The Short Answer
Daily living activity 2 assesses taking nutrition: cutting food, conveying it to the mouth, chewing and swallowing, or being fed through a therapeutic source. It is about the act of eating, not about what is eaten — the assessment guide states the quality of the food is irrelevant. Descriptors run from 2 points for needing an aid or help to cut up food to 10 points for being unable to convey food to the mouth.
| Activity | Daily living activity 2: Taking nutrition |
|---|---|
| Component | Daily living, scored under regulation 5(3) |
| Descriptors | 6, lettered a to f |
| Points range | 0 to 10 |
| Reaches a threshold alone | Yes — the top descriptor alone reaches the 8-point standard rate |
The Taking Nutrition Descriptors
One descriptor is scored, the highest that applies on more than half of the days.
| Descriptor | Points |
|---|---|
| a. Can take nutrition unaided. | 0 |
| b. Needs – (i) to use an aid or appliance to be able to take nutrition; or (ii) supervision to be able to take nutrition; or (iii) assistance to be able to cut up food. | 2 |
| c. Needs a therapeutic source to be able to take nutrition. | 2 |
| d. Needs prompting to be able to take nutrition. | 4 |
| e. Needs assistance to be able to manage a therapeutic source to take nutrition. | 6 |
| f. Cannot convey food and drink to their mouth and needs another person to do so. | 10 |
Last checked: 7 August 2026
Reproduced verbatim from Schedule 1 of the Social Security (Personal Independence Payment) Regulations 2013, as amended. The highest descriptor this activity can score is 10 points.
This activity contains the second-highest single descriptor in the daily living component. Ten points for being unable to convey food and drink to the mouth reaches the 8-point standard rate on its own and sits two points short of the enhanced rate.
What the Activity Does and Does Not Cover
The act of eating and drinking, and nothing about the food itself. The guide is unusually direct: "The defined term 'taking nutrition' refers solely to the act of eating and drinking and so the quality of what is being consumed is irrelevant for the purposes of daily living activity 2."
It follows that "if for any reason a claimant elects to have a bad or restricted diet, makes dietary choices or chooses to avoid certain foods as part of dietary requirements, they're nevertheless 'taking nutrition' to an acceptable standard and therefore will not score under activity 2".
Last checked: 7 August 2026
That closes off a line many claims try, and it opens a different one. Where the difficulty is with the mechanics — cutting, lifting, chewing, swallowing — or with remembering or wanting to eat at all, the activity scores.
When Frequency Counts
Only where an underlying condition affects the ability to remember to eat or the motivation to eat. The guide names the examples: "dementia or severe clinical depression or an eating disorder".
Descriptor d, needing prompting to be able to take nutrition, scores 4 points. It is one of the highest prompting descriptors in the assessment and one of the least claimed, because skipping meals feels like a habit rather than a symptom.
The guide gives a second route into the same descriptor: where a claimant "needs prompting to eat because they have a physical or mental condition that affects their ability to make active choices about the food they consume", giving learning disability and eating disorders as examples.
Therapeutic Sources
A defined term with a narrow meaning and a high score. The guide defines it as "parenteral or enteral tube feeding using a device, such as a delivery system or feed pump".
Needing a therapeutic source to take nutrition scores 2 points under descriptor c. Needing assistance to manage it scores 6 under descriptor e. Where a course of exclusive enteral nutrition is prescribed — as it may be during a Crohn's flare — this activity and managing therapy are both engaged, and they are scored separately.
Aids That Score Here
Adapted cutlery and drinking equipment, where they are reasonably required.
- Weighted or angled cutlery for tremor
- A plate guard or non-slip mat
- A two-handled or lidded beaker
- A straw or a drinking aid where a cup cannot be lifted
- Thickening agents where swallowing is unsafe
Needing another person to cut up food is inside descriptor b at 2 points, alongside the aid and supervision routes.
Conditions That Commonly Score Here
Conditions affecting grip, tremor, swallowing, cognition or motivation. Arthritis and Parkinson's reach it through cutting and lifting. Stroke and multiple sclerosis reach it through swallowing and through the supervision limb, because choking is a safety risk. Dementia and severe depression reach it through the prompting descriptor the guide names directly. Crohn's disease and cancer reach it through therapeutic sources.
Check Your Score
Taking nutrition is one of ten daily living activities, and points add across all of them. Score it alongside the rest in the PIP points calculator, or read the full set on all 12 PIP descriptors.