The Short Answer
The PIP2 form is called 'How your disability affects you', and it must be returned within 1 month. It arrives after you start a claim, usually within 2 weeks by post, or as an emailed link if you applied by phone. It asks how your condition affects each assessed activity, and the answers are the main written evidence the decision is made on. More time can be requested from the PIP enquiry line.
What the PIP2 Form Is
The second form in the claim, and the one that decides most of it. The first stage collects your details by phone or post. The PIP2 asks the questions the assessment is actually scored on.
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Official name | How your disability affects you |
| When it arrives | Usually within 2 weeks by post, or by emailed link if you claimed by phone |
| Deadline | 1 month from the date it is issued |
| How to return it | By post, or online if you applied by phone |
| Extra time | Available on request from the PIP enquiry line, 0800 121 4433 |
Last checked: 7 August 2026
GOV.UK sets the deadline plainly: "You should return the form by post or complete it online within 1 month." It also names the route to more time: "Contact the PIP enquiry line if you need more time or have questions." A missed deadline without contact normally ends the claim, which is the single most avoidable failure in claiming PIP.
What Each Section Asks
One section per assessed activity, in the same order the assessment scores them. There are twelve: ten daily living activities scored under regulation 5 and two mobility activities scored under regulation 6. The questions are written in everyday language, and each maps onto a descriptor set with its own points.
The daily living sections cover preparing food, eating and drinking, managing treatments, washing and bathing, managing toilet needs, dressing and undressing, communicating, reading, mixing with other people, and managing money. The mobility sections cover planning and following journeys, and moving around. A final free-text section invites anything else you want the decision maker to know.
How to Answer a Section
Describe a typical day, not a good day or a worst day, and say what happens when you try. GOV.UK states the test as expecting difficulty "more than half of the days over a 12-month period", so the typical day is the one that decides the points. Each section has a yes-or-no box and a much larger box for detail. The detail box is where the points are decided.
Four elements make an answer usable by a decision maker:
- What you can do, and what happens when you do it — including pain, fatigue or distress afterwards.
- How often the difficulty arises, in days per week. The test is more than half the days.
- What help you need, and who gives it — an aid, another person prompting you, or another person doing part of the task.
- How long the task takes compared with someone without your condition.
The reliability question sits behind all four. An activity that can be done once but not repeated, or done unsafely, or done in three times the usual time, is not done to the standard the descriptor requires.
What Not to Do
Do not leave a section blank because the activity is not your main problem. Four 2-point descriptors across four different activities reach the 8-point standard-rate threshold on their own. Points come from every activity, and claims are frequently decided by the sections a claimant thought were irrelevant. A short honest answer is better than an empty box.
Do not describe only your worst day either. A form written entirely about crisis days invites the reply that the activity is possible on most days, which is the test that matters.
What to Send With It
Copies of what you already have, rather than new reports you have to wait for. GOV.UK names the examples directly: "prescription lists, care plans, or information from your doctor or others involved in your care".
Waiting for a specialist letter is rarely worth missing the deadline for. Send what you have by the deadline, and send anything further as it arrives — evidence can be added after the form is returned. Write your National Insurance number on every page you send.
A statement from a person who helps you is often the most useful document in the pack, because it describes the help rather than the diagnosis. It does not need a formal format: what they do, how often, and since when.
After the Form
A health professional may then invite you to an assessment, and your answers are what they work from. GOV.UK states that the assessment "usually takes 1 hour" and can be at a centre, at your home, over the phone or by video call. The questions asked there follow the same twelve activities, which is why keeping a copy of the completed form matters. What the assessment covers is set out on the PIP Assessment Questions page.
The form does not ask you to name your condition against a list, because no such list exists. What is recorded is a main disabling condition for statistical purposes, and it does not decide the award. The PIP Medical Conditions List page explains how conditions relate to the activities that are scored.