The Short Answer
Daily living activity 3 assesses managing medication, monitoring a health condition and managing therapy — all of it at home. Treatment given in a hospital or clinic does not count. For therapy, points scale with the weekly hours of help needed to manage it, not the length of the therapy: 2 points up to 3.5 hours, rising to 8 points above 14. Taking medication unaided scores nothing; needing help to manage or monitor it scores 1 point.
| Activity | Daily living activity 3: Managing therapy or monitoring a health condition |
|---|---|
| Component | Daily living, scored under regulation 5(3) |
| Descriptors | 6, lettered a to f |
| Points range | 0 to 8 |
| Reaches a threshold alone | Yes — the top descriptor alone reaches the 8-point standard rate |
Daily living component: 7 points or fewer gives no award for this component, 8 to 11 points gives the standard rate, and 12 points or more gives the enhanced rate. Marked on the scale: Top descriptor: 8 points.
The Managing Treatments Descriptors
One descriptor is scored, the highest that applies on more than half of the days.
| Descriptor | Points |
|---|---|
| a. Either – (i) does not receive medication or therapy or need to monitor a health condition; or (ii) can manage medication or therapy or monitor a health condition unaided. | 0 |
| b. Needs any one or more of the following – (i) to use an aid or appliance to be able to manage medication; (ii) supervision, prompting or assistance to be able to manage medication; (iii) supervision, prompting or assistance to be able to monitor a health condition. | 1 |
| c. Needs supervision, prompting or assistance to be able to manage therapy that takes no more than 3.5 hours a week. | 2 |
| d. Needs supervision, prompting or assistance to be able to manage therapy that takes more than 3.5 but no more than 7 hours a week. | 4 |
| e. Needs supervision, prompting or assistance to be able to manage therapy that takes more than 7 but no more than 14 hours a week. | 6 |
| f. Needs supervision, prompting or assistance to be able to manage therapy that takes more than 14 hours a week. | 8 |
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Reproduced verbatim from Schedule 1 of the Social Security (Personal Independence Payment) Regulations 2013, as amended. The highest descriptor this activity can score is 8 points.
The structure here is unlike any other activity. Descriptor b sits at a single point — the lowest score anywhere in the assessment — and the descriptors above it are a ladder of weekly hours of help rather than a ladder of severity.
Descriptor a
0 pointsDescriptor b
1 pointDescriptor c
2 pointsDescriptor d
4 pointsDescriptor e
6 pointsDescriptor f
8 points
Only the highest descriptor that applies in an activity counts. The full statutory wording of each descriptor is in the table on this page.
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Source: PIP Regulations 2013, Schedule 1 (legislation.gov.uk)
What the Activity Covers
Three things, all in the home. The guide lists them: taking prescribed medications, monitoring and detecting changes in a health condition, and managing therapeutic activities carried out in a domestic setting, "without any of which their health is likely to deteriorate".
It adds the boundary that decides many claims: "This activity only applies to medication or therapy delivered in the home environment i.e. where the claimant lives (and may include care homes)." Dialysis at a unit does not count; home dialysis does. Chemotherapy in a day unit does not count; the anti-emetic regime managed at home does.
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Medication and Therapy Are Different Things
Medication is pharmaceutical; therapy is not. The guide defines medication as "treatment which involves the use of medicinal drugs", giving tablets, injections, inhaled medications and creams as examples.
Therapy is "non-pharmaceutical treatment", and the examples are the ones worth knowing: "physiotherapy, home dialysis and special diets where both attention to the nature and timing of food is integral in the management of the diet and where failing to adhere to the diet would result in an immediate deterioration in the claimant's condition (e.g. a hyperglycaemic event for a diabetic)".
Neither has to be formally prescribed, but "there must be a consensus of medical opinion that supports their use in treatment of the condition", which is why the guide requires it to be prescribed or recommended by a registered health professional or pharmacist.
Counting the Weekly Hours
Add up the time another person spends supervising, prompting or assisting you with home therapy across a normal week, then find the band. The hours measure the help, not the therapy. The DWP's PIP Assessment Guide states: "For the purpose of descriptor 3C to F, the need for supervision, prompting or assistance to be able to manage therapy apply to the duration of the supervision, prompting or assistance and not the duration of the therapy."
| Weekly time of supervision, prompting or assistance with therapy | Descriptor | Points |
|---|---|---|
| No more than 3.5 hours | c | 2 |
| More than 3.5, up to 7 hours | d | 4 |
| More than 7, up to 14 hours | e | 6 |
| More than 14 hours | f | 8 |
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Help with a prescribed physiotherapy regime, nebuliser sessions, wound or stoma care and a home exercise programme is counted together. A partner who assists for 20 minutes twice a day gives over 4.5 hours of help a week, which is descriptor d at 4 points rather than descriptor c at 2. A therapy session that runs for an hour but needs only 10 minutes of setting up by another person counts as 10 minutes. Home equipment is a common question, so check pip for sleep apnoea for how a machine used overnight is treated. Special diets are a frequent question, so check pip for coeliac disease for what the guide says.
The qualifier applies throughout: the points are for needing supervision, prompting or assistance to manage the therapy. Therapy done entirely unaided scores nothing however long it takes, because no time of help accrues. For a worked example of home dialysis, check PIP for kidney disease and compare the therapy bands with your own.
Monitoring Is a Separate Route
Descriptor b covers monitoring as well as medication, and it is the most under-claimed point in the assessment. Where another person prompts blood glucose checks, arranges blood tests for a mood stabiliser, or watches for signs the claimant cannot detect, the descriptor applies.
One point sounds too small to bother with. At 7 points it is the difference between no award and the standard rate.
Conditions That Commonly Score Here
Any condition with a home treatment burden. Diabetes reaches it through monitoring and prescribed diet. Cancer reaches it through the hours of help needed during treatment cycles. COPD reaches it through nebulisers and home oxygen. Crohn's disease reaches it through infusions and enteral feeding. Fibromyalgia and arthritis reach it through prescribed physiotherapy.
Check Your Score
Managing treatments 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.