PIP Activity 2: Taking nutrition (eating, drinking and prompting points)

Many claimants mix up Activity 1 (Preparing food) and Activity 2 (Taking nutrition) on the PIP2 questionnaire. Keeping the two activities separate makes your answers much clearer:

• Activity 1 (Preparing food): Covers peeling, chopping, cooking on a hob, and serving a meal onto a plate.
• Activity 2 (Taking nutrition): Starts once cooked food and drink are already in front of you. Under Part 2 of Schedule 1 of the PIP Regulations, taking nutrition means cutting food into pieces, conveying food and drink to your mouth, and chewing and swallowing (or taking nutrition through a therapeutic feeding tube).

Note that Activity 2 measures the act of eating and drinking, not the nutritional quality of your diet. For example, eating cold snacks because you are too fatigued to cook belongs under Activity 1, whereas skipping meals entirely unless someone prompts you to eat, needing someone to cut up meat on your plate, or choking when swallowing belongs under Activity 2.

Below is the complete statutory points table for Activity 2 under Schedule 1, Part 2 of the Social Security (Personal Independence Payment) Regulations 2013:

Descriptor 2b: Aids, supervision, or help cutting up food (2 points)

• 2b(i) Aids or appliances: You need adapted, weighted, or angled cutlery, a plate guard, a non-slip mat, or a two-handled / lidded beaker because of hand tremors, arthritis, weak grip, or poor coordination.
• 2b(ii) Supervision: Another person must stay with you while you eat or drink to watch for choking, aspiration, or seizures (for example, due to neurological dysphagia, Parkinson's disease, MS, stroke, or epilepsy).
• 2b(iii) Assistance cutting up food: Grip weakness, joint pain, one-handed function, or visual impairment means someone else has to cut solid food into bite-sized pieces on your plate before you eat.

Descriptor 2d: Prompting to take nutrition (4 points)

• Another person must remind, encourage, or coax you to eat and drink on more than 50% of days because severe depression, eating disorders, autism / sensory aversion (ARFID), dementia, or severe cognitive fatigue causes you to miss meals or stop eating without active prompting.

Descriptors 2c and 2e: Enteral or parenteral tube feeding (2 or 6 points)

• Descriptor 2c (2 points): You take nutrition via enteral or parenteral tube feeding with a rate-limiting delivery system or pump and manage the feed and equipment yourself.
• Descriptor 2e (6 points): You need physical help from another person to set up, connect, flush, clean, or manage your tube feeding equipment.

Descriptor 2f: Needs another person to convey food and drink to your mouth (10 points)

• Severe paralysis, tremor, movement disorder, or profound physical or cognitive disability means you cannot bring food and drink to your mouth reliably and another person must physically feed you (10 points qualifies for the Standard Daily Living rate of £76.70/week in 2026/27 on its own).

Assessors often award 0 points on Activity 2 by writing "Normal BMI / stable weight, therefore takes adequate nutrition unaided".

If that happens in a PA4 report, or when you are writing your PIP2 / AR1 form, explain why your weight stays stable:

1. Your weight may only be stable because of the daily help you receive: If your partner or carer prepares plates, cuts up your food, sits with you, and prompts you throughout the meal every day, your stable weight is the result of that support, not proof that you eat unaided.
2. Spilling, pain, and Regulation 4(2A) acceptable standard: If tremors or weak grip cause you to spill hot drinks or drop food down your clothes without adapted two-handled cups and angled cutlery, you cannot eat safely or to an acceptable standard unaided.
3. Repeatability across the day: We eat and drink several times every day. Managing breakfast when your morning medication peaks does not mean you can cut up or eat an evening meal unaided when fatigue and pain flare up.
4. Reasonable time: If chewing, swallowing safely, or resting your hands makes a small meal take over an hour (more than twice as long as someone without your condition), point that out under Regulation 4(2A).

Use these structured examples to see how daily symptoms, aids, and Regulation 4(2A) connect:

• Hand osteoarthritis & tremors (Descriptor 2b - 2 points): "Rheumatoid arthritis in my fingers and wrists means I cannot grip standard thin cutlery or press down with a knife to cut meat or firm vegetables without sharp joint pain and dropping the knife. On every meal involving solid food, I use thick-handled foam cutlery and a non-slip plate mat, or my partner cuts my food into bite-sized pieces before I eat. I also use a two-handled lidded mug so I do not spill hot tea onto my lap. Under Regulation 4(2A), I cannot cut up food or drink safely and to an acceptable standard unaided."
• Severe depression / autism & prompting (Descriptor 2d - 4 points): "On at least 5 days a week, severe depressive episodes and loss of hunger cues mean I forget to eat and feel overwhelmed when food is placed in front of me. Left alone, I go 24 hours without eating until I feel faint. My partner has to sit with me at mealtimes and gently prompt and encourage me to eat small amounts. Under Regulation 4(2A) and Regulation 7, I cannot take nutrition reliably on more than 50% of days without prompting."