A worked example showing how each of the 12 PIP activities can be described for someone with severe asthma. 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 an activity scores.
Severe asthma is one of the hardest conditions to put on a form, because between attacks you can look and sound perfectly well. It comes and goes, it is set off by things other people never notice, and it can be reversed within minutes by a reliever inhaler. That reversibility is exactly why so many asthma answers come out too thin. People write "I use my inhaler and I am fine again" and stop there, when what an assessor needs to know is what sets an attack off, how often that happens, what you cannot do while it is happening, and how long you are out of action afterwards.
Start by naming the triggers, because they are the reason your day is unpredictable. Cold air, damp weather, dust, aerosols and perfume, traffic fumes, cigarette smoke, cleaning products, steam from a bathroom or a boiling pan, a chest infection, and any real exertion can each tip you over. Write down which ones affect you and what happens when you meet them, because a condition that flares on contact needs different words from one that simply gets a little worse each year. It is worth being just as clear about the treatments you depend on to keep it under control: the preventer inhaler morning and night, the spacer, the reliever you carry everywhere, a nebuliser at home, a peak flow meter and chart, and a rescue pack of steroid tablets waiting in the cupboard for the next bad spell.
Then apply the reliability rules, because they are where an asthma answer is won or lost. An activity only counts as something you can do if you can do it safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly and in a reasonable time. Being able to do something on a calm, mild, trigger-free morning is not the test. If you have to stop partway and wait for a reliever inhaler to work, it is not done in a reasonable time. If pushing on brings on a full attack that leaves you flattened for days, or needing a hospital admission, then it is not done safely and certainly not repeatedly. If an attack frightens you so much that you need somebody there before you will attempt something, say so. The example below does exactly that, activity by activity. The DWP always makes the final decision, but describing your day accurately gives your form the strongest chance of being understood.
What to cover for each one. Your paid form writes the full answers for you.
Describe the things in a kitchen that set your chest off: steam from boiling pans, smoke and fumes from frying, the heat when you open an oven door, and the sprays and cleaning products afterwards. Mention having to leave a window open or walk out of the room partway through, needing your reliever inhaler before you can finish, and whether you have given up cooking properly for a microwave. Say plainly how often you go without a hot meal because you cannot stay on your feet in there.
This question is only about getting food to your mouth and swallowing once a meal is in front of you, so the kitchen belongs under preparing food. What can count is being too breathless to sit and finish a meal, having to put your knife and fork down and use your reliever partway through, or a coughing fit that makes you bring food back or choke. If you can feed yourself and swallow without help, say so honestly and leave this one alone.
Explain that hot steam and damp air tighten your chest within seconds, so a normal shower or bath is a trigger in itself, and that a cold bathroom in winter is just as bad. Mention holding your arms above your head to wash your hair, bending to reach your feet, any shower stool you sit on, and the door or window you have to leave open. Describe how long a wash takes with the stops you need, and which parts get missed or skipped altogether during a bad spell.
Describe arriving at the toilet already breathless after walking there during a bad spell, and having to sit and recover before you can get up again. Mention any grab rail or raised seat you use, and be straightforward about leaking when a coughing fit takes hold, which is common and often left out of forms. Say how much longer the whole thing takes you when your chest is bad compared with a settled day.
Explain that bending down for socks, shoes and underwear squeezes your chest so you cannot get air in, and that pulling a jumper over your head means holding your arms up long enough to leave you gasping. Mention sitting on the bed to dress, the rests you take partway through, and any long-handled shoehorn or sock aid you use, or the help you need from somebody else. Note how much longer it takes on a bad morning and what you have stopped wearing because of it.
Describe how an attack breaks your speech up, so you can only manage a few words between breaths and people cannot follow you, and mention that not being able to speak in full sentences is one of the signs you have been told to watch for. Cover a hoarse or weak voice from your inhaled steroids, a cough that interrupts you, and how much harder the telephone is. Keep this to being understood when you speak rather than to your hearing or your understanding.
Asthma does not affect your eyesight or your understanding of what you read, so most people can leave this one alone. What can count is a bad spell where being short of oxygen, or a course of steroid tablets, leaves you too muddled to take a letter in and somebody has to read it with you, or another condition that affects your sight. If you can read your post and the labels on your inhalers, answer honestly that this is not affected.
This activity is about being able to be around people rather than about getting to them, so seeing fewer friends because of smoke, perfume or the journey belongs elsewhere on the form. What can count is real anxiety after a frightening attack, so you will not face company unless somebody you trust is nearby, or such distress at being seen fighting for breath that you avoid people altogether. If you are comfortable in company, leave this one alone.
Asthma does not change your ability to work out prices, pay bills or budget, so this is usually left alone. What can count is a long bad spell, or a course of steroid tablets, leaving you too exhausted or muddled to keep on top of the money, so somebody else has had to take it over for a while. If your budgeting is genuinely fine, do not stretch this one to fill it.
This question is not about how far you can walk, so keep the physical side under moving around. Use it for the fear of being caught out by an attack away from home, if that is real for you: explain whether you need somebody with you before you will set off, whether you turn back or cancel because of cold air, fumes or crowds, and whether anyone has to be able to reach you. Describe how often that stops a journey happening at all.
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 asthma; yours is written for you. £99.99 one-off.
This is a worked example, not a script. It shows one honest way a person with severe asthma might describe an ordinary bad spell, so you can see the level of detail and the plain wording that assessors are trained to look for. Please do not copy it word for word. Your own answers should reflect your asthma: your own triggers, how often attacks come, what your inhalers, spacer, nebuliser and peak flow readings actually look like, any hospital admissions, and the help you really get or go without. That is what the assessment is about and it is what makes an answer ring true.
Two habits will improve almost any asthma answer. Put numbers in wherever you honestly can, because "fifty to two hundred metres, then five minutes waiting for my inhaler to work" tells an assessor far more than "not very far", and always say what happens when you try the same thing a second time, since that is where a condition that comes and goes is usually misread. Being honest about what asthma does not change makes the difficulties you do describe more believable, so there is no need to stretch every question. If you would rather start from your own words, tell us about your health and we will write your answers from your own conditions, in the same first-person style, ready for you to read, edit and copy onto your PIP2 claim form or AR1 review form.
Tell us about your asthma in your own words and we will write one full activity for you, free, before you pay anything.
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