How to write PIP notes for depression
A calm, practical guide to explaining how depression affects your daily life for PIP. Reference-only — not medical, legal, or benefits advice.
Depression and PIP
Depression can affect energy, motivation, concentration, memory, and your ability to start and finish tasks. It can also affect self-care, eating, communicating, and leaving the house.
PIP is not based on diagnosis alone. What matters is how depression affects you when doing specific activities, and whether you can do them reliably.
Writing about depression
Example: turning a feeling into a clear note
Below is an example of how someone might turn a general statement into a clearer, activity-focused note. This is example wording only.
“When I’m depressed I can’t look after myself.”
“On difficult days I struggle to start basic self-care. I stay in bed most of the day and don’t wash or change clothes unless someone prompts me. I often miss meals because I can’t motivate myself to prepare food. Tasks take much longer, and I stop part-way through.”
This is a reference-only example. Only include information that is true for you.
Using GuidedPIP
GuidedPIP helps you organise depression-related notes by activity, so you can record impact, prompting/support, and variability in a structured way.
You can start for free and decide whether Premium tools are helpful for you.