Arthritis, whether osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis, wears at the ordinary things: gripping a knife, standing at the hob, bending to the toilet, doing up buttons, walking to the corner. This page shows one honest way to describe those limits on the PIP2 form, with two full sample answers for washing and dressing and what to write for the other ten activities, in the plain first-person wording an assessor is trained to look for.
Arthritis is not one thing. Osteoarthritis, the most common type in the UK, makes joints painful and stiff, most often the knees, hips and small joints of the hands; for some people the symptoms come and go, while for others they are constant and severe. Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune condition, where the immune system attacks the joints by mistake. It often starts in the small joints of the hands and feet, usually on both sides of the body, and brings swelling, tiredness, flares and stiffness that tends to be worst in the morning. Many people have more than one form, and both can leave joints stiff, swollen, weak and painful. If your pain is widespread rather than in the joints, or your joints are loose rather than worn or inflamed, our fibromyalgia example or EDS and hypermobility example may fit you better, and if your spine is the main problem or your hands and feet are also numb, see the chronic back pain example and the peripheral neuropathy example.
On a PIP form the assessor is not scoring your diagnosis. The DWP's own PIP2 information booklet puts it plainly: PIP is assessed on how your condition affects you, not the condition itself. They are scoring how arthritis affects the everyday tasks in the two parts of the assessment, daily living and mobility. For arthritis the honest picture usually turns on a handful of recurring problems:
The single idea that decides most arthritis claims is 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, meaning no more than twice as long as someone without your condition would normally take. Arthritis fails those tests often: you can chop a carrot once but drop the knife the second time, you can wash your hair but not reach your back, you can walk to the gate but not without stopping in pain. First thing in the morning you may not manage any of it. A difficulty counts if it affects you on more than half of the days, so describe your typical week, good days and bad, rather than your best day. Good answers make those limits plain, and that is the thread running through every card below.
The DWP uses arthritis in its own examples. The PIP2 information booklet describes someone who has trouble taking their arthritis medication about four days a week because their wrists hurt when they open the pill bottle, so they use a dosette box, and someone who cannot safely cut up ingredients or lift pans because of severe arthritis. Both follow the pattern every box on the form asks for: how often, what the difficulty is, why you have it and what aid or help you use.
Most arthritis answers come back to the same few problems, and each one usually touches several questions. This table shows where each problem belongs, so you describe it in every activity it affects rather than only once.
| What arthritis does | PIP2 questions it usually affects | What to write |
|---|---|---|
| Weak, stiff or painful hands and wrists | Q3 Preparing food, Q4 Eating and drinking, Q5 Managing your treatments, Q8 Dressing and undressing | What you drop or spill, what you cannot open, cut or fasten and the aids you use instead. |
| Painful bending, reaching and twisting | Q6 Washing and bathing, Q7 Using the toilet, Q8 Dressing and undressing | Which parts of your body you cannot reach, who helps you and how often. |
| Hips, knees and feet that hurt when you stand | Q3 Preparing food, Q6 Washing and bathing | How long you can stand before you have to sit, and whether you sit to cook or shower. |
| Pain, stiffness or a joint giving way when you walk | Q14 Moving around | The distance before pain stops you, how slowly you walk, your rests, any falls and how you feel afterwards. |
| Morning stiffness | Every activity you do in the morning | How long it lasts and which tasks wait until it eases or need someone else. |
| Fatigue and flares | Every activity | How often flares come, how long they last and what you cannot do a second time. |
| Strong painkillers, or low mood after years of pain | Q9 to Q13, only if this is genuinely true for you | Real examples of losing track of a conversation or a letter, struggling to be around people or being unable to face a journey. |
What to cover for each one. Your paid form writes the full answers for you.
Describe how a weak, unreliable grip makes chopping, peeling and lifting pans dangerous, and how you may manage once but drop the knife the second time. Mention any perching stool, adapted cutlery or lightweight pans, and any help you need. Explain that on stiff mornings or flare days you cannot cook safely at all, so the task is not done reliably or in a reasonable time.
Explain that stiff, painful fingers struggle to hold cutlery or a full cup, so food gets cut up beforehand and hot drinks have been dropped or spilled. Mention aids such as a two-handled or lightweight cup and any built-up cutlery. Note that on bad days someone helps, and that spilling or dropping is a safety point worth making plain rather than glossing over.
Describe how stiff fingers and painful wrists struggle with child-proof bottle caps and small foil packs, and whether you use a dosette box or someone else fills one for you. Mention any reminders or help you need to take medication on time and to keep track of a condition that changes from week to week. Explain that fatigue and flares can make you miss doses without support, which is the reliability point that matters here.
Describe how painful hips and knees make lowering onto and rising from the toilet slow and unsafe, and how stiff hands and limited reach make cleaning yourself difficult. Mention aids such as a raised toilet seat, grab rails or a long-handled aid, and any help you rely on. Explain that first thing in the morning, when you are stiffest, you cannot manage safely without them.
Arthritis does not usually reach speech or hearing, so for most people this one is best left alone. What can count is arthritis in the jaw or neck that makes talking painful or hard to keep up, or strong painkillers that leave you too foggy to follow what is being said, so information has to be repeated or written down. Only answer yes here if one of those is genuinely true for you.
This question is about taking in written information rather than about your hands, so arthritis usually does not reach it. What can count is pain, poor sleep or strong medication leaving you unable to concentrate well enough to take a letter in, so you go over the same lines and still need someone to explain it to you. If you read and understand your post without help, leave this one alone.
This activity is about being able to be around other people, not about how often you get out. What can count is the low mood or anxiety that living with constant pain can bring, so that company causes real distress or you can only face it with someone you trust beside you. If you are comfortable in company and the barrier is simply getting there, put that under moving around instead.
Arthritis does not affect the sums themselves, so for most people money is not the issue here. What can count is pain or fatigue that stops you concentrating long enough to work out a budget or deal with a bill, or heavy painkillers that leave you muddled enough that someone else has to check your decisions. If you handle your own bills and budgeting, leave this one alone.
This question is designed for limits that come from mental health, cognitive or sensory problems, so for most people with arthritis it is best left alone, and a risk of falling or of a joint giving way belongs under moving around instead. What can count is anxiety or low mood, often after years of living with pain, so severe that you cannot face a journey at all or cannot set off without someone with you. Only answer yes here if that is genuinely true for you.
Describe the distance you can walk before hip, knee or back pain stops you, and whether you use a stick or need to stop and rest. Mention how much slower and more painful walking is, any falls when a joint has given way and how far you can go repeatedly rather than just once. Explain that flares and stiff mornings cut the distance further, so describe what you can manage on most days, not your best.
The tips above are general pointers. Your paid form gives you a full, ready-to-copy answer for all 12 activities, written from your exact conditions, medication, aids and bad days, not a general example. This is a worked example for arthritis; yours is written for you. £99.99 one-off.
The questions are the same for both, because PIP is assessed on how your condition affects you, not the condition itself. What changes is the pattern you describe. With rheumatoid arthritis, say how long your morning stiffness lasts, how often you have flares and how tired you get. With osteoarthritis, say which joints are affected, which movements hurt and how far you get before the pain stops you. If you have both, describe them together under each activity and name the joint that causes each problem.
Give a real figure for how long it lasts and name what you cannot do until it eases. The NHS says morning stiffness from osteoarthritis usually wears off within 30 minutes, while in rheumatoid arthritis it tends to last longer, so "about an hour and a half before I can grip a cup" tells the reader far more than "I am stiff in the mornings". Then say whether someone helps you in that time or the task waits until later. A task that takes you more than twice as long as it would take someone without your condition is not being done in a reasonable time.
Yes. The rules define an aid or appliance as any device that improves, provides or replaces an impaired physical or mental function, and the official assessment guide gives a long-handled sponge, a shower seat, a bath rail, button hooks, sock aids and a perching stool as examples. Name every aid you use, say what it does for you and what would happen without it. If you need an aid but do not have one, say that too, because each activity box on the form asks about help you need but do not get.
Describe the pattern rather than one day. The form asks you to tell them about both good and bad days for every difficulty, and under the rules a difficulty counts if it affects you on more than half of the days over the period the DWP looks at. That is why "about four days a week" or "most mornings" carries real weight. If your flares come in spells, say how often they come, how long they last and what you can and cannot do in between.
Write it down, because it matters. The official assessment guide says pain, fatigue and breathlessness should be considered when deciding whether you can repeat an activity, and gives the example of someone left so exhausted by one task that they cannot prepare their lunch afterwards. If a shower means you have to lie down for an hour, or cooking one meal means you cannot cook again that day, say so. Being able to do something once is not the same as being able to do it repeatedly.
Yes. The DWP's PIP2 information booklet says that if you can answer for yourself but need someone to physically put your answers on the form, for example because of a physical impairment, you can still answer from your own point of view. Its own example is someone who cannot safely cut up ingredients or lift pans because of severe arthritis. You usually still need to sign the declaration yourself, unless the person helping is your appointee, deputy or attorney. The other exception is if you are too ill or disabled to sign.
Q14 asks how far you can walk using any aids you need, with boxes from not being able to stand and move at all, through less than 20 metres, 20 to 50 metres and 50 to 200 metres, up to more than 200 metres, plus a box for "it varies". Choose the distance you can manage safely, repeatedly and in a reasonable time, not the furthest you have ever pushed yourself; the form itself says 50 metres is about 5 buses parked end to end. Then use the box to explain where the pain starts, why you stop, how long you rest, whether a knee or hip has given way and how you feel afterwards. The PIP2 form planner has a walking distance helper for Q14.
These cards show one honest way a person with arthritis might describe a bad day, so you can see the level of detail and the plain wording that assessors are trained to look for. They are here to learn from, not to copy word for word. Your own answers should describe your joints, your aids and the way arthritis actually affects your day, because that is what makes an answer ring true and that is what the assessment is about. If a task is easier or harder for you than the example, say so in your own words. If you would rather not write them yourself, the PIP2 form filler writes all 12 answers from what you tell us about your conditions, aids and bad days, ready for you to check and copy.
Arthritis is a physical condition and does not usually affect talking, reading, mixing with people, managing money or planning a route in your head, so it is honest to put a cross in the No box for those unless there is a genuine link for you. Only claim a difficulty you really have, because an assessor will look for it to match the rest of your form and your medical records.
The idea to hold on to across all of it is reliability: safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly and in a reasonable time. If your grip fails the second time, if the stiffness stops you first thing, if a task takes you more than twice as long or if you can only manage by risking a fall, that belongs on the form. The DWP always makes the final decision, but describing your typical week accurately, bad days included, gives your form the strongest chance of being understood. When you have a draft, the free PIP answer checker shows what an assessor may find missing.
An example shows the shape of a good answer. FillMyPIP writes answers from your own conditions, medication, aids and bad days. See one activity of your own form written free at www.fillmypip.co.uk.
Guidance only, not legal or medical advice. Not affiliated with the DWP. Karol Slusarczyk t/a Benefits Expert, ICO registered (ICO:00014179042).
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