Lesser-known conditions that could qualify for PIP worth nearly £800 per month
The latest DWP stats show over 3.3 million people were claiming Personal Independence Payments (PIP) across England and Wales last January, with another 220,000 in Scotland. While there’s no diagnosis or condition that is guaranteed to make a person eligible for the disability benefit, the department has released the list of conditions and categories that people who currently receive the benefit have between 2019 and October 2024.
Some of the most common disabilities on this list, which boasts 21 categories and 547 conditions, include the likes of psychiatric disorders like OCD, mood disorders and anxiety or general musculoskeletal diseases like arthritis. While these two categories alone make up over 50% of PIP claimants, there are some lesser-known conditions that file into the bottom of the list as the least-claimed disabilities on PIP.
Diseases of the immune system, where the immune system either acts incorrectly or overreacts to certain stimuli, is the category with the lowest number of claimants according to Stat-Xplore with roughly 0.04% of people currently receiving the benefit for this reason. It’s important to note that this doesn’t include autoimmune diseases, which is a separate category of its own, but rather conditions like allergies, Angioedema and hypersensitivity.
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The second lowest-claimed category is a collection of conditions known as ‘Multisystem and Extremes of Age’. Unlike what the title suggests, this doesn’t just look at health issues that arise in old but extreme complications of young age that affect multiple systems too such as being born premature or a childhood condition known as ‘failure to thrive’.
Metabolic diseases are the third least-claimed category under PIP and include a number of health issues that are increasingly common in modern society such as obesity. However, it also encapsulates a number of rare disorders like porphyria, when the body can’t convert compounds into vital ingredients that form haemoglobin, and amyloidosis, which is a build up of amyloid proteins that can affect a number of organs and systems.
Combined, these three categories of disability make up barely more than 0.2% of the total number of PIP claimants. This is even less the amount of conditions listed as ‘unknown or missing’ on people’s applications.
PIP is the top working-age disability benefit offering successful applicants a range between £28.70 and £184.05 per week depending on the severity of their condition. The assessment criteria do not focus on what your diagnosis is or the treatments you are prescribed but rather how much of your daily life and mobility is impacted by your disability.
Because of this, you may be able to receive PIP even if you do not have a confirmed diagnosis, such as when you’re still undergoing tests. However, care experts at Lottie highlighted that whether or not you have a diagnosis you will need to provide proof of how your day-to-day activities or mobility is affected by your health.
This evidence can come in the form of medical letters and reports from professionals or a symptom diary of your own making. There are two aspects to PIP each offering higher and lower rates with a maximum payment totalling just under £800 a month for this benefit alone.
The first aspect of PIP focuses on how your usual activities like washing, shopping and making decisions are affected, awarding between £72.65 and £108.55 a week. If you have issues with moving from one place to another due to your health you may qualify for the second aspect, mobility, which offers between £28.70 and £75.75 per week.
It is possible to get any combination of these two aspects or even just a higher or lower rate of only one, for example if you only struggle with mobility you may not receive any of the daily living part. PIP can also entitle successful applicants to a number of other benefits, discounts and freebies as it’s often a qualifying criteria for the likes of Disabled Persons’ Railcards, Blue Badge schemes and disability premium top-ups on other benefits like Income Support.