshold)

The distance is your reliable distance — the distance you can cover safely, repeatedly, to an acceptable standard, and in a reasonable time on the majority of days. If you can walk 100 metres once but then need to rest for 20 minutes or cannot walk again that day, your reliable distance is lower than 100 metres.

Activity 11 — Planning and following journeys. This covers cognitive, sensory, and psychological barriers to travel. If the difficulty applies on the majority of days, needing prompting to undertake any journey because of overwhelming psychological distress scores 4 points; being unable to plan an unfamiliar route scores 8; being unable to follow an unfamiliar route without another person, assistance dog, or orientation aid scores 10; and being unable to follow a familiar route without one scores 12.

What Evidence Tips the Balance

When you are close to the Enhanced threshold, specific evidence matters more than volume:

• Walking test results from a physiotherapist or occupational therapist, with distance, time, pain levels, and recovery time recorded.
• A daily mobility diary showing walking distances and consequences across 14 to 28 days. "Walked to corner shop (approximately 80 metres). Needed to sit on wall halfway. Rest of day in pain, could not go out again."
• GP or consultant letters linking your diagnosis to specific functional restrictions — not just "this patient has arthritis" but "this patient cannot reliably walk more than 40 metres due to knee pain and instability."
• Photographic evidence of aids you use — shower stool, grab rails, wheeled walker, wheelchair — if these were not mentioned in the assessment report.

The Whole-Award Risk at Standard Level

If you already receive Standard rate and are asking for Enhanced, the whole-award risk is real. The decision maker reviews every activity, not just the ones you challenge. In theory, they could reduce your existing Standard award to nil.

In practice, if the evidence that supported your Standard award is still solid and you are adding new evidence for the activities you want re-scored, the risk is manageable. But if your existing points depend on evidence that has not been updated — say, a GP letter from two years ago — refresh it before submitting the MR.

If you are nervous about the risk, speak to a welfare rights adviser at Citizens Advice or a local advice service before lodging the MR.

Timing and Next Steps

You have one calendar month from the date on the decision letter to request an MR. Lodge it within the deadline even if your evidence is not complete — you can send supporting documents afterwards.

Our PIP Mandatory Reconsideration guide includes a point-by-point PA4 audit template and a daily functioning log to help build the case for each descriptor.

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