A worked example showing how each of the 12 PIP activities can be described for someone with sight loss. 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.
Sight loss covers a lot of ground, from macular degeneration and glaucoma to diabetic retinopathy, retinitis pigmentosa and conditions people have had from birth, and no two people lose the same part of their vision. What the form struggles with is that sight loss is not mainly about pain or tiredness. It is about information you cannot get at and hazards you cannot see coming, and neither of those sounds like a "difficulty" until you spell it out. The most common mistake is to write "I am registered blind" or "my vision is very poor" and stop there. That gives an assessor a label, not a day. The form is asking what you can and cannot actually do, task by task, and what has to happen instead.
Two details about aids matter a great deal here and are easy to get wrong. For the reading question, ordinary spectacles and contact lenses do not count as an aid, so saying you wear glasses adds nothing at all to your answer. A magnifier does count, so what matters is what a magnifier really lets you do: whether it gets you through a whole letter or only picks out a large heading, how long that takes, and what you still miss or get wrong. For planning and following a journey, the form asks specifically about a long cane or an assistance dog, so name the one you use and, just as importantly, say what it cannot do for you. A cane finds a kerb. It does not read a bus number or warn you that a pavement has been dug up since you last walked it.
Then there are the reliability rules, which is where most sight loss answers are 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. Sight loss usually fails on safety and on standard rather than on effort. Pouring boiling water when you cannot see the level, crossing a road when you cannot see the far kerb, taking a tablet from a box you cannot read: those are safety points and they need to be written as such, with the near misses that have already happened. Acceptable standard covers the information you get wrong or miss altogether, such as reading the wrong line on a bill or not realising a letter needed a reply. Reasonable time matters when one page takes you twenty minutes with a magnifier and you are still not sure what it said.
Light is worth a line of its own, because many people with sight loss have far more useful vision on a bright, even day than in low light, at dusk or in strong glare, and a wet winter evening can stop a journey that would be manageable at noon. If that is you, say how much of your week falls on the bad side of it, because a condition that varies is judged on your worst and most common days rather than your best.Not every one of the 12 activities will apply to you, and leaving one alone is the honest answer, because an honest form is a stronger form. The DWP always makes the final decision, but describing your real 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 what you cannot see rather than simply saying you cannot cook: the dials and the hob rings, the flame, hot pans and oil, whether the knife is still where you left it, and whether food is raw, burnt or off. Say that you cannot read cooking instructions, use-by dates or the settings on a microwave, and mention the aids you rely on, such as tactile bump markers on the cooker, a liquid level indicator, a talking timer or someone taking over. Include any burns, cuts or near misses that have actually happened, because this activity turns on whether you can do the whole task safely and to an acceptable standard on your own.
This question is about the act of taking food and drink, so being told what is on the plate and where it is does not by itself make it a difficulty, and the trouble in the kitchen belongs at the preparing food question. What can count is needing someone to cut food up for you because you cannot see well enough to use a knife safely, spilling or knocking over drinks so that meals have to be supervised, or needing prompting because you cannot see what is in front of you at all. If eating and drinking themselves are fine once a plate is there, answer honestly and leave this one alone.
Explain that you cannot read the name on a box, the dose on a label or the printed leaflet inside, so you cannot check for yourself that you are taking the right tablet at the right time. Mention who sets your medication up and what you depend on, such as a dosette box someone else fills, tactile markers on bottles, large print labels or a talking reminder, and say what has gone wrong when that support was not there. If you cannot read a blood glucose meter, a blood pressure display, eye drop bottles or a chart you are meant to keep, say so and say who does it instead.
Put the safety side plainly: not being able to see the water level, judge the temperature, or see a wet floor or the edge of the bath, along with any grab rail, bath board or shower seat you use to get in and out safely. Explain that you cannot tell shampoo from conditioner, or cream from cleaning fluid, unless somebody labels them for you, and that you cannot see whether you have washed properly or missed a patch. Say whether someone has to check you afterwards or stay within earshot in case you fall.
This one covers getting on and off the toilet, cleaning yourself afterwards and controlling your bladder and bowel, and sight loss often does not reach any of it. Finding a toilet in an unfamiliar building is a different problem and does not belong here, so only claim a difficulty if you genuinely need help with the task itself, such as not being able to see to clean yourself properly or needing someone to guide you to and from the bathroom safely. If it is not a difficulty for you, answer honestly and leave this one alone.
Explain that you cannot tell colours, patterns or the right way round, so clothes go on inside out, odd or stained without you knowing, and say who lays them out or checks you before you leave the house. Mention any system you depend on, such as tactile labels, marked hangers or keeping whole outfits together, and what happens on the days when nobody is there to check. Cover the fastenings you cannot see to line up, such as small buttons, hooks or a zip, and how much longer dressing takes you than it should.
This question is about spoken information only, so anything you cannot see belongs at the reading question rather than here. What can count is a hearing loss alongside your sight loss, which makes following speech far harder when you cannot see a face or lipread, or needing someone with you to take in what you are told at an appointment and go over it with you afterwards. If your speech and your hearing are unaffected and you can make yourself understood, answer honestly and leave this one alone.
If sight loss does not change how you get on with people, be honest and say so. Where it does, describe exactly what you miss: not seeing faces, expressions or gestures, not knowing who has walked into the room or whether someone is speaking to you, and being left out of a conversation because of it. Mention anyone who has to tell you who is there or come with you, and any anxiety about being among people you cannot see in a busy or unfamiliar place.
Explain that you cannot read a statement, a bill, a price label, a card machine screen or the figures on a receipt, so you cannot check for yourself what has gone out of your account or what you have been charged. Say who reads your statements and helps with bills and budgeting, and what has genuinely gone wrong, such as a missed payment, being short-changed or a direct debit you knew nothing about. Draw the distinction between understanding money, which may be perfectly fine, and being able to see the information you need, because the second one is the difficulty here.
Be honest that sight loss does not usually stop you standing and walking, and give the distance you can genuinely manage. Then deal with safety if it applies: whether you can only cover that distance with your cane or your dog, whether you have to go slowly and stop at every kerb, step or obstacle, and whether someone needs to be with you outdoors. Remember that following a route belongs at the journeys question, so keep this one to standing and moving, and let the two answers back each other up rather than repeat each other.
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 sight loss; 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 sight loss might describe an ordinary 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 sight: which part of your vision you have lost, what a magnifier actually lets you read and what it does not, the routes you can and cannot manage, the aid you use, 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.
Not every one of the 12 activities will apply to you. Being honest about what sight loss does not change makes the difficulties you do describe far more believable, so there is no need to stretch every question. The strongest sight loss answers are specific and concrete: the letter you could not read, the appointment you missed, the pole you walked into, the person who has to come with you. 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 sight loss in your own words and we will write one full activity for you, free, before you pay anything.
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