This part of the PIP assessment is about the help that you (would) need, most days, to make a:
- cooked,
- one-person meal,
- from fresh ingredients,
- on a hob or with a microwave.
And to do it:
- safely,
- in a reasonable time – no more than twice as long as a person without a disability would take,
- whenever you need to,
- without too much pain, fatigue, dizziness, confusion, need for recovery,
- producing an edible product – with no attention to presentation.
It does not matter whether you ever actually cook. Tell them how it would be if you tried to cook.
The Questions:
Answer any questions that apply to you. This will tell the Decision Maker everything that they need to know:
Aids: What physical things do you use to cook, that you would not need if you did not have your health condition or disability? Why do you use these things?
Microwaves: To cook from fresh, would you need to use a microwave when you can’t use a hob? If so, explain why.
Prompting: While you were cooking, would you usually need someone to prompt, you, remind you, encourage you, or explain things to you? If so, which and why?
Physical help: While you are cooking, would you usually need another person to physically help you? If so, what help, and why do you need it?
Safety: Would you need someone with you, all the time that you were preparing and cooking food, to keep you safe? If so, why?
Can’t do it: Is it true that even with all the help that you have described above, you:
- still couldn’t cook safely?
- still couldn’t make a simple meal in a reasonable time?
- still couldn’t complete the task of cooking a simple meal at all?
Download these questions in a word file
An Example – Miriam
Nowadays I never cook, it’s just too difficult, so my husband Lemmy does it all.
Aids:
If I tried to cook a meal from scratch, I would always need to use aids. For example: I would have to have a stool in the kitchen so that I could sit down; I would need lightweight pans, because the weakness in my wrists means that I can’t lift things; I would need lever taps, because I can’t grip the tap heads. Because of this problem with grip, I would need fat-handled utensils like peelers and knives.
Prompting:
Trying to cook even a simple one person meal, just feels overwhelming, so I would not start unless Lemmy gave me a lot of encouragement.
If I tried to cook, Lemmy would usually have to prompt me and remind me as I was doing it. I get brain-fog, so I lose my way in complicated tasks like cooking.
Physical Help:
If I tried to cook, my weak wrists and poor grip mean that I would always need physical help with things like moving a half-full kettle, or holding things while I chop and peel them.
Safety:
I am hypersensitive to heat, and I get vertigo where I feel dizzy and disoriented with no warning. Both of these things mean that if I tried to cook, Lemmy would always have to stay with me all the time I was doing it, to keep me safe.
Can’t Do It:
Even if I had all of the help mentioned above, making a meal from scratch would take me much longer than it used to.
I would need to take frequent rests so it might take a couple of hours to do what used to take me thirty minutes.
Even if Lemmy was with me, it would not keep me safe. It would just mean that he was around to help out once I had already had an accident or injury.