Most people approach a Personal Independence Payment claim expecting to be asked what is wrong with them. The form does ask, briefly. But the decision is not made on the diagnosis — it is made on a set of numbered statements about what you can and cannot do, and how reliably you can do it.
Understanding that difference is the single most useful thing you can do before you start writing.
The claim is scored, not judged
PIP has two parts, scored separately: daily living and mobility. Each contains a list of activities, and each activity has a series of descriptors — short statements describing a level of difficulty, with points attached.
Daily living covers things like preparing food, washing and bathing, dressing, managing medication, reading, communicating, and managing money. Mobility covers planning and following a journey, and moving around.
You are not asked to describe your condition. You are asked, in effect, which statement in each list best describes you. The points from the statements that apply are added up, and the total for each part determines whether an award is made and at which rate.
This is why two people with the same condition can receive very different decisions. The condition is not what is being measured.
"Reliably" is doing a lot of work
Buried in the regulations is a word that changes how every question should be read. To count as being able to do an activity, you must be able to do it:
- safely — without risk of harm to yourself or anyone else
- to an acceptable standard
- repeatedly — as often as you reasonably need to
- in a reasonable time — no more than roughly twice as long as someone without your condition would take
If you can make a meal but only by sitting down halfway through, or only once and not again the same day, or only by risking a burn, then "I can cook" is not the whole answer. The form has no box for this. It has to come out in how you describe the activity.
Good days, bad days
The other rule people miss: where your ability varies, the descriptor that applies is the one that fits the majority of days over a twelve-month period. Not your best day. Not the day you happened to fill in the form.
If your condition fluctuates, saying so is not a complication to be smoothed over — it is directly relevant to how the claim is scored. A rough proportion ("I can manage this perhaps two days in seven") is far more useful than "sometimes".
Detail beats emphasis
The most common weakness in a claim is not understatement of severity. It is absence of detail.
"I struggle to wash" tells an assessor almost nothing. What does struggling look like? Do you need to sit? Do you need someone in the house in case you fall? Do you wash less often than you would like because the effort is too much? How long does it take? What happens afterwards — do you need to rest?
Specific, ordinary, slightly tedious detail is what allows someone who has never met you to picture the activity. Adjectives do not do that work. Examples do.
Evidence supports, it does not replace
Supporting evidence matters, but it is worth being realistic about what it does. A letter confirming a diagnosis confirms a diagnosis. It usually says nothing about whether you can prepare a meal safely.
The most useful evidence describes function: an occupational therapy assessment, a physiotherapy report, notes from a community mental health team, a care plan, or a letter from someone who genuinely sees you day to day. If you keep a diary of difficult days, that can help too.
Send what supports what you have written. Do not delay the claim indefinitely waiting for a document that may never arrive.
Before you send it
A short checklist that catches most problems:
- Have you answered for a typical day, not your best one?
- Have you said how long things take, and what happens afterwards?
- Have you covered safety — falls, burns, forgetting medication?
- Is anything you have written contradicted elsewhere in the form?
- Would someone who has never met you be able to picture your day?
That last one is the real test.
Where we come in
We help people prepare PIP claims: going through the descriptors together, working out which are genuinely relevant, putting difficulties into words that are accurate and consistent, and organising the evidence that supports them.
What we cannot do — and what nobody honestly can — is guarantee an outcome. The decision is made by the Department for Work and Pensions. What is within anyone's control is that the claim in front of them is complete, accurate and clear.