Please can some help me

Tramelia wrote: Hello, please could some one help me with how to understand a question on PIP
It is Question 3a Do you use an aid or appliance to prepare or cook a simple meal.
Yes No sometimes
I just don't know what to tick. I cannot prepare a meal with fresh ingredients at all. So therefore, I would not use any aid or appliance, however, I do use appliances in general, e.g. Kettle tipper, perching stool in the Kitchen. So, if I tick No, would they not assume from this that I can cook/prepare a meal, and do not need to use appliances. Whereas, in actual fact, I need a box that does not exist, saying 'cannot cook a simple meal'. Please, can someone help me understand this one.

Many grateful thanks
tramelia

As a general comment, do not feel required to use the tick boxes on the form if you do not believe that they offer the choice that best fits with your limitations, it is perfectly acceptable for you to mark them "see below" and provide an answer in the comments box or any attached pages.

From your post, you seem to be saying that you could not prepare and cook a meal even with the use of an aid or appliance, so this would be a case where you might leave the tick boxes blank and explain why you cannot reliably perform this activity.

Gordon

Tramelia wrote: Hi

Many thanks for your quick reply. Yes, you are correct, I am unable to prepare and cook a meal using fresh ingredients. I generally only ever cook a ready meal from Tesco into the microwave, or possible, something like frozen fish and chips into the oven. However, I do use some aids to help me with some things, e.g. I have a kettle tipper, perching stool, Electric can opener to help at other times when I do the easy meals as I stated, please, would you say that what you said still stays the same?

Many thanks once again.
Regards
Tramelia

Only you can decide whether you meet the criteria, but you might want to consider the following.

The assessor and the DWP will certainly consider whether there are alternate ways that you can prepare and cook a meal, for example if you have dexterity problems then you can use knives with different shaped handles, the guidance suggests that there is no requirement for the claimant to pick up heavy and/or hot pans of water as you could ladle the contents to a more convenient container. You need to explain why these alternatives would not be feasible.

Activities must be performed reliably and for the majority of days for you not to score points, so if you cannot achieve this then you need to explain why, "reliably" means

• Safely – in a fashion that is unlikely to cause harm to themselves or to another person.
• To a necessary and appropriate standard – given the nature of the activity.
• Repeatedly – as often as is reasonably required.
• In a timely manner – in a reasonable time period.

Gordon