A worked example covering all 12 PIP activities for someone with multiple sclerosis (MS): two written out in full, in the first person and in the plain wording assessors look for, and the rest with what your own answer needs to cover. Every one is anchored on the reliability factors that decide how an activity scores.
MS is one of the hardest conditions to fit into a form, because the form asks what you can do and MS answers differently depending on the hour. Damaged nerve signals between the brain and the body can produce almost any symptom: legs that drag or give way, foot drop that catches your toes on the ground, poor balance, numb or clumsy hands, blurred or double vision, bladder urgency with barely any warning, cognitive fog that swallows names and instructions, and the deep MS fatigue that is nothing like ordinary tiredness and that no amount of sleep repays. Heat makes all of it worse, so a warm room, a hot shower or a summer afternoon can take away function you had an hour earlier.
The second difficulty is the pattern. Many people have relapses lasting weeks and then a partial recovery, so a form filled in during a good spell can read like a form from a different person. The rules are clear that your best hour 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 you can walk to the gate but not back, if a wash leaves you too weak to stand, if a task takes three times as long as it should, or if you can only manage it on two days in five, then you cannot do it reliably, and that is what your answers need to show.
So write about your worst and most common days, and say how often those days come. Put numbers on it where you can: how many metres, how many minutes, how many times a week, how long you need to recover afterwards. Describe what happens after the activity as well as during it, because with MS the cost often arrives later. If cognitive fog affects your memory and concentration, say so plainly rather than calling yourself a bit forgetful, and if your symptoms change between morning and afternoon, put that in writing too, because an assessor who only hears about your best hour will picture your best hour. The two answers below do exactly that. 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 numb or weak hands make peeling, chopping and lifting a hot pan unsafe, and mention any perching stool, lightweight pans or adapted board you rely on. Explain that standing over a hot hob brings on your heat sensitivity, so your legs and your vision go before the meal is finished. Say whether you could manage a simple cooked meal safely and in a reasonable time on your worst and most common days.
This one is only about getting food to your mouth, chewing and swallowing it, so the cooking side stays at question three. What can count with MS is a tremor or numb, clumsy hands that make you drop cutlery or need a two-handed cup, and any swallowing trouble that makes you cough on drinks or take far longer over a plate of food. Fatigue that leaves you too exhausted to finish a meal belongs here too. If a meal in front of you is genuinely fine, leave this one alone.
Explain what your treatment actually involves, whether that is injections, infusions, tablets or steroids during a relapse, and who has to help you with it. Describe how cognitive fog makes you lose track of doses and appointments even with a dosette box and phone alarms, and what has gone wrong when a dose was missed or doubled. Mention any physiotherapy or exercises you have been told to do at home and how much time they take each week.
Describe your balance in the shower and the risk of falling getting in and out, and mention any shower seat, board or grab rails you need. Heat sensitivity belongs here too: explain if a warm shower leaves you weak, dizzy or unable to see properly afterwards, because that is a safety point rather than a preference. Say how long a wash takes on a bad day and what gets missed because you cannot reach or stay standing.
Focus on socks, shoes and anything you have to bend down for, since foot drop and poor balance make reaching your feet unsafe, and mention aids such as a sock aid, long-handled shoehorn or Velcro fastenings. Explain how numb, clumsy hands during a relapse turn buttons and zips into a long struggle. Note how much longer dressing takes than it should and whether someone has to finish the job on your worst days.
This covers speech, hearing and taking in what people say to you, and it is separate from reading. What can count with MS is speech that slurs or slows when you are tired or in a relapse, losing the word you were reaching for part way through a sentence, or needing someone at appointments because complicated information will not stay in your head. Say when it happens and who has to step in and repeat things for you. If your speech and your understanding are genuinely fine, leave this one alone.
Separate the two problems if you have both: blurred or double vision from your eyes, and cognitive fog that means the words go in but nothing stays. Describe reading the same paragraph several times and still losing the sense of it, and say who reads important letters through with you. Keep it on taking in and holding on to written information rather than only on eyesight.
This asks how you cope with being around people, not whether you can physically get to them, which belongs under moving around. What can count with MS is dreading company because your speech or your bladder might let you down, needing someone with you before you will face a social situation at all, or the low mood and anxiety that can follow a diagnosis and make you turn people away. Being too tired for company is not quite the same thing, so say what actually stops you. If you are comfortable with people once you are there, leave this one alone.
Explain how cognitive fog affects keeping track of bills, direct debits and everyday sums, and mention anything that has actually gone wrong, such as a missed payment or paying the same bill twice. Describe who checks your account or works through bigger decisions with you, and what would happen without them. Make clear that this shifts through the day and gets worse the more tired you are.
Keep this one about planning and following a route, not about how far you can walk, which belongs under moving around. Describe how cognitive fog makes you lose your place on a route, miss a stop or forget where you left the car, and whether you need someone with you on an unfamiliar journey. Mention any anxiety about your legs failing or a bladder accident in public, and how often that stops you setting out 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 multiple sclerosis; 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 MS might describe their worst and most common 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 MS: your relapses and how long they last, the distance you can actually manage and what it costs you afterwards, the heat that undoes you, the aids you really use and the help you need or go without. That is what the assessment is about and it is what makes an answer ring true.
Some of the activities will not apply to you at all, and that is fine. Being honest about what MS does not change makes the difficulties you do describe more believable, so there is no need to stretch every question. One last thing worth writing down: if your symptoms vary from hour to hour, say so in the answer itself, along with how much of the week the bad hours take up. 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 MS in your own words and we will write one full activity for you, free, before you pay anything.
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