Preparing food

Preparing food is one of the daily living activities. The points you score for this activity are added to your scores for the other daily living activities.

Check your likely award

Working out how many points you might get can be difficult. The Turn2us PIP Helper takes you through a questionnaire about the PIP activities and gives you an estimate of the award you might be entitled to, so you don't have to work out the points yourself.

Use the Turn2us PIP Helper

Think about whether you can prepare food

When considering this activity, think about whether you can prepare and cook a simple meal:

• Safely
• Well enough (including without experiencing too much pain or exhaustion)
• Often enough
• Without taking too long

You get points for the sentence that is true for most of the time, or more than half the time. If more than one sentence is true, you will only get points for the one that is true for the most time. 

You can only score one set of points for making food or cooking - do not add the points together.

No points

You get no points if you can prepare and cook a simple hot meal without help or special aids.

Examples of simple hot meals:

• Pasta and sauce made from scratch from fresh ingredients
• Cheese and tomato omelette

Example of special aids:

• Stool to sit on

Two points

You get two points if you:

• can make a simple hot meal if you use a special aid (like a stool to sit on), or
• cannot make a simple hot meal using a cooker but you can if you use a microwave, or
• can only make a simple meal if someone reminds you to or tells you to.

Four points

You get four points if you can only make a simple meal if someone supervises you such as watching you or help you.

Eight points

You get eight points if you can’t make a simple hot meal at all, even if you have someone helping you.