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© 2026. The Purpl Co Limited. All rights reserved.
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© 2026. The Purpl Co Limited. All rights reserved.
11 min read
Written by
Georgina, Founder of Purpl
Published on
October 7, 2026
Last reviewed: 7 October 2026
Applies to: England and Wales
Written by: Georgina, Founder of Purpl | Disabled & Neurodivergent Advocate
What medical evidence should you send with a PIP claim? Send relevant evidence you already have that helps show how your disability or long term health condition affects your daily living or mobility. Do not assume the DWP will automatically contact your GP, because a GP factual report is not requested for every claim.
The Department for Work and Pensions updated its medical factual report guidance on 1 October 2026. The October update itself mainly changed the fee paid for an official PIP GP factual report, but it has put the spotlight back on something much more important for claimants: what evidence the DWP actually sees and who provides it.
For anyone making a PIP claim, going through a review or preparing for an assessment, the practical message is simple:
Send useful evidence you already have and explain clearly how your condition affects your everyday life.
A PIP factual report is only requested when further information is needed, so it is important not to assume your GP will automatically be contacted.
Send relevant evidence you already have that helps show how your disability or long-term health condition affects your ability to carry out the daily living and mobility activities considered for PIP. Do not assume the DWP will automatically contact your GP, as a GP factual report is requested only when an assessor feels further information is necessary.
You can also send supporting documents you already have, including prescription lists, care plans and information from healthcare professionals or other people involved in your care.
But there is one question worth asking about every piece of evidence:
Does this help explain how my condition affects my everyday life?
A letter confirming that you have multiple sclerosis, arthritis, ADHD, fibromyalgia or another condition can support your claim.
But it may not tell the assessor whether you can prepare food safely, wash yourself, get dressed, manage medication or travel independently.
What often matters more is the detail.
For example:
Evidence is most useful when it helps show how your condition affects you in practice, not just the name of your diagnosis.
Purpl Tip: Don’t only ask, “Does this prove my diagnosis?” Ask, “Does this help explain what living with my condition is actually like?”
The DWP does not automatically contact your GP for every PIP claim. An assessment provider can request further evidence if it thinks more information is needed.
Many people understandably assume that once they provide their GP’s details, the DWP will request their medical records.
That does not always happen.
A GP factual report can be requested when further evidence is needed, but this is not an automatic part of every claim.
Assessment providers also have to consider whether they already have enough information and, if they need more, who is best placed to provide it.
That means it can be risky to leave useful evidence out because you assume the DWP will collect it later.
If you already have relevant consultant letters, treatment summaries, care plans, occupational therapy reports or other evidence, include them where appropriate.
Purpl Insight: Treat information later requested from your GP as additional evidence, not as a replacement for the evidence and explanations you provide yourself.
A PIP GP Factual Report provides clinical details held in your medical record, such as official diagnoses, prescribed treatments, hospital referrals, and test results.
Your GP surgery can only report information that is recorded in your medical notes. Your GP may know your diagnosis and treatment, but they may not know exactly how your condition affects you day to day.
For example, they may not know:
The PIP assessment guidance itself recognises that another professional may sometimes have more useful information than a GP, depending on the claimant’s condition and circumstances.
This is why your own explanation matters so much.
Medical evidence can help explain why you struggle. Your PIP form and real-life examples show what actually happens when you try.
Purpl Tip: If something affects your everyday life but has never really come up during a GP appointment, don’t assume it will appear in your medical evidence.
No. High-quality PIP evidence can come from any professional or carer who understands how your condition affects you day-to-day.
You do not necessarily need a pile of letters from doctors.
PIP evidence does not have to come from a GP or consultant. It can also come from people who understand how your condition affects you in everyday life, including:
The important question is not simply:
“Who wrote this?”
It is:
“Does this person understand how my condition affects me?”
PIP assessment providers are expected to consider which source is most likely to have useful information about your needs.
For example, an occupational therapist might know far more about how you move around your home and which aids you use than your GP does.
A care plan might show that you need help several times a day.
A mental health professional may understand difficulties that rarely come up during a standard GP appointment.
Purpl Insight: Medical evidence does not simply mean “a letter from a doctor”. Evidence from somebody who actually understands your day-to-day difficulties can be extremely useful.
You do not pay for an official PIP GP factual report requested directly by the assessment provider, but your GP practice may charge if you personally ask for a separate private supporting letter.
These are two different things.
If a PIP assessment provider asks your GP practice to complete an official factual report, payment for that report forms part of the DWP process.
The DWP healthcare professional guidance was updated on 1 October 2026 and the fee payable for a PIP GP factual report increased to £53.50.
That £53.50 is not charged to you.
However, if you personally ask your GP surgery to write an additional private letter for your PIP claim, the practice may charge.
Before paying for anything, look at what you already have.
You may already have useful information in:
You do not necessarily need a new letter written specifically for PIP.
Purpl Tip: Don’t feel that you need to pay for a letter saying you “deserve PIP”. Focus on evidence that explains your condition and, ideally, what support or difficulties you experience.
If your condition fluctuates, keeping a diary can help show how your difficulties vary over time and provide real examples for your PIP form, assessment or review.
A short medical appointment may not reflect what happens across an average week.
You might appear relatively well during an appointment but struggle significantly later that day.
Or you might technically manage an activity once but experience so much pain, fatigue or cognitive exhaustion afterwards that you cannot repeat it.
A PIP diary can help capture those changes while the details are still fresh.
Try recording:
Purpl Tip: Diagnoses are usually easy to remember. Specific examples are much easier to forget. Recording them when they happen gives you something real to look back on.
The Purpl PIP Tracker helps you record real-life examples of how your condition affects you, so you have them available when completing a PIP form, preparing for an assessment, review or appeal.
One of the hardest parts of PIP can be remembering specific examples when you suddenly need them.
You might know that fatigue, pain, mobility problems, sensory difficulties or cognitive symptoms affect you regularly, but remembering exactly what happened three weeks ago can be much harder.
The Purpl PIP Tracker gives you somewhere to keep those examples together.
You can record things such as:
You can also go back and add notes to previous days if you remember something later.
Over time, this helps build a much clearer picture of what everyday life actually looks like, particularly if your condition fluctuates.
Use the free Purpl PIP Tracker
Purpl Insight: The PIP Tracker is not about trying to make your symptoms sound worse. It is about helping you remember what actually happened when it matters.
Real-life examples help show what happens when you actually try to complete the daily living and mobility activities assessed for PIP.
PIP is not awarded simply because someone has a particular diagnosis.
The assessment looks at the impact your condition has on specific activities.
These include areas such as preparing food, washing, dressing, communicating, managing treatment, mixing with other people, planning journeys and moving around.
The PIP assessment criteria set out the activities and descriptors used.
This means two people with the same diagnosis can have very different support needs.
Instead of only saying:
“I have arthritis in my hands.”
A more useful real-life example might explain:
“When my hands are painful and weak, I cannot safely grip a knife to chop vegetables, so my partner prepares them for me.”
Instead of:
“I have severe fatigue.”
You might explain:
“After showering and getting dressed, I normally need to lie down before I can start another activity.”
Real examples connect your health condition to what actually happens in everyday life.
They can also show difficulties that may never appear in your medical records.
Purpl Tip: Think about what happens before, during and after an activity, rather than only whether you can physically manage it once.
The 1 October 2026 DWP update increased the fee paid for an official PIP GP factual report. It did not introduce new PIP eligibility rules or change how many points someone needs.
The October update to the DWP medical report guidance increased the fee payable for PIP GP factual reports and updated references relating to Work Capability Assessment forms.
You may also have seen reports about GP practices having five working days to respond to a PIP evidence request.
A completed PIP factual report should be returned within five working days of the practice receiving it.
However, this was not newly introduced by the October 2026 update.
And importantly, the five-day period does not mean:
It is the expected turnaround where an official GP factual report has been requested.
Purpl Insight: The October update is useful context, but it doesn’t change how you should prepare your claim. You still need to explain clearly how your condition affects you.
No. The DWP or its assessment provider does not automatically request a GP factual report for every PIP claim.
A factual report may be requested when further information is needed.
Send relevant evidence you already have that helps explain your condition and how it affects your daily living or mobility.
This could include consultant letters, care plans, prescription information, occupational therapy reports, mental health evidence and information from other people involved in your care.
You can see examples of supporting information you can send with a PIP claim.
No. PIP evidence can come from other professionals or people who have relevant knowledge of your condition and support needs.
Depending on your circumstances, this might include a specialist, nurse, occupational therapist, physiotherapist, social worker, mental health professional, support worker or carer.
Explain your day-to-day difficulties yourself and provide other relevant evidence where you can.
Another professional may sometimes be better placed to provide useful information about your functional difficulties.
No. You do not pay for the official PIP GP factual report when it is requested directly by the assessment provider.
A GP practice may charge separately if you personally ask it to prepare an additional private letter.
A GP practice is asked to return a requested PIP factual report within five working days of receiving it.
This is a timeframe for the GP report, not a five-day deadline for your whole PIP claim.
You can read the DWP guidance for completing PIP factual reports.
A diagnosis can support a PIP claim, but it does not by itself show how your condition affects the activities PIP assesses.
Your form and supporting evidence should explain the practical impact your condition has on your daily living and mobility.
A diary can be particularly useful if your symptoms or support needs change from day to day.
It can help you remember specific examples, difficult days, help you needed and what happened after completing an activity.
You can also use the free Purpl PIP Tracker to keep these examples together.
The most important thing to know about PIP medical evidence is that you should not assume the DWP will automatically contact your GP or collect everything needed for your claim.
The October 2026 update does not change who qualifies for PIP.
Instead, it gives us a useful reason to look again at how supporting evidence works.
Send useful evidence you already have.
Remember that evidence can come from people other than your GP.
And make sure your form includes real examples showing what happens when you try to complete everyday activities.
A medical record might show that you live with fatigue, pain, anxiety, cognitive difficulties or reduced mobility.
Your real-life examples show what that means when you are trying to cook, wash, dress, communicate, leave the house or simply get through an ordinary day.
And if remembering those examples is difficult, the Purpl PIP Tracker can help you keep them together as they happen.
Purpl PIP Tracker: free daily symptom diary for PIP: Keep real-life examples together so you can look back before a claim, review, assessment, Mandatory Reconsideration or appeal.
PIP assessment tips: what assessors look for and your 2-week preparation guide: Practical help preparing your evidence, examples and paperwork before an assessment.
Step-by-step guide to preparing for a PIP assessment: Understand what happens before, during and after a PIP assessment.
PIP rejected? What to do next: What happens after a PIP decision and how Mandatory Reconsideration works.
Purpl UK Disability Benefits & Support Handbook: Explore disability benefits, grants, concessions and other financial support.
Georgina is the Founder of Purpl, a disabled and neurodivergent advocate who lives with Multiple Sclerosis and ADHD.
She created Purpl to help disabled people and people with long term health conditions reduce the extra costs and barriers that can come with disability.
Purpl combines disability discounts with practical guides, tools and community resources designed to make complicated information easier to understand and use.