Communicating verbally

Communicating verbally 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 communicate verbally

When you are looking at how many points you score for speaking, think about what help you need most of the time to do it:

• 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 communicating verbally - do not add the points together.

No points

You get no points if you can speak and understand other people speaking without any help or special aids.

Examples of special aids:

• Hearing aid
• Communication book

Two points

You get two points if you can only speak or hear if you use a special aid.

Four points

You get four points if you need a specially trained person or an experienced person to help you to speak more than one sentence or to understand someone saying more than one sentence.

Examples of a specially trained person:

• NOT someone to interpret English
• Someone to interpret sign language
• Support worker who can communicate with people with your disability

Examples of an experienced person:

• A friend or family member who has helped you to speak before
• Support worker who has communicated with people with your disability

Eight points

You get eight points if you need a specially trained person to help you to speak to say a simple sentence or understand someone saying a simple sentence.

12 points

You get 12 points if you cannot speak or understand other people speaking, even with a specially trained person to help you.