A worked example showing how each of the 12 PIP activities can be described for someone with severe depression. 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.
Depression is one of the hardest conditions to put on a form, because nothing about it shows on the outside and nothing about it turns up on a test. What it takes away is the drive to do anything at all. Interest and pleasure go first, so nothing feels worth the effort, and then the ordinary things stop happening: the cooking, the washing, the clean clothes, the post left on the mat. Many people spend most of the day in bed, and the mornings are the worst part, so the hours when most people get themselves going are the hours when getting up at all feels impossible.
The trap on the form is the question people ask themselves: could I do it if I really had to? Almost everyone answers yes, ticks "No" and loses the point entirely. That is not the test. 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. If a meal only gets cooked when somebody stands over you, if you wash once and then not again for four days, if a small task swallows the whole day because you keep going back to bed, then you cannot do that thing reliably, and that is what your answers need to show.
Two words carry most of the weight for depression: motivation and prompting. If a task only happens because another person reminds you, encourages you and keeps you at it, that is a difficulty the rules recognise, and if there is nobody to do that and you simply go without, it counts for more still. Writing down how many days a week you cannot manage each thing, how long you spend in bed, what has been left undone, and the help you need but do not get is what turns a vague picture into one an assessor can understand. A condition that varies is judged on your worst and most common days, not on the one afternoon you coped. 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.
Explain that depression has taken your appetite and any interest in food, so meals get skipped unless someone reminds you to eat and stays with you. Mention how many days you eat almost nothing, any weight you have lost, and who has to prompt you. Keep this one about needing to be reminded to take food, not about whether you can hold a fork.
Describe how low motivation and poor concentration mean doses get missed, taken late or taken twice, and mention anything you depend on such as a pill organiser, phone alarms or someone checking the box for you. Say what happens on the days nobody checks. It also helps to explain how hard it is to keep track of your own mood, or to ring anyone for help, when you are at your lowest.
Most people with depression can get on and off the toilet and clean themselves without help, and saying so where it is true keeps the rest of your form credible. What can count is needing to be reminded or pushed to go at all, or not managing to keep yourself clean afterwards on the days you cannot get out of bed. Only put that down if it genuinely happens to you.
Describe staying in the same clothes for days, or staying in nightwear from one morning to the next because getting dressed feels pointless. Mention the encouragement you need before you will change at all, and how often nobody is there to give it. Make clear this is about not being able to get yourself dressed reliably, rather than trouble with buttons and zips.
Depression does not usually stop you speaking or hearing, and not wanting to talk to anyone belongs under mixing with other people rather than here. What can count is losing the thread of what is being said, needing things repeated, or being unable to take in an appointment or an instruction because your concentration has gone. If you can hold a conversation and understand what is said to you, leave this one alone.
Explain that depression has wrecked your concentration, so you read the same paragraph of a letter over and over and still take nothing in. Mention needing someone to go through important post with you, and any letters that have sat unopened for weeks. Keep it about taking in and understanding written information, not about your eyesight.
Describe how far you have withdrawn: not answering the door or the phone, cancelling whatever gets arranged, going weeks without seeing anyone. Mention whether you can only face company when a person you trust is there, and what happens when you have to face people on your own. Say honestly how being around people leaves you afterwards and how long you need to recover.
Explain that post goes unopened, bills go unpaid and even straightforward decisions about money feel beyond you when your mood is at its worst. Mention anyone who has to sit with you to open letters, check your account or sort a payment, and any arrears that have built up because you could not face it. Make clear whether you could manage a complex money decision on your own on most days.
Explain that you can work out a route, but that getting out of the front door is what does not happen. Describe how many days you do not go out at all, whether someone has to come and collect you before a journey happens, and how you feel when you have to travel on your own. Focus on what stops you setting off, not on how far you can physically walk.
This activity is only about physical walking, so if your legs are fine, give your honest walking distance and say that your depression does not affect you that way. What keeps you indoors belongs under planning and following a journey instead. Only claim a difficulty here if something genuinely limits the distance, such as another condition, or medication that leaves you so unsteady or so slowed down that you have to stop and rest.
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 depression; 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 depression might describe their worst 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 depression, your worst and most common days, who prompts you and how, and the times you have gone without because nobody was there, because that is what the assessment is about and that is what makes an answer ring true.
Being honest about what depression 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 depression in your own words and we will write one full activity for you, free, before you pay anything.
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