Do You Qualify for ADP? Free 30-Second Quiz

How the ADP eligibility quiz works

This quiz asks five quick questions about your conditions and how they affect your daily life, then estimates how likely you are to qualify for ADP based on the kinds of difficulties the descriptors look at. It collects no personal details and nothing is stored. The result is a guide, not a determination. In Scotland most determinations are made on paper, so your form is your case. Your actual award depends on how you describe your difficulties on the ADP application Part 2.

What counts as qualifying for ADP

ADP is not based on your diagnosis. It is based on how your condition affects 12 everyday activities, from preparing food and washing to moving around and planning a journey. You score points for each activity depending on how much help you need. You need 8 points for the standard rate or 12 for the enhanced rate, in the daily living part, the mobility part, or both. Many people qualify even when they did not expect to, because the descriptors look at difficulty, not diagnosis.

What to do with your result

Who can claim ADP? The basic rules

ADP is not means-tested, so your income, savings and whether you work do not affect it. What matters is how your condition affects your daily life. You can usually claim if all of the following apply:

• Age: you are 16 or over and under State Pension age when you apply. If you are over State Pension age, you would usually look at Pension Age Disability Payment instead.
• The 3 and 9 month rule: you have had these difficulties for at least 3 months and expect them to continue for at least another 9 months. People who are terminally ill can apply under special rules with no waiting period.
• Residency: you live in Scotland. Adult Disability Payment broadly aligns with PIP but is delivered by Social Security Scotland. If you move to Scotland from elsewhere in the UK, DWP pays your PIP for 13 weeks and then you apply for ADP.
• Impact, not diagnosis: a diagnosis on its own does not award ADP. Social Security Scotland scores how your condition affects 12 everyday activities, so two people with the same condition can get very different results depending on how they are affected.

ADP has two separate parts, and you can be awarded one or both:

• Daily living covers things like preparing food, washing, dressing, managing medication, reading, communicating and engaging with other people.
• Mobility covers planning and following a journey, and moving around.

Each part is scored in points. You need 8 points for the standard rate or 12 points for the enhanced rate. A rule many people miss is that you only score if you can do an activity safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly and in a reasonable time. If you can technically manage something but not reliably, that still counts in your favour.

This reliability test decides most claims, and it is where the words you use on the ADP application Part 2 matter most. Our free preview shows you, for one activity, how to describe your difficulties in the way the descriptors score.

ADP eligibility questions, answered