What is the difference between PIP1 and PIP2?

PIP1 is the initial registration - a short phone or paper form that captures basic eligibility (name, NI number, conditions, contact details). PIP2 is the longer 'How your disability affects you' form, sent after PIP1, that the DWP actually scores against the descriptor table.

How long do I have to return the PIP2 form?

One calendar month from the date on the PIP2 letter. Late returns can be accepted with good reason, but don't rely on this. If you need more time, phone the DWP before the deadline and request an extension.

Does the PIP1 phone call decide whether I get PIP?

No. PIP1 is registration; it only checks basic eligibility (residence, age, condition duration). The award decision is made later, based on your PIP2 form, any assessment, and any evidence supplied.

Can I start the PIP claim by post rather than phone?

Yes - you can request a paper PIP1 form by post if a phone call isn't accessible to you. Mention any communication needs (mental health, autism, hearing difficulty) when you request the form.

PIP1 vs PIP2: what each form actually asks

A clear walkthrough of the two stages of a PIP claim, what each one is for, and where most claimants get stuck.

Key Takeaways

PIP1 is the registration call: 30 minutes, administrative only, doesn’t decide your award.

PIP2 is the 35–40 page “How your disability affects you” form, sent by post 1–2 weeks after PIP1. This is the form the DWP scores against the descriptor table.

The 1-month PIP2 deadline is hard. Miss it without contacting the DWP and your claim closes - no reminder, no second chance.

A typical PIP claim runs 3 to 6 months from PIP1 call to decision letter. Add 6–12 months if a Mandatory Reconsideration or tribunal is needed.

You can request a paper PIP1, have someone call on your behalf, or use the online claim service if available in your area.

If you’re new to PIP, the first piece of confusion is usually the forms. People talk about “the PIP form” as if there’s one, but actually there are two, called PIP1 and PIP2, and they happen at different times in the process. They have very different purposes, and getting them mixed up is one of the more common reasons claims go off track in the early weeks.

This page walks through the whole journey: what PIP1 is, what PIP2 is, the deadlines that matter, what happens between them, and where the assessment and decision fit in. By the end you should know exactly where you are in the process and what’s coming next.

The full PIP journey at a glance

Every PIP claim follows the same five stages, in order. Most people don’t see the whole picture until they’re partway through it.

PIP1 - the initial claim. Usually a phone call to the DWP. They take basic details and register your claim.
PIP2 - “How your disability affects you.” A long paper form that arrives by post a few weeks after PIP1. This is the form that gets scored.
Assessment. A consultation, usually by phone, with a healthcare professional working for one of DWP’s contractors. They write a report.
Decision letter. DWP reads the assessment report and your form, and writes to you with their decision and your award (or refusal).
Optional: challenge. If you disagree with the decision, you have one month to ask for it to be reconsidered, and another month after that to appeal to a tribunal.

The whole thing, start to finish, typically takes between three and six months for a straightforward claim, longer if there’s an appeal. Most of the waiting happens between stages 2 and 3, when your form is sitting with the assessment provider.

This page focuses on stages 1 and 2. We’ve written separately about the telephone assessment, the refused decision letter, and the Mandatory Reconsideration challenge.

Stage 1: PIP1 - the initial claim

What is PIP1?

PIP1 is the registration stage. You’re not yet making a detailed case for your award; you’re letting DWP know you want to claim and giving them the basic information they need to send you the proper form.

It is almost always a phone call. The number to call is on gov.uk/pip. The call itself usually takes around 30 minutes, sometimes longer.

If you can’t make the call yourself for any reason (anxiety, communication needs, hearing impairment, exhaustion, anything), there are alternatives:

A textphone option is available
A friend, family member, or advice worker can call on your behalf if you give consent at the start of the call
A paper PIP1 form can be requested by post if a phone call isn’t workable for you. This is a real option that DWP has to provide, but it’s slower than the phone call route.
An online claim service has been rolling out in stages and may be available to you depending on where you live and your circumstances. It’s worth checking gov.uk for the current options before phoning.

What does the PIP1 call ask?

The PIP1 conversation covers basic eligibility and identifying details. None of this is a test of your award; it’s administrative. They’ll ask:

Your name, address, date of birth, and National Insurance number
Your GP and any specialists or consultants involved in your care
The names of your conditions and roughly how long you’ve had them
Any recent hospital admissions or stays in care
Whether you live alone or with others
Bank details for payment
Whether you’ve lived in the UK for the last two years (or qualify on other grounds)
Whether you’re already getting Attendance Allowance, Armed Forces Independence Payment, or another overlapping benefit
Whether you’re in hospital, a care home, or prison

You’re allowed to have someone with you on the call. You’re allowed to take breaks. You’re allowed to say “I don’t know” - you don’t need to memorise everything before you ring.

What should you have ready for the PIP1 call?

A short checklist saves time and stress:

Your NI number
Your GP’s name and surgery address
A list of your conditions
A list of any medications you take
The names of any specialists or hospitals you attend
Bank details for payment
A list of any recent hospital stays with rough dates
Your phone, propped somewhere comfortable, with water nearby

What PIP1 doesn’t do

This is the part to be clear about: the PIP1 call doesn’t decide your award. They aren’t assessing you. They’re not asking about your daily life in detail. They’re not writing down the things you say as evidence for or against your claim.

That said, the call is recorded, and what you say does end up in your file. So it’s worth being accurate. Don’t dismiss your conditions or describe yourself as “fine” out of habit. A short, honest summary (“I have generalised anxiety disorder, depression, and chronic back pain - they affect most things I do”) is what’s needed. The real description of your life comes later, on PIP2.

Common mistakes at PIP1

Trying to make the case for your award during PIP1. It’s not the right moment. You don’t yet know what they’ll be asking, the questions don’t follow the descriptor structure, and detailed answers can sometimes be misremembered or summarised in unhelpful ways. Stick to the basics.
Underplaying your conditions out of habit. Many people are used to telling a GP receptionist or family member “I’m fine.” If they ask you how your conditions affect you, give a plain summary, not a brave face.
Trying to do the call alone when you’re not in a state to. If you’re in crisis, exhausted, or having a bad day, postpone the call by a day or two. If you can’t manage phone calls at all, request a paper PIP1.

After PIP1 is done, you wait. Within roughly two weeks, the PIP2 form should arrive by post.

Stage 2: PIP2 - How your disability affects you

What is PIP2?

This is the form that actually scores your claim. It’s about 35–40 pages, comes in a brown envelope, and is officially titled “How your disability affects you” - though in conversation everyone calls it the PIP2 form or the PIP form.

If you’ve read our foundational guide to PIP descriptors, this is the form that asks the descriptor questions. Each activity has its own page or two, with tick boxes followed by a writing space where you describe your situation in your own words.

The activities, in the order they appear on the form, cover:

Preparing food
Eating and drinking
Managing treatments (medication, therapies, monitoring)
Washing and bathing
Managing toilet needs
Dressing and undressing
Communicating with others
Reading and understanding signs, symbols and words
Mixing with other people
Making decisions about money
Going out (planning and following journeys)
Moving around

Plus: a section asking about your conditions, the professionals you see, and any medications. And, near the end, an “additional information” section where you can add anything that didn’t fit elsewhere.

This is the form the assessor reads, and the form against which the descriptors are scored. Time spent on PIP2 is the most consequential time you’ll spend on your whole claim.

What is the PIP2 deadline?

Here’s the thing nobody warns you about clearly enough: the PIP2 form must be returned within one month of the date printed on it. That’s one month from the date DWP issued it, not the date you received it. So if it sat in the post for three days, you have three days less than you might think.

If you don’t return it on time without making contact, your claim will close. You won’t get a reminder. You won’t get a phone call. You’ll just hear nothing, and discover later, often when chasing, that the claim is over and you’d need to start again from PIP1.

Extensions are possible. If a month isn’t enough, call the PIP enquiry line before the deadline and ask for more time. The standard extension is 14 days. Longer extensions can sometimes be granted if you can give a good reason (disability, hospital admission, mental health crisis, awaiting medical evidence). Make the call early if you think you’ll need it.

How long does PIP2 take to fill in?

Most claimants who do this carefully spend somewhere between 5 and 15 hours total on the form, often spread over several days or weeks. That’s a lot for someone who’s ill. Don’t try to do it in one sitting.

A workable approach:

Read the whole form through once before writing anything. This lets you see how the questions relate to each other.
Make rough notes for each activity, in your own words, about how your conditions affect you. Don’t worry about wording yet.
Come back later and turn those notes into the answers, applying the 50% of the time rule and the reliability test silently as you go.
Take breaks. Use the save-and-resume option on whatever you’re using to draft.
Have someone you trust read it through before you send it.

If filling the form is itself something you can’t do without help - because of cognitive symptoms, dyslexia, executive dysfunction, exhaustion, or anything else - that fact is itself relevant. Note it on the form. Saying “this form was completed with the help of [person] because I cannot manage this kind of writing alone” is honest and aligned with the descriptors for several activities.

How do you send the PIP2 form back?

The form comes with a pre-paid envelope. We’d suggest:

Photocopy or scan everything before posting. You’ll want a copy if there’s any later challenge.
Send by recorded delivery if you can. It’s not officially required but it gives you proof of postage and a tracking number. The cost is modest.
Send any evidence you have at the same time. GP letters, specialist letters, care plans, prescription lists, hospital discharge summaries, OT reports. Don’t include hundreds of pages of GP records - see our guide to PIP evidence for what helps and what doesn’t.

Some claimants now have the option to return the form digitally rather than by post; again, this varies by region and by claim type. Check the instructions on your specific form for what’s available to you.

Common mistakes at PIP2

Doing the form quickly because you’re tired of thinking about your claim. Almost every refused claim we’ve seen had a rushed PIP2.
Filling in only the tick boxes and leaving the writing space blank. The writing space is what the assessor scores. Tick boxes alone score very little.
Describing your good days because you don’t want to “exaggerate.” If your good days are not what most of your days look like, describing them undersells your claim and triggers exactly the wrong descriptor. (Covered in detail in our good days vs bad days guide.)
Forgetting to apply the reliability test. Whenever you write that you can do something, ask whether you can do it safely, repeatedly, in reasonable time, and to an acceptable standard.
Assuming the assessment is where you’ll explain things properly. It isn’t. The assessment is where the assessor reads what you wrote and asks follow-up questions. The form is the foundation. The assessment doesn’t replace it.
Sending no supporting evidence. Even one good GP letter or specialist letter is much better than nothing.

What happens after you send PIP2 back?

The form goes to one of DWP’s assessment providers. They review it and decide whether to invite you to:

A telephone assessment (the most common in 2026)
A video assessment
A face-to-face assessment (returning to higher volumes from April 2026)
Or, occasionally, to make a decision on the form alone (rare for new claims)

The wait between sending the form and being given an assessment date varies by region and by provider. Several months is typical, though it’s been improving in some areas. There isn’t much you can do during this wait beyond:

Make sure your contact details are current
Note anything new - a hospital admission, a new diagnosis, a deterioration - and let the assessment provider know in writing
Keep gathering evidence if you don’t have much yet

Once the assessment is booked, see our guide to preparing for a PIP telephone assessment for what to do next.

Where are you in the process?

A few quick orienting questions if you’re unsure:

Have you called DWP and given basic details? Then you’ve done PIP1.
Are you waiting for a brown envelope to arrive? That’s PIP2 on its way.
Have you got a long paper form titled “How your disability affects you”? That’s PIP2. The clock is ticking - note the date on the front.
Have you sent that form back? You’re in the assessment-wait stage.
Have you been to an assessment by phone, video, or in person? You’re waiting for the decision letter.
Do you have a decision letter that doesn’t say what you hoped? You have one month to request a Mandatory Reconsideration. See our guide on what to do when PIP is refused.

Free help is available

If any part of this is overwhelming, and for a lot of people it is, free help is available. Citizens Advice, Scope, Disability Rights UK, your local welfare rights service, and several condition-specific charities can talk you through PIP1, help you complete PIP2, gather evidence, and even attend assessments with you. We strongly recommend speaking to one of them, especially for a first claim.

If you’d like a tool that walks you through PIP2 question by question, with save-and-resume so you can spread the work over weeks and optional AI rewriting that translates your honest answers into descriptor-aligned language, you can start here. You stay in control of every word that ends up on the form.

Where to next

If you haven’t already, the three foundational guides on the scoring system are worth reading before you tackle PIP2 itself:

PIP descriptors explained: how points are scored - the framework
The 50% of the time rule, explained with examples - for fluctuating conditions
The reliability test: safely, repeatedly, in a reasonable time, to an acceptable standard - the rule that doesn’t appear on the form but decides whether your answers score

For the next stages, see how to prepare for a telephone assessment and what evidence to send with your claim.

This page describes the PIP claim process as it operates in 2026. Some claim methods (online registration, digital form return) are in active rollout and may have changed since publication. Always check gov.uk/pip for the current options. This page is general information, not legal or benefits advice - your specific circumstances will determine how the process applies to you.