Part 2 of your Adult Disability Payment application is where your award is really decided. Part 1 is the short opening stage that covers your identity, your contact details and your bank details. Part 2 is the long part, the one that asks how your conditions actually affect your life across the 12 activities. Because Social Security Scotland makes most determinations on the papers, without anyone attending a consultation, what you write on Part 2 is usually the whole case. Get it right and a fair award follows from it. Leave it thin and a case manager has little to work with. You have 56 days from part 1 to return it, one of several deadlines set out in our ADP timeline. With several conditions, structure matters even more, as ADP for multiple conditions explains. If you live with several conditions, see the ADP application with multiple conditions.
This guide is about the writing itself: how to describe a difficulty so it counts, how to handle days that vary, and what to actually put down for each of the 12 activities. Adult Disability Payment broadly aligns with the rest-of-UK benefit it replaced, but the Scottish process is built to be less adversarial, and a few Scottish features change how you should approach the form.
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Try one activity free →The one rule that runs through every activity: reliability
Before you write a single answer, understand regulation 7 of The Disability Assistance for Working Age People (Scotland) Regulations 2022. It says you can only be treated as able to do an activity if you can do it in four ways at once:
- Safely, without risk of harm to yourself or anyone else.
- To an acceptable standard, not a rushed or half-finished version.
- Repeatedly, as often through the day as the activity needs doing.
- In a reasonable time period, not taking far longer than someone without your condition.
If you cannot do something in all four ways on most days, you are treated as unable to do it. This is the single most useful lens for writing Part 2. For every activity, do not just ask "can I do this?" Ask "can I do it safely, properly, again and again, and in a reasonable time, on most days?" If the honest answer is no, say so and explain which of the four fails.
How to describe a single difficulty well
A strong Part 2 answer is concrete. A weak one is a diagnosis with no effect attached. Saying "I have arthritis" tells a case manager nothing about what you can and cannot do. For each activity, build your answer from five simple pieces:
The five pieces of a good answer
- What happens. The actual difficulty, in plain words.
- Why. The condition and symptom responsible, such as pain, fatigue, tremor, low mood or concentration.
- What help you need. Aids, adaptations, prompting, supervision or another person.
- How often and how long. How many days it happens, how long the task takes, whether you have to stop and rest.
- An example. One real recent time it went wrong.
You do not have to copy the legal wording of the descriptors, but it helps to describe your difficulty in language that lines up with them: needing prompting or encouragement, needing an aid or appliance, needing someone to supervise you for safety, or being unable to do the task reliably. Describe the true effect and let it map onto the descriptor, rather than simply ticking the highest box.
What to include for the 10 daily living activities
The daily living component covers ten activities. You do not need to hit a threshold on any single one. Points add up across all of them, and 8 to 11 points gives the standard rate while 12 or more gives the enhanced rate. Here is what each activity is really asking and the kind of detail worth writing.
1. Preparing food
Can you prepare and cook a simple meal from fresh, safely? Write about pain gripping pans, dropping things, forgetting a hob is on, needing to sit, needing prompting to start, or relying on ready meals because chopping and standing is not safe or possible most days.
2. Eating and drinking
This covers cutting up food, getting it to your mouth and reminders to eat. Note tremor, swallowing problems, needing food cut up, or needing prompting because low mood or memory means you skip meals.
3. Managing treatments
Can you manage medication, monitor a condition and take therapy without help? Write about needing reminders, using a blister pack, someone managing doses, or the amount of help and supervision your condition needs at home.
4. Washing and bathing
Getting in and out of a bath or shower and washing your whole body. Note grab rails, a shower seat, needing someone nearby in case you fall, parts of your body you cannot reach, or prompting to wash on bad days.
5. Managing toilet needs
Getting on and off the toilet and managing continence. Note aids, needing help, accidents and how often difficulties happen.
6. Dressing and undressing
Note difficulty with buttons, fastenings and shoes, needing an aid, needing help or prompting, or getting dressed into unsuitable clothes because choosing is hard.
7. Communicating verbally
Speaking and understanding speech. Relevant for conditions affecting speech, hearing or processing. Note communication aids or needing support to understand or be understood.
8. Reading and understanding
Reading and understanding signs, symbols and words. Note vision problems, dyslexia or cognitive effects, and whether you need help to understand written information.
9. Engaging with other people
Engaging face to face. This is a big one for mental health conditions and autism. Write about anxiety, needing someone with you, being unable to be around people, or overwhelming distress in social contact.
10. Managing money
Budgeting and managing bills. Note needing prompting or help, missed bills, or being unable to manage complex money tasks because of memory, concentration or anxiety.
What to include for the 2 mobility activities
The mobility component has two activities and works the same way on points, with 8 to 11 for standard and 12 or more for enhanced.
11. Planning and following a journey
This is not about physical walking. It covers whether you can plan a route, follow it, and cope with an unfamiliar journey. Write about anxiety, panic, disorientation, needing someone with you to leave the house, or being unable to travel to an unfamiliar place alone.
12. Moving around
This looks at how far you can walk reliably. Distance alone is not the point, reliability is. Note pain, breathlessness, fatigue, needing to stop and rest, how long you can keep going and how you feel afterwards. Do not measure your best distance on a good day, measure what you can repeat. The 20 metre rule remains in place and is under independent review, it has not changed.
Not sure how to word all 12 activities?
ADPexpert turns your conditions into clear, ready to use answers for every activity on Part 2, written in reliability language the descriptors are scored against. Try one activity free.
Try one activity freeUse the Scottish system to your advantage
Two Scottish features change how you should finish Part 2. First, Social Security Scotland has a duty to help you gather supporting information, and case managers can request it themselves from the people you name. You do not need one piece of evidence for every condition. One reliable piece of formal information confirming a condition responsible for more than a minor part of your needs can be enough. So on the form, give permission and list exactly who holds the most useful information, whether that is your GP, a consultant, a community psychiatric nurse or a support worker.
Second, if you run out of room, keep going on extra sheets. There is no benefit to squeezing your life into a small box. A full, honest account with a couple of real examples per activity is worth far more than a tidy short one.
Frequently Asked Questions
What exactly is ADP application Part 2?
Part 2 is the stage where you describe how your conditions affect you across the 12 activities. Part 1 is your identity and contact details. Part 2 decides your award, because in Scotland most determinations are made on the papers, so what you write is usually the main thing Social Security Scotland has to go on.
Should I write about my worst days or my typical days?
Both. Regulation 7 says an activity only counts as done if you can do it safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly and in a reasonable time. If you cannot manage that on most days you are treated as unable. Describe a typical day, how often bad days come and what a bad day looks like.
How much detail should I put for each activity?
Give a short, concrete picture: what you cannot do, what help or aids you need, how long it takes, whether it is safe and how often you manage. One or two real examples beat a page of general statements.
Do I need to use the exact words from the descriptors?
No, but describe your difficulty in terms that map onto them, such as needing prompting, needing an aid, needing supervision for safety or being unable to do something reliably. Let the real effect line up with the descriptor.
What if I run out of space on the form?
Use extra sheets and send supporting information. Social Security Scotland has a duty to help gather it and case managers can request it themselves, so name the people who hold the most useful information.
What happens after I send Part 2 in?
Social Security Scotland usually makes a determination on the papers. A consultation only happens if it is the only way to get the information needed. If you disagree you can ask for a re-determination within 42 days, and they have 56 days to respond.