Adult Disability Payment Daily Living Activities Explained

How Daily Living Is Scored

The daily living component of Adult Disability Payment covers 10 activities. Each has a set of descriptors — short statements describing different levels of difficulty — and each descriptor carries a point value. The Case Manager selects one descriptor for each activity under Regulation 10. A descriptor met on more than 50% of days is chosen; if more than one is met that often, the highest-scoring is used. If none is met on more than 50% of days, but two or more non-zero descriptors together cover more than half the days, the most frequent descriptor is used, with the higher-scoring descriptor breaking a tie.

You need 8–11 points across all 10 activities for the Standard rate (£76.70/week from April 2026) or 12+ points for the Enhanced rate (£114.60/week).

The 10 Activities

Activity 1: Preparing Food

This means cooking a simple meal from raw ingredients using a conventional cooker — not reheating a microwave meal. Descriptors range from "can prepare and cook a simple meal unaided" (0 points) to "cannot prepare and cook food at all" (8 points). If you need a perching stool, adapted utensils, or verbal prompting to stay safe, those count.

Activity 2: Taking Nutrition

Eating, drinking, or managing tube feeding. This covers cutting food, lifting a cup, using adapted cutlery, and whether you need someone to physically help you eat. If severe pain or fatigue means you regularly skip meals, that's relevant.

Activity 3: Managing Therapy or Monitoring a Health Condition

Taking medication, managing home treatments (dialysis, oxygen, physiotherapy exercises), and monitoring symptoms. The key factor is whether you need prompting, supervision, or physical help — and how much time it takes. Medication routines that require multiple daily interventions score higher.

Activity 4: Washing and Bathing

Getting into and out of a bath or shower, washing your whole body. If you've switched to strip-washing at the sink because you can't safely get in and out of the bath, that's a higher descriptor. Include aids like shower stools, grab rails, and how long washing takes you compared to before your condition.

Activity 5: Managing Toilet Needs or Incontinence

Using a toilet, cleaning yourself afterwards, managing continence pads, stoma care, or catheter care. Many people find this the hardest section to write about. Be factual: how often you need help, what kind of help, and what happens when help isn't available.

Activity 6: Dressing and Undressing

Selecting appropriate clothing and physically putting it on and taking it off. If you can manage tops but not shoes, or need someone to fasten buttons, describe each part separately. Severe pain or stiffness that means you only wear easy clothing (slip-on shoes, elasticated waistbands) is evidence of adaptation.

Activity 7: Communicating Verbally

Expressing yourself and understanding spoken information in your native language. This covers speech difficulties, hearing impairment, and cognitive conditions that affect word-finding or comprehension. If you need a communication aid, a BSL interpreter, or can only communicate with people who know you well, include that.

Activity 8: Reading and Understanding Signs, Symbols, and Words

Reading printed text and signs — bus timetables, labels, letters. This covers visual impairment, learning disabilities, and cognitive conditions. The legal definition of “read” excludes Braille. If you rely on a screen reader, magnification, or someone reading text to you, describe what you can read and what help or aid you need.

Activity 9: Engaging With Other People Face to Face

Social interaction, managing anxiety, and psychological distress around other people. This is not about whether you enjoy socialising — the descriptors consider whether you need prompting or social support, or cannot engage because doing so causes overwhelming psychological distress or creates a substantial risk of harm to you or someone else. People with autism, PTSD, severe anxiety, or psychosis often score here.

Activity 10: Making Decisions About Money

This activity is about making complex or simple budgeting decisions, not ordinary shopping transactions. The descriptors consider whether you can make those decisions unaided or need prompting or assistance. Cognitive impairment, learning disabilities, and mental health conditions that affect concentration and judgement may be relevant.

Three Things That Apply to Every Activity

The Regulation 7 reliability test. You're only considered able to do an activity if you can do it safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly as often as the activity is reasonably required, and within a reasonable time. Failing one criterion affects which descriptor applies; the test itself does not award points.

Typical days and worst days. The 50% rule means you should describe what happens most of the time, including the days when you can't manage. If you need help three days out of five, that's your majority pattern.

Unmet needs count. If you need help but nobody is available to give it — you skip meals because nobody is there to cook, or you don't wash because you can't get in the bath alone — that still scores. The test is about need, not whether support is actually in place.

Our ADP claim guide walks through every daily living descriptor with self-assessment prompts and worked examples, so you can identify where your difficulties map to the scoring framework.

See more Scotland guides →