A worked example showing how each of the 12 PIP activities can be described for someone whose back pain stops them bending, standing and walking. 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.
Chronic back pain is hard to put on a form because the things it stops you doing are the things nobody thinks to describe. Bending and twisting go first, so reaching your own feet, washing your lower legs, picking something up off the floor and turning to look behind you all become painful or impossible. Then there is nerve pain, the burning or shooting sciatica that runs down a leg and can leave it weak or numb, and muscle spasm that seizes without warning and stops you mid-task. Many people also find that standing and sitting are as limited as walking, so the day becomes a cycle of shifting position and lying flat to take the pressure off.
None of that necessarily shows on a scan, and in a chair in an assessment room you may look perfectly well for the twenty minutes you can manage before you have to stand up. That is exactly why a careful description matters. 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, meaning no more than about twice as long as someone without your condition. Back pain fails those tests constantly. If you can put your socks on once by hooking your foot up and then cannot straighten for an hour, if you can walk to the gate but not back without stopping, if a task takes you three times as long, or if you can only manage on your better days, then you cannot reliably do it, and that is what your answers need to show.
The details that make this real on paper are specific ones: how far you can walk before you have to stop, how long you need before you could walk it again, how long you can stand and sit, how often you have to lie down, how long dressing takes you, what a spasm does to the rest of your day, and every aid you reach for, from a grabber and a long-handled shoehorn to a walking stick, a raised toilet seat or a shower seat. Fluctuating pain is judged on your worst and most common days, not your best. The example below does 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 how long you can stand at a worktop or hob before the pain forces you to stop, and whether you can bend to a low oven, cupboard or fridge at all. Mention any perching stool, trolley or lightweight pans you rely on, and the real safety risk of a spasm hitting while you are holding a knife or a hot pan. Explain that on bad days you cannot cook a meal repeatedly or in a reasonable time, so you fall back on something you do not have to stand up for.
Back pain does not usually touch the physical act of eating, so cutting food up, lifting it to your mouth and swallowing are often fine and this question can be left alone. What would count is needing food cut up for you because gripping and pressing down hurts, dropping cutlery when an arm or a leg goes weak, or needing prompting to eat because pain and medication have taken your appetite away. If none of that is true for you, say so honestly and keep the fact that you cannot sit at a table for long under moving around instead.
Cover the medication you take for pain and nerve symptoms, any patches or injections, and whether drowsiness or a foggy head means you need a dosette box, alarms or someone reminding you. If a professional has given you physiotherapy or stretches to do at home, say how long they take, how often you manage them and who has to help you get into position. Describe what would go wrong without that support rather than only listing what you have been prescribed.
Explain that you cannot bend or twist to wash your lower legs, feet and back, and whether getting in and out of a bath is unsafe or impossible for you. Mention every aid and adaptation, such as a shower seat, grab rails, a long-handled sponge or a walk-in shower, and any part of your body that goes unwashed because you cannot reach it. Say how long washing takes, how unsteady you are on a wet floor, and what happens on the mornings you cannot manage it at all.
Describe how painful and slow it is to lower yourself onto and rise from a normal toilet, and whether your leg gives way or your back spasms as you do it. Mention aids such as a raised toilet seat, grab rails or a bottom wiper, and explain that twisting to clean yourself is the part you cannot do without them. Note how much longer it takes you and whether you can manage safely first thing in the morning when you are at your stiffest.
Back pain does not usually change speech, hearing or understanding, so most people can leave this one alone. It would count if strong painkillers leave you so drowsy or muddled that you lose the thread of what is said and people have to repeat themselves, or if the pain stops you concentrating long enough to follow a conversation. Only claim it if it is genuinely there, because an honest answer here makes the activities you do struggle with more believable.
This question is about taking written information in rather than about eyesight, and ordinary glasses are not counted as an aid. Back pain itself does not affect reading, but if pain or strong medication means you go over the same paragraph again and again and still could not say what it said, or you cannot hold a position long enough to get through a letter, that is worth describing. If you can read your post and understand it without help, leave this one alone.
This activity is about being able to be around people and behave appropriately with them, not about how often you get out. Seeing fewer people because getting there hurts is not a difficulty mixing, and belongs under moving around or planning a journey instead. It would count if constant pain has left you with anxiety or low mood that makes you avoid company, or you need someone you trust with you before you can face it, so describe that if it is true and leave the question alone if it is not.
Back pain does not affect the sums themselves, so if you still handle your own bills and budgeting, leave this one alone. What can count is pain or strong medication making you lose track of what has been paid, or missing payments because you could not face the post, so that someone else now checks things over for you. Describe what has actually gone wrong rather than saying money is hard in general.
This activity is about working out and following a route, not about how far you can walk, so the physical side of getting anywhere belongs under moving around. It would count if you cannot plan a journey or get yourself home because of overwhelming distress at leaving the house, or if medication leaves you too muddled to follow an unfamiliar route on your own. If you can plan and follow a route and going out does not distress you, leave this one alone and put your walking difficulty where it belongs.
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 chronic back pain; 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 chronic back pain might describe their bad days, 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 back, your worst and most common days, the distance you really manage, the aids you actually use and the help you either get or go without, because that is what the assessment is about and that is what makes an answer ring true.
Back pain is a physical condition and does not usually change talking, reading, mixing with people or managing money, so being honest about the activities it does not reach makes the difficulties you do describe more believable. 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 back pain in your own words and we will write one full activity for you, free, before you pay anything.
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