PIP vs DLA: What Changes When You Move Across

Disability Living Allowance (DLA) is being replaced by Personal Independence Payment (PIP) for most adults, and the two are not the same benefit. PIP is a separate payment with its own assessment, its own points system and its own rates, so moving across is a fresh claim rather than a transfer. There is no guarantee you will receive the same amount, and you might not qualify at all¹.

If you are invited to claim, the letter gives you a deadline, usually four weeks from the date on it. Apply within that window and your DLA payments continue until a decision is made on your PIP claim. Miss it and the DLA stops².

The move has been running since 2013, when the DWP began replacing DLA for working age people, and the caseload has grown sharply since: the number of people entitled to PIP or DLA rose from 3.5 million to 5.3 million between February 2020 and November 2025⁴. Scotland now runs its own version, Adult Disability Payment, and a government review of PIP is due to report in October 2026.

PIP and DLA: two different disability benefits

DLA and PIP both pay towards the extra costs of a disability, and both have a care (or daily living) element and a mobility element. The difference is who they are for and how entitlement is decided. DLA is for children under 16, and for adults who were already getting it. PIP is for people aged 16 to State Pension age, and you cannot make a new claim for DLA⁸.

PIP replaced DLA for adults in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and for working age people it has been the route in since 2013¹⁰. The government's stated aim at the time was to reduce spending by around 20 per cent relative to DLA, which is why the assessment is stricter than the old DLA rules¹².

The two benefits also sit differently in the wider system. Most people on PIP or DLA claim nothing else: 25 per cent of all those on PIP or DLA in March 2026 claimed no other benefit at all, while 9 per cent claimed other benefits not classified as ill health or disability benefits¹³. DLA and PIP can also act as qualifying benefits for other support, such as Carer's Allowance, where the disabled person must receive a disability benefit like Attendance Allowance, PIP or DLA¹⁴.

What happens when DLA ends and you are invited to claim PIP

The DWP writes to tell you when your DLA will end and invites you to apply for PIP. If you were born after 9 April 1948, you must apply within 4 weeks from the date on the letter¹⁰. Contact's guidance for young people puts the same deadline at 28 days¹⁵. It is likely the DWP will invite you to apply even if you have an indefinite DLA award².

Do not apply before you are contacted.

The sequence matters because of what happens to your money in the meantime:

1. You get the letter telling you your DLA will end and inviting you to claim PIP.
2. You start your PIP claim within the deadline, usually four weeks.
3. Your DLA payments continue until a decision is made on the PIP claim³.
4. If you are eligible for PIP, PIP payments start as soon as your DLA payments end¹⁶.

There are two exceptions to the general move. Young people who are terminally ill and those who are hospital in-patients are not required to move across in the same way¹⁸. For children on DLA under the special rules for the terminally ill, the DWP invites them to claim PIP 20 weeks before the DLA award ends¹⁵.

If you are already an appointee for a child's DLA, that does not automatically carry over to PIP. You must apply to continue being their appointee². There is more on this in managing someone else's claim.

How the PIP assessment differs from DLA

DLA for children looks at the child's needs compared with other children of the same age. The PIP assessment does not: it does not compare your child to other children of the same age¹⁷. Instead, PIP scores you against a fixed list of activities, and you get points for the descriptor that is true for most of the time, or more than half the time²⁰.

The daily living activities include things like preparing food, eating and drinking, washing and dressing, communicating, engaging with other people face to face, making budgeting decisions and going out. Each activity has a set of statements, and each statement carries a score. For example, in the eating and drinking activity, needing reminding or encouraging to eat or drink scores 4²².

Where only one descriptor within an activity applies on more than 50 per cent of days, the DWP will use that descriptor to award points¹⁷. That "more than half the time" test is the single most important thing to understand about how PIP differs from DLA in practice: it is not about your worst day, and it is not about your best day.

The assessment itself is usually a telephone, video or face-to-face consultation with a health professional, followed by a decision by a DWP decision maker. Evidence you send in, from a GP, consultant, carer or support worker, feeds into that decision. Advice services publish detailed guidance on writing effective evidence for a PIP application and on completing the questionnaire²³.

The PIP daily living 4-point rule from November

From November 2026, the rules for the daily living component change. New PIP claims, and existing claimants at their next review date after November 2026, will need at least 4 points in one daily living activity, plus 8 points in total, to qualify⁵. The government's own estimate is that 1.2 million people would lose support under this change⁵.

That is a significant shift from the current test, where you qualify for the standard rate of the daily living component with a combined score of 8 to 11 points, and the enhanced rate with 12 points or more, without any single activity having to reach a minimum²⁵. Disability Rights UK's analysis is that 90 per cent of current PIP claimants who have a standard daily living award score fewer than 4 points in all activities, which is why the change is expected to affect so many people⁵.

The change applies to new claims from November 2026 and to existing claimants when their claim comes up for review, not automatically to everyone on the same date. The DWP contacts you in the last year of your PIP claim about review or renewal²⁶.

Scotland: Adult Disability Payment replaces both

If you live in Scotland, you do not claim PIP. Adult Disability Payment (ADP) has replaced PIP and the version of DLA paid to adults, though not child DLA⁶. It is delivered by Social Security Scotland rather than the DWP, and it replaced new claims for PIP in Scotland²⁸.

The rollout is complete. ADP was first rolled out in March 2022 for people aged 16 to State Pension age, and new claimants have applied for ADP rather than PIP since specific dates depending on which Scottish local authority they live in⁴. If you already get PIP or DLA, you will be contacted about moving onto ADP rather than applying yourself⁶.

The caseload has grown substantially since the switch. Around 310,000 people received PIP in Scotland in March 2022; by July 2026, over 510,000 people were receiving ADP, a 65 per cent increase in the disability payment caseload³⁰.

ADP initially has very similar rules to PIP, with a full review intended by the Scottish Government³¹. If you are moving between Scotland and the rest of the UK, the payment you claim depends on where you live, and there is separate guidance on disability and carer payments when moving between Scotland and the rest of the UK.

The Timms Review: what it could change for PIP claimants

The Timms Review of PIP was launched in October 2025 to ensure PIP is fair and fit for the future, and to help support disabled people to achieve better health, higher living standards and greater independence, including through employment⁷. Its call for evidence invited views across 4 themes: the role and purpose of PIP, assessment, decision-making, and the wider claimant experience³².

The findings were blunt. Respondents described the experience of claiming PIP as stressful, distressing or adversarial, and highlighted wider pressures influencing demand, including the cost of living, changes in health, delays in accessing healthcare, gaps in social care and labour market conditions³². The interim report, published in July 2026, found that PIP is no longer fit for purpose⁷.

The final report is expected in October 2026³³. The Work and Pensions Secretary has said the review is likely to lead to a change in assessment in the future³⁴, and disability people's organisations have opposed the draft recommendations³⁵. Nothing has changed yet: despite the government's earlier white paper, there have been no changes to the way PIP works, and the proposals were dropped after a public backlash²³.

What happens to PIP when the work capability assessment is scrapped

From 2028, the government plans to abolish the work capability assessment and base extra health-related support in Universal Credit on eligibility for the PIP daily living component instead³⁶. That is a change to Universal Credit, not to PIP itself, but it links the two more tightly: whether you get the health element of Universal Credit would depend on whether you qualify for PIP daily living.

The work capability assessment is the test used for Employment and Support Allowance and the Universal Credit health element. There is more on how it works in the Work Capability Assessment and on Employment and Support Allowance.

For now, PIP and the work capability assessment remain separate tests with separate rules. Being found capable of work for Universal Credit purposes does not remove a PIP award, and a PIP award does not by itself entitle you to the Universal Credit health element.

What can I do if my PIP award is lower than my DLA?

There is no guarantee that you will receive the same amount for PIP. You might get less, or not be eligible at all². If you were receiving the highest amount for DLA, you cannot get more money on PIP².

If you think the decision is wrong, you can challenge it. The first step is a mandatory reconsideration, where a different decision maker looks at the decision again. If that does not change the outcome, you can appeal to a tribunal. There is step-by-step guidance on challenging a decision, on writing a mandatory reconsideration letter and on appealing to a tribunal.

Two practical points are worth knowing. First, if you are getting DLA and tell the DWP that your circumstances have changed, you will have to apply for PIP, and PIP will replace your DLA even if it means you will get a lower amount¹⁰. Second, if you are over State Pension age with a lifetime DLA award, your DLA will continue and you will not be reassessed for PIP¹⁰. In Northern Ireland, the same protection applies to those over State Pension age with a lifetime award¹⁰.

If your income drops while you wait, other support may be available. Disability benefits such as PIP or DLA should not be taken into account when a council assesses a Discretionary Housing Payment claim for costs related to your disability³⁷. There is more on Discretionary Housing Payments from your council and on checking what you are entitled to.

Where to get help with a move from DLA to PIP

Free, impartial help is available and worth using before you fill anything in. Citizens Advice, Scope, Turn2us, Contact and Disability Rights UK all publish guidance on the move, and many local advice services will read a draft form or sit with you while you complete it¹.

There is more on this in what happens to a child's DLA at 16 and on benefits at 16.

If your circumstances change while you are claiming, you must report it. You can call the Disability Service Centre to report changes if you get DLA or PIP³⁹. Changes that affect your claim include your condition improving or deteriorating. There is more on reporting a change of circumstances.

If your PIP claim is delayed, Which? publishes guidance on what to do³³. If you are unhappy with how the DWP has handled your claim, you can complain, and there is guidance on complaining to the DWP and the Ombudsman.