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Recording everyday difficulties

Cocoacorn guide · Updated

When you need to explain how symptoms affect daily life, a specific example can be easier to follow than “it was a bad day”. This guide helps organise your own account, without assigning points or predicting a claim outcome.

Go to the short checklist

Start with one ordinary task

  • Name the task and when it happened.
  • Describe the difficulty in your own words.
  • Record help, reminders, equipment, pauses, or changes you needed.
  • Say what you completed and what happened afterwards.
Download the blank checklist (.txt)

Use a text editor or notebook. There is no health-information form on this website.

1. Separate the task from the difficulty

First describe what you were trying to do. Then explain the part that was difficult: starting, remembering steps, handling something, continuing, or finishing. Include only details that actually apply to you.

Distinguish help you received from help you needed but did not have. If you estimated a duration or remembered an event later, say so. Do not attempt a task that feels unsafe simply to create an example.

A fictional example

Task
Wednesday evening: preparing vegetables for dinner.
Difficulty
My hands hurt while peeling. I stopped after preparing one carrot.
Help and outcome
My partner finished the preparation and cooking. I sat down. I did not time how long I needed to rest.
Context
On Friday I prepared a sandwich without help. These are two examples, not a complete account of the week.

This example does not establish benefit eligibility or a descriptor. Its purpose is to show the difference between a general statement and a record of what happened.

2. Leave room for variation

Keep easier as well as harder examples when you have them. Note when help or a different approach changed the outcome. A task completed once does not describe every other day, and a missed entry is not evidence that everything was fine.

Avoid turning a handful of entries into a percentage for an entire month. State the period covered and any gaps. Keep original records alongside a summary so you can check where an example came from.

3. If the notes are for PIP

The DWP assessment guide considers how an activity is carried out, assistance or aids, the outcome, and its impact. Reliability includes safety, standard, repetition, and the time needed. Its guidance also addresses fluctuating ability. Read the current PIP assessment criteria for the full rules and activity definitions.

This is a guide to recording examples, not legal advice or a full explanation of PIP. A diagnosis or diary entry alone does not tell you which descriptor applies. Seek qualified benefits advice for your circumstances. PIP rules should not be treated as the rules for SSDI or another benefit.