The UK has half a dozen different benefits for illness and disability, and which ones apply depends mostly on three things: your age, whether you can work, and whether anyone cares for you. Here's the whole map on one page.
Updated 23 July 2026 · Rates shown are the official 2026/27 figures
Disability benefits are organised by age, and they don't overlap - at any age there is one "main" disability benefit you can claim. Extra benefits for not being able to work, and for carers, sit on top.
PIP is the main disability benefit for working-age adults in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It's paid because your condition affects daily living or mobility - not because you can't work. You can claim PIP while working full time, and it isn't means-tested, so savings and a partner's income don't matter.
PIP has two parts, each at two rates: daily living (£76.70 or £114.60 a week in 2026/27) and mobility (£30.30 or £80.00). You can get one or both. What decides the award isn't your diagnosis but how your condition affects specific everyday activities - and whether you can do them safely, repeatedly, to an acceptable standard and in a reasonable time.
One thing worth knowing early: most claims involve an assessment (usually by phone), and the wording you use on the PIP2 form matters a great deal. Our sister site PIPexpert covers the whole process in 230+ free guides, from eligibility to appeals. Northern Ireland runs PIP with some differences - there's a dedicated NI guide for that.
Scotland has replaced PIP with Adult Disability Payment (ADP), run by Social Security Scotland. The amounts and the points system mirror PIP, but the process is different in tone - fewer face-to-face assessments and a "re-determination" stage instead of mandatory reconsideration. If you live in Scotland, you claim ADP through mygov.scot rather than PIP. ADP scores the same activities and points as PIP, so the free descriptor guides on PIPexpert still apply to your claim.
Once you reach State Pension age (currently rising from 66 to 67), new claims go to Attendance Allowance instead of PIP. AA pays £76.70 or £114.60 a week in 2026/27 depending on whether you need help during the day, at night, or both. It isn't means-tested either, and for most people there's no face-to-face assessment - the decision is made on the claim form, which makes how you fill it in especially important.
Two big differences from PIP: AA has no mobility component, and it can't be backdated before the claim. If you're approaching State Pension age and already have daily-living difficulties, timing matters - our State Pension age guide explains why claiming before the boundary can be worth up to £80 a week more. The claim itself is made through gov.uk (linked in the sources below).
Children can't claim PIP. Instead, a parent claims DLA for children (or Child Disability Payment in Scotland). DLA has a care component (£30.30, £76.70 or £114.60 a week) and a mobility component (£30.30 or £80.00), and at 16 your child is invited to move to PIP. The transition at 16 catches many families out - we've written a separate parents' guide on it.
The benefits above are paid on top of work or other income. If your condition means you can't work, or can only work a little, there's a second layer:
Both routes use the same Work Capability Assessment (with the ESA50 or UC50 questionnaire), and you can get ESA or UC alongside PIP, ADP or AA - they measure different things. Our sister site ESAexpert focuses entirely on ESA, UC and the WCA.
Carer's Allowance pays £86.45 a week in 2026/27 to someone who cares for you at least 35 hours a week, provided you get a qualifying benefit (PIP daily living at either rate, AA at any rate, or DLA care at the middle or highest rate) and the carer earns £204 a week or less after deductions. It doesn't have to be a relative, and they don't have to live with you.
Worth knowing both ways round: a successful PIP, DLA or AA claim is often what unlocks Carer's Allowance for a family member - one decision can raise a household's income twice.
The single most common misunderstanding we see is people assuming they must pick one benefit. In fact the layers combine:
If your child's condition affects them at school, that's handled by the education system rather than benefits - in England through an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). It's a separate process with its own applications and appeals; our upcoming site EHCPhelp will cover it in the same plain-English style.
Pick the row in the map above that matches your age - the main disability benefit is the one that unlocks the others. The free guides on our sister sites are the natural next step, and when you want help built around your own condition, that's what their tools do:
230+ free PIP guides, a personalised report that turns your answers into descriptor-matched PIP2 wording, and Assessment Prep for the assessment call itself.
Start with a free preview →Free WCA guides plus a personalised report for the ESA50/UC50 form and the Work Capability Assessment.
Start with a free preview →Sources: DWP Benefit and pension rates 2026/27 · gov.uk: PIP · gov.uk: Attendance Allowance · gov.uk: DLA for children · gov.uk: Carer's Allowance · mygov.scot: ADP