Why is it so important to include a diary with your Sickness and Disability Application Form?

A young woman with blonde hair sitting on her bed and writing in a dairy.

Keeping a diary is crucial for DLA, PIP, and AA applications because it provides detailed, real-time evidence of how your condition affects your daily life, making your application more credible and helping assessors understand your needs. It helps capture variations in your condition, highlight patterns like flare-ups, and provide specific examples to support your claims. 

Here's why it's important:

• Detailed Evidence: Diaries offer a concrete record of your struggles, including the support you need, the time it takes to complete tasks, and the impact on your daily life. 

• Consistency: Diaries can ensure consistency between your application form, assessments, and any potential appeals, as they provide a clear and consistent picture of your needs. 

• Highlighting Variations: If your condition fluctuates, a diary can clearly show how your needs vary on good and bad days, which is vital for demonstrating the level of support required. 

• Supporting Your Claim: By providing specific examples, diaries strengthen your claim and help decision-makers understand the practical implications of your condition. 

• Meeting the Criteria: For PIP, for example, the diary can help you demonstrate how your condition affects your ability to perform daily living and mobility activities. 

• Preparing for Assessments: Diaries can help you prepare for assessments by reminding you of the specific challenges you face and the support you need. 

• Specific Examples: You can document things like how long it takes to prepare a meal, how often you need help with personal care, or how your condition affects your ability to socialize or manage your finances. 

In short, a diary is a powerful tool for ensuring your DLA, PIP, or AA application accurately reflects your needs and provides the evidence needed to support your claim. 

Here’s how to keep an effective diary to support claims for Disability Living Allowance (DLA), Personal Independence Payment (PIP), and Attendance Allowance (AA)- especially useful if you’re filling in forms or preparing for an appeal in the UK:

Disability Living Allowance (DLA) (mainly for children, but similar idea applies to adults still on DLA)

Why it helps: If unsure how much help is needed or how long tasks take, a diary can provide clarity.

What to include:

• Document the frequency and duration of help needed.

• Compare your needs to peers (other children of the same age).

• Note emotional or confidence-related issues caused by the condition.

• Examples and narrative help—avoid just ticking boxes.

Personal Independence Payment (PIP)

Why it helps: A diary provides evidence of how daily life is affected by fluctuating health conditions. It supports the "How your disability affects you" form and can be submitted as supporting evidence.

What to include:

• Keep a record over about two weeks, especially if your condition fluctuates.

• Log tasks such as:

  • Preparing meals/snacks

  • Eating/drinking

  • Medication management

  • Washing, bathing, toilet management

  • Dressing/undressing

  • Communication (talking, understanding)

  • Reading or being social

  • Managing finances or planning & traveling

• For each task, note:

  • Help needed (supervision, prompts, equipment)

  • Difficulty (easy or impossible), emotional impact (tired, anxious, upset)

• Consider converting the diary into a personal statement (max two pages), which summarises:

  • History of your condition

  • Day-to-day variation

  • Average weekly pattern

    
    

Additional support:

• Ask caregivers, friends, or family to write statements on what they observe.

• Obtain medical evidence (letters, reports) from healthcare professionals, sent to you,

• Label each diary page with your name, address, and NI number.

  
  

Attendance Allowance (AA)

Why it helps: A diary gives a clearer picture of your care needs—the assistance required to complete personal tasks. It helps to capture how often you need help, and how tasks affect you, especially across good and bad days.

What to include:

• Personal care tasks like:

  • Getting in/out of bed

  • Bathing/showering

  • Dressing

  • Being reminded or encouraged to eat or drink

• Night-time needs, including assistance or supervision for safety (e.g., falls, incontinence).

• How many times you need help each day, even for tasks like standing up from a chair.

• Any aids or adaptations used (e.g., grab rails)—mention them in the diary and the form.

• Describe difficulties in detail: pain, time taken, breathlessness, risk, unsteadiness.

• Note good days vs. bad days: how tasks differ and how many of each you experience in a typical week.

• Note any falls and what causes them. Add context by documenting all falls in the last 6 months, so that any patterns can become visible.

Tips That Apply Across All Benefits

• Consistency: Keep the diary daily for at least one week (AA) or two weeks (PIP).

• Detail matters: Include what, when, how often, how long, associated emotions, and risks.

• Be thorough: Use extra sheets if needed, and don’t consider any detail too small.

• Use copies: Keep digital scans or photos for your records—especially if you submit to DWP or appeal.

• Submit evidence later if needed: For PIP, you can send supporting evidence after the form or assessment—with a note.

For more information on how I can help you with your form writing or form checking needs, please contact maria@benefitiaforms.co.uk or visit my website benefitiaforms.co.uk.