How to describe your difficulties

Why describing difficulties clearly matters

Disability benefits like PIP, DLA and Attendance Allowance are decided on how a condition affects everyday activities, not on the diagnosis. So it helps a great deal when forms and evidence describe those effects clearly and honestly. This page explains general principles. It does not write your form or tell you what to claim.

Describe a typical day, and a bad day

It often helps to think through a normal day from waking to sleeping, and to describe what is difficult at each step — getting washed and dressed, preparing food, moving around, dealing with people. Then do the same for a bad day, because conditions that vary should be described across good and bad days, not just at their best.

Use the four “reliability” questions

For each activity, it can help to ask whether you can do it:

• Safely — without risk of harm to yourself or others.
• To an acceptable standard — properly, not just barely.
• Repeatedly — as often as needed through the day, not just once.
• In a reasonable time — not much slower than someone without the condition.

If the answer to any of these is no, that difficulty is worth describing. See PIP reliability rules.

Be specific and give examples

General statements like “I struggle to cook” tell a decision maker less than a specific example: what exactly goes wrong, how often, what help or aids are needed, and what happens if no help is available. Concrete examples — “I have dropped pans because of weakness in my hands, so someone supervises me at the cooker” — paint a clearer picture.

Mention help, aids and prompting

Needing help counts, even if a task can eventually be done. This includes physical help from another person, needing to be reminded or encouraged (prompting), needing someone present for safety (supervision), and using aids or appliances. It all helps describe the real level of difficulty.

What this website cannot do

This page explains general principles only. It cannot fill in a form for you, tell you what to write about your own case, or say whether you will qualify. For the official forms and process, use GOV.UK.

Next steps

• See the evidence checklist.
• Read about medical evidence and diary evidence.
• Understand the daily living and mobility activities.
• Official source: GOV.UK — how to claim.