These are worked examples that show how each of the 12 PIP activities can be described for real-world conditions. Every answer is written in the first person, in the plain wording assessors look for, and each one weaves in the reliability factors that decide how many points an activity scores. Honest, careful and up to date for 2026.
How to describe widespread pain, fatigue and flare-ups that change from day to day across cooking, washing, dressing and moving around.
See the examples → Daily living focusPutting low mood, motivation and panic into words for prompting, engaging with others, managing money and planning a journey.
See the examples → Daily living focusPutting no motivation, days in bed and neglected self-care into words for cooking, washing, dressing and needing to be prompted.
See the examples → Daily living + mobilityDescribing stiff, painful joints, weak grip and slow, unsafe movement across food, washing, dressing and walking distance.
See the examples → Safety and supervisionHow seizures, warning signs and the risk of harm shape answers on cooking, bathing, treatments and travelling safely.
See the examples → Daily living focusTurning focus, forgetfulness and impulsivity into clear answers on prompting, budgeting, engaging with people and following a route.
See the examples → Daily living + mobilityShowing how exhaustion, post-exertional crashes and needing to repeat tasks affect food, washing, dressing and moving around.
See the examples → Daily living focusDescribing sensory overload, routine, communication and support needs across engaging with others, treatments and journeys.
See the examples → Daily living + mobilityPutting flashbacks, hypervigilance, nightmares and avoidance into words for mixing with people, cooking safely and leaving the house.
See the examples → Continence and fatiguePutting urgency, accidents, flares and anaemia into plain words for the toilet activity, washing, eating and planning a journey.
See the examples → Breathing + cognitivePutting breathlessness, a racing heart on standing, brain fog and days of payback into words for washing, talking and moving around.
See the examples → Breathing + mobilityPutting breathlessness on exertion, stopping to recover and winter flare-ups into words for washing, dressing, cooking and walking distance.
See the examples → Daily living + mobilityPutting bending, twisting, sciatica and spasms that stop you mid-task into words for dressing, washing, using the toilet and walking distance.
See the examples → Daily living + mobilityPutting joints that sublux and dislocate during ordinary tasks into words: dropped pans and knives, shoulders coming out when you reach up, and knees giving way when you walk.
See the examples → Daily living + mobilityDescribing relapses, MS fatigue, heat sensitivity, foot drop and bladder urgency for walking distance, toilet needs and everyday tasks.
See the examples → Prompting and social supportPutting voices, paranoia, withdrawal and tasks that never get started into words for mixing with people, cooking and needing someone there.
See the examples → Attacks and recovery daysPutting attacks several days a week, aura, light and sound sensitivity and the recovery day into answers on food, reading and journeys.
See the examples → Treatments and mobilityDescribing insulin, testing several times a day, hypos that need someone to step in, numb painful feet and blurred vision on the treatments and walking questions.
See the examples → Communication + mobilityDescribing what a stroke left behind: aphasia and lost words, weakness down one side, dressing one-handed and afternoon fatigue.
See the examples → Attacks and triggersDescribing attacks set off by cold air, dust and fumes on the treatments and walking questions: inhalers, spacer, nebuliser, peak flow and needing someone there.
See the examples → Rituals and time takenPutting contamination fears, washing and checking rituals and the hours they take into words for washing, preparing food and leaving the house.
See the examples → Standing and faintingDescribing postural tachycardia syndrome on the washing and cooking questions: a racing heart and greying vision within moments of standing, heat that makes it worse, and lying down afterwards.
See the examples → Tremor and off periodsDescribing tremor, slowness and freezing on the eating and dressing questions, plus the on and off periods when medication wears off within the same day.
See the examples → Treatments and journeysDescribing dementia for the family member filling the form in: tablets taken twice or not at all, getting lost on a familiar road, and needing someone there every time.
See the examples → Pain, flares and continencePutting severe pelvic pain, flare days you cannot stand upright, heavy bleeding and toilet difficulties into plain words for cooking and the toilet activity.
See the examples → Panic and leaving homePutting panic attacks, a world that has shrunk to your own front door and the safe person you cannot go out without into plain words for the journeys and mixing with people questions.
See the examples → Breathlessness and swellingDescribing breathlessness after a few minutes on your feet, heavy swollen legs, dizzy spells and the metres you manage before stopping, on the cooking and moving around questions.
See the examples → Effects of treatmentDescribing fatigue, sickness and numb hands from chemotherapy or radiotherapy, and the days after treatment when you cannot cook or wash without help.
See the examples → Urgency and flare-upsPutting urgency, accidents, pain and planning every trip around toilets into plain form wording, on the toilet and journey questions.
See the examples → Numbness and fallsDescribing numb hands and feet, burning pain, burns and cuts you do not feel, and the falls that come with poor balance in the dark.
See the examples → Daytime sleepinessExplaining how you nod off without warning, why the cooker is not safe and the help you need with your CPAP machine at night.
See the examples → Continence and treatmentsDescribing a stoma on the toilet and treatments questions: bag changes someone has to help with, night-time leaks, sore skin and watching for dehydration.
See the examples → Treatments and moneyDescribing the swing between mania and depression on the treatments and money questions: mood stabiliser monitoring, stopping medication when high, and impulsive spending you cannot undo.
See the examples → Treatments and peopleDescribing BPD or EUPD on the treatments and mixing with people questions: tablets someone else has to hold, warning signs others spot first and the support you need to be with people.
See the examples → Communication and peopleDescribing what hearing aids do and do not fix: speech lost in background noise, lipreading, missed phone calls, and the exhaustion of concentrating in company.
See the examples → Reading and journeysDescribing sight loss on the reading and journey questions: print you cannot read even with a magnifier, signs outdoors, and following an unfamiliar route safely.
See the examples → Money and readingDescribing a learning disability in plain words on the money and reading questions: prices and change, bills, being taken advantage of, and needing things explained and repeated.
See the examples →Every page here is a worked example. It shows one honest way a person with that condition might describe their worst and most common days, so you can see the level of detail and the plain wording that assessors are trained to look for. They are there to learn from, not to copy word for word. Your own answers should reflect your situation, your conditions and the way things actually affect you, because that is what the assessment is about and that is what makes an answer ring true.
The easiest way to get there is to tell us about your health in your own words. The tool then writes your answers from your own conditions, in the same first-person style you can see in these examples, ready for you to read, edit and copy onto your PIP2 claim form or your AR1 review form.
One idea runs through all of it: reliability. The rules say you can only be counted as able to do an activity if you can do it safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly and in a reasonable time. If you manage a task once but not again, or only by risking harm, or slowly, or badly, that matters. Good answers make those limits clear, and that is the thread you will see running through every example on these pages. The DWP always makes the final decision, but describing your day accurately gives your form the strongest chance of being understood.
Tell us about your health and we will write one full activity for you, free, before you pay anything.
Fill my form - free preview →