The Short Answer
Daily living activity 1 assesses preparing and cooking a simple meal for one from fresh ingredients. It covers opening packaging, peeling and chopping, serving on to a plate, and using a hob or microwave. It does not cover carrying food, and it does not test cooking skill. Descriptors run from 2 points for needing an aid or prompting to 8 points for being unable to prepare and cook food at all.
| Activity | Daily living activity 1: Preparing food |
|---|---|
| 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 |
The Preparing Food Descriptors
One descriptor is scored, and it is the highest one that applies to you on more than half of the days.
| Descriptor | Points |
|---|---|
| a. Can prepare and cook a simple meal unaided. | 0 |
| b. Needs to use an aid or appliance to be able to either prepare or cook a simple meal. | 2 |
| c. Cannot cook a simple meal using a conventional cooker but is able to do so using a microwave. | 2 |
| d. Needs prompting to be able to either prepare or cook a simple meal. | 2 |
| e. Needs supervision or assistance to either prepare or cook a simple meal. | 4 |
| f. Cannot prepare and cook food. | 8 |
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 8 points.
Four of the six descriptors sit at 2 points. That is the pattern most physical-condition claims are built from: an aid, a microwave substitution or prompting each scores the same 2 points, and four such descriptors across four different activities reach the 8-point standard rate.
What Counts as a Simple Meal
A meal for one, cooked from fresh ingredients, at or above waist height. The DWP assessment guide sets the boundaries precisely, and several of them work in the claimant's favour.
The activity "assesses ability to open packaging, peel and chop, serve food on to a plate and use a microwave oven or cooker hob to cook or heat food". Serving "means transferring food to a plate or bowl, it does not include presentation".
Two exclusions matter. "Carrying items around the kitchen or carrying food to where it will be eaten is not included in this activity" — so a person who can cook but cannot carry the result scores nothing here, and should describe that difficulty under the activity it belongs to. And "cooking food at waist height does not consider the ability to bend down to access an oven", so an inability to use a floor-level oven is not itself the test.
Last checked: 7 August 2026
Skill Is Not Assessed, Function Is
The guide is explicit: this activity "considers the claimants functional limitations in their ability to prepare food and not the claimant's lack of skill or opportunity to learn". Never having cooked is not a reason to score, and it is not a reason to score zero either.
Where someone has never learned, the guide directs assessors to "consider their ability to carry out activities at or above waist height and their cognitive ability to use a stove or microwave if shown how". The question becomes hypothetical rather than historical.
Aids and Appliances That Score Here
Anything reasonably required to complete the task, whether or not it was prescribed. Descriptor b scores 2 points for needing an aid to prepare or cook, and the items are ordinary.
- A perching stool, where standing at a worktop is not sustainable
- An electric tin opener, jar opener or one-handed chopping board
- Adapted or lightweight pans, or a pan with two handles
- A kettle tipper
- Pre-chopped ingredients bought because chopping is not possible
The last is worth stating plainly, because it feels like a shopping choice rather than an aid. Where chopping is the function that has failed, buying it done is the aid.
What the Reliability Rules Add
A meal cooked once, unsafely or in three times the usual time, is not cooked to the standard the descriptor requires. Regulation 4 requires the activity to be completed safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly, and within a reasonable time period.
Safety carries most weight here because the activity involves heat and blades. A person who has burned themselves, who cannot reliably judge a hob, or who has a condition that can begin without warning is not preparing food safely, and the supervision descriptor at 4 points is the one that fits.
Conditions That Commonly Score Here
Any condition that reaches grip, standing tolerance, cognition or safety. Arthritis and back pain reach it through chopping, lifting and standing. Depression, ADHD and autism reach it through the prompting descriptor. Epilepsy and migraine reach it through the safety limb and the supervision descriptor. Fatigue conditions reach it through repeatability, because a meal cooked at the cost of the rest of the day is not repeatable.
The condition is not what scores. The function is, and the descriptor names the function.
Check Your Score
Preparing food is one of ten daily living activities, and points add across all of them. Score it alongside the rest in the PIP points calculator, which uses the same verbatim descriptors, or read the full set on all 12 PIP descriptors.