A worked example showing how each of the 12 PIP activities can be described for someone with COPD. 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.
COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, covers emphysema and chronic bronchitis, and the difficulty it causes is almost invisible while you are sitting still. Sitting in a chair answering questions you may look and sound reasonably well. The moment you stand up, walk a few steps, bend down or lift your arms above your head, you run out of air, and that is the part the form has to capture. This is why so many COPD claims are underdescribed: people write "I get short of breath" and leave it there, when what an assessor needs to know is how many metres, how many minutes of recovery, and what you simply stop doing as a result.
The reliability rules are where a COPD 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. Breathlessness on exertion hits three of those four directly. You stop and hang on to a wall until you can breathe again, so it is not done in a reasonable time. You have to leave your hair unwashed or your feet unreached, so it is not done to an acceptable standard. Above all, doing something once and then needing to sit down for twenty minutes is not the same as being able to do it again, and "repeatedly" is the word that carries the most weight for a breathing condition.
COPD also flares. Chest infections and exacerbations can take you from managing to housebound for a week or more at a time, several times a year, and the winter months are usually far worse than the summer. The DWP looks at your worst and most common days, not your best, so the picture has to include those weeks. Writing down the distance you manage on an ordinary day, how long you need to recover, how often the flare-ups come, the inhalers, spacer, nebuliser or home oxygen you depend on, and the tasks you have handed over to somebody else is what turns "short of breath" into something an assessor can weigh. 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 how standing at the worktop and the hob leaves you breathless, and how steam off boiling pans makes your chest worse in a small kitchen. Mention any perching stool you sit on, the fact that carrying a full pan of water is unsafe when you are gasping, and whether you have given up cooking properly in favour of a microwave. Explain that on bad days you cannot do it repeatedly or in a reasonable time and go without a hot meal.
Explain that you cannot chew, swallow and breathe at the same time, so you have to put your cutlery down and rest partway through a meal. Mention that food goes cold before you finish, that you eat far smaller amounts than you should, and any weight loss your doctor has noted. Keep it to the act of eating and drinking rather than the cooking, and say whether you can finish a meal in a reasonable time.
List everything you actually do: preventer and reliever inhalers, a spacer, a nebuliser, home oxygen and how many hours a day you are on it, and any rescue pack of steroids and antibiotics you keep at home. Say who sets it up, cleans it or reminds you, and how long the treatments take you each week, because the form asks about time spent on therapy. Mention checking your oxygen levels or breathing exercises if a professional has told you to do them.
Describe arriving at the toilet already breathless from walking there, and how bending and straining leaves you fighting for air so you have to sit and recover before you can get up. Mention any raised seat, grab rail or bottom wiper you use, and whether a coughing fit makes you leak, which is common with a chronic cough and worth stating plainly. Explain how much longer the whole thing takes you than it should.
Explain that bending forward to reach socks, shoes and underwear squeezes your chest so you cannot breathe, and that pulling a jumper over your head means holding your arms up long enough to leave you gasping. Mention that you sit on the bed to dress, take rests partway through, and use aids such as a long-handled shoehorn or a sock aid, or need someone to finish the job. Say how long dressing really takes you and what you have stopped wearing because of it.
Describe how breathlessness breaks your sentences up, so you can only get a few words out before you have to stop for air and people struggle to follow you. Mention a weak or quiet voice, how much harder this is on the telephone or after you have walked anywhere, and how often you are asked to repeat yourself. Be clear that this is about being understood when you speak, not about your hearing or your understanding.
COPD does not affect the eyes, and ordinary glasses are not counted as an aid, so if you can read your post and take it in, leave this one alone. What would count is low oxygen levels or exhaustion leaving you too muddled to hold on to what you have read, or needing someone to go through appointment letters and forms with you because the meaning does not stay with you. Name what has actually been missed rather than claiming a general difficulty.
This activity is about being able to be around people and behave appropriately, not about how much you get out. Seeing less of your friends because you cannot walk or breathe well enough to get there belongs under moving around or planning a journey instead. It would count if breathlessness has left you panicky in company, or you avoid people because you are embarrassed by the coughing or by not being able to finish a sentence, so describe that if it is true for you.
Breathlessness does not affect the sums themselves, so if you still handle your own bills, budgeting and shopping, leave this one alone. What can count is being too breathless to sort things out on the telephone, or low oxygen and tiredness making you lose track of what has been paid, so that somebody else has taken money matters over for you. If that has genuinely happened, say who does it now and why it changed.
This activity is about working out and following a route, not about how far you can walk, so your breathing difficulty belongs under moving around. If you can plan a journey and leaving the house does not distress you, leave this one alone. It would count if you cannot go out on your own because you are frightened of being caught short of breath with nobody there, or if low oxygen leaves you confused part way along an unfamiliar route.
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 COPD; 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 COPD might describe an ordinary bad day, 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 COPD, your worst and most common days, the inhalers, nebuliser or oxygen you actually use and the help you actually need or go without, because that is what the assessment is about and that is what makes an answer ring true.
Two habits will improve almost any COPD answer. Put numbers in wherever you honestly can, because "twenty to fifty metres, then five minutes leaning on a wall" tells an assessor far more than "not very far", and say what happens when you try the same thing a second time. Being honest about what COPD 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 COPD in your own words and we will write one full activity for you, free, before you pay anything.
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