PIP managing therapy and medication: how to describe your difficulties
A calm, practical guide to the PIP managing therapy activity (Question 5 on the PIP2 form). Understand what counts as medication, therapy, and monitoring, how to describe the help you need, and see example notes. This is reference-only and not legal, medical, or benefits advice.
What this activity covers
Activity 3 on the PIP assessment covers three things: taking prescribed medication, carrying out therapy at home, and monitoring your health condition. These are treated differently in the scoring system, so it helps to understand what each one means.
Medication means anything prescribed or recommended by a doctor, nurse, or pharmacist that you take at home. This includes tablets, inhalers, injections, eye drops, patches, and liquid medication. It does not include creams or topical treatments, as these were excluded from the therapy definition in a 2017 rule change.
Therapy means treatment carried out at home that has been prescribed or recommended by a registered health professional. This includes physiotherapy exercises, breathing exercises, dialysis, stoma care, TENS machine use, nebuliser treatment, catheter care, wound dressing, and mental health exercises like CBT or DBT homework. The therapy must be recommended by a professional, not just something you choose to do.
Monitoring means detecting changes in your condition that could lead to a deterioration, and taking action that has been advised by a health professional. This includes blood glucose monitoring for diabetes, blood pressure checks, peak flow readings for asthma, checking for signs of infection in a wound or stoma, and recognising warning signs of a mental health crisis.
How the DWP scores this activity
The scoring for this activity works differently from most others. Medication and monitoring are scored separately from therapy, and therapy is scored based on how many hours per week it takes. You are matched to the highest descriptor that applies for more than half of the time.
| Descriptor | Points |
|---|---|
| Does not receive medication or therapy or need to monitor a health condition, or can manage all of these unaided | 0 |
| Needs an aid or appliance to manage medication, or supervision, prompting, or assistance to manage medication or monitor a health condition | 1 |
| Needs supervision, prompting, or assistance to manage therapy taking no more than 3.5 hours a week | 2 |
| Needs supervision, prompting, or assistance to manage therapy taking more than 3.5 but no more than 7 hours a week | 4 |
| Needs supervision, prompting, or assistance to manage therapy taking more than 7 but no more than 14 hours a week | 6 |
| Needs supervision, prompting, or assistance to manage therapy taking more than 14 hours a week | 8 |
Note that the time refers to the total time someone else spends supervising, prompting, or assisting you with therapy each week, not the total time the therapy itself takes.
Writing your notes for this activity
Examples: describing managing therapy difficulties
Below are examples of how you might describe your difficulties with this activity. These are for illustration only and should not be copied into your own form. Always describe your own experience.
“I take seven different medications at different times of day. I use a dosette box which my daughter fills every Sunday because I cannot tell the medications apart. I have three alarms set on my phone but I still miss the lunchtime dose at least three times a week because I forget to check or I dismiss the alarm without taking the tablets. My daughter calls me at lunchtime to remind me. I have ended up in hospital twice in the last year because I accidentally double-dosed on my blood pressure medication.”
“My physiotherapist has prescribed daily stretching and strengthening exercises for my back. The exercises take about 30 minutes but I need my partner to help me get into position, support my leg during certain stretches, and help me up afterwards. Without their help I cannot do the exercises at all because I cannot get down to the floor or back up safely. My partner spends about 4 hours a week helping me with these exercises.”
“When my depression is bad I stop taking my antidepressants because I do not see the point. My partner keeps my medication in a locked drawer and gives it to me each day because there is also a risk of overdose. Without my partner I would not take it at all during a bad episode, which happens for weeks at a time. I also have CBT exercises from my therapist that I am supposed to do three times a week, but I need my partner to sit with me and encourage me to do them because I cannot motivate myself.”
“I need to test my blood sugar four times a day and adjust my insulin dose based on the reading. I struggle to understand what the numbers mean and often get confused about how much insulin to take. My wife checks my readings and tells me how much to inject. She also recognises when my blood sugar is dropping before I do because I do not always notice the symptoms. She has had to give me sugary drinks several times when I have become confused and could not help myself.”
Using GuidedPIPs
GuidedPIPs walks you through the managing therapy activity with guided prompts tailored to your conditions. It helps you describe your difficulties step by step, covering medication, therapy, monitoring, and the help you need, so you do not have to figure out the structure on your own.
You can start for free and decide whether full access is right for you.