The assessment report says he plays on his Xbox, so his hands are fine, and the award is zero. A low PIP score is not a verdict on how ill someone is; it is a set of descriptor choices, each with a legal test attached, and the reconsideration is the place to argue them one by one. This page is the tests, the timescales and the odds.
The points that decide it
PIP is arithmetic on descriptors, the DWP’s short standard descriptions of difficulty with each activity, each worth points. The regulations say a claimant has limited ability to carry out daily living activities with at least 8 points and severely limited ability with at least 12 (Social Security (Personal Independence Payment) Regulations 2013, regulation 5, checked 1 November 2026).
Regulation 6 sets the same 8 and 12 for mobility (regulation 6, checked 1 November 2026).
Eight points is the standard rate and twelve the enhanced, on each part separately. A daily living score of 6 is nothing; a mobility score of 10 is the standard rate. So the question for a reconsideration is never “is he ill enough” but which descriptor in each activity is the right one, and what the report chose instead.
Reliably: safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly, in reasonable time
A descriptor that says the claimant can do something only counts if they can do it reliably. The regulations say a claimant satisfies a descriptor only if they can do so safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly, and within a reasonable time period (regulation 4, checked 1 November 2026).
They define safely as in a manner unlikely to cause harm to the claimant or another person, during or after the activity.
That is where the Xbox goes. Holding a controller for an hour does not show that a meal can be prepared without a burn, that washing is completed rather than abandoned, or that the same thing can be done again the next day. Each activity in the report is tested against those four words, and a reconsideration letter that applies them activity by activity is the one that works.
More than half the days
Fluctuating conditions are scored on the majority of days. The regulations say the descriptor that applies is the one satisfied on over 50% of the days of the required period, and where two or more each reach that, the higher scoring one (regulation 7, checked 1 November 2026).
Where none reaches half the days alone but two or more together do, the one satisfied most often applies.
A man who walks the dog twice a week is not scored on those two days. The other five are the majority, and the descriptor that fits them is the one that applies. Evidence that shows the pattern over weeks, a diary or a carer’s account, is what the rule asks for, and our claim diary was built for that job on a different form.
The report against your evidence
The reconsideration is decided by a DWP case manager on paper, so it turns on what is sent. The dosette box the GP arranged, the care plan, the letter from the district nurse, the carer’s own account of a bad week: each is evidence about a specific activity and descriptor, and the covering letter should say which.
The DWP’s assessment guide says a companion may contribute at a consultation and that the health professional should record any evidence they provide (PIP assessment guide, part 1, checked 1 November 2026). Where the report leaves out what a companion said, or records an observation that has nothing to do with the descriptor, say so and quote the report’s own words back.
Asking for the reconsideration
GOV.UK says that before you can appeal you usually need to ask for the decision to be looked at again, called mandatory reconsideration (GOV.UK, Appeal a benefit decision, checked 1 November 2026). The request is usually made within one month of the decision, with a good reason needed after that (GOV.UK, Challenge a benefit decision (mandatory reconsideration): eligibility, checked 1 November 2026).
One warning before asking. GOV.UK says that if you ask for mandatory reconsideration someone will look at your whole benefit claim again, and your benefit may stop, stay the same, increase or decrease (GOV.UK, Challenge a benefit decision (mandatory reconsideration): before you start, checked 1 November 2026). A claimant who already holds an award at a lower rate is putting that award on the table, and welfare rights advice before the request is the safer order.
Write to the address on the decision letter rather than relying on a phone call, keep a copy, and ask for the assessment report if you do not have it. The response is a mandatory reconsideration notice, and GOV.UK says an appeal needs it, or the reason one was not required (GOV.UK, Appeal a benefit decision: submit your appeal, checked 1 November 2026). Our Attendance Allowance refused page covers the risk that the whole award is looked at again, and our claim paperwork errors page covers correcting a mistake on the request itself, a form lost in the post, and formally requesting a copy of your file.
How long it takes, and how often it works
The DWP publishes both. Its statistics say the median mandatory reconsideration clearance time in April 2026 was 43 calendar days for new claims and 44 for DLA reassessments, a decrease of 36 and 35 days on the previous quarter (Personal Independence Payment statistics to April 2026, checked 1 November 2026).
The same release says that over the five years to April 2026, 28% of the 1.4 million reconsiderations cleared led to a change in award, and that 26% did in the quarter to April 2026. Roughly one in four succeeds here; the tribunal, on our PIP tribunal page, found for the claimant in 67% of PIP hearings in the latest quarter.
Waiting months for the first decision
A reader waiting since April for a decision is outside the DWP’s own norm. Its statistics say clearance times for new claims under the normal rules were 18 weeks end to end in April 2026, from registration to decision, up from 14 weeks a year earlier (Personal Independence Payment statistics to April 2026, checked 1 November 2026).
Thirteen of those weeks fall after the referral to the assessment provider.
Ring to establish where the claim is: whether the assessment has taken place and whether the report has been returned to the DWP. If it has and the weeks keep passing, a complaint goes to the DWP, which says its usual timescale is 15 working days and that it is currently not meeting it (GOV.UK, Complaints procedure, checked 1 November 2026). After its final response the Independent Case Examiner takes the case, and after that an MP can refer it to the Ombudsman.
At and after pension age
A reconsideration after State Pension age carries one extra rule: the mobility part cannot be increased for a change that happened after pension age, though it can be kept. Our PIP hub sets out that rule and the reviews that follow.
Where a relative manages the claim, the appointee at PIP assessments page covers who the DWP will deal with.
If the reconsideration fails, the appeal is free, decided by an independent panel, and won more often than not; the PIP tribunal page covers what happens at the hearing.