Michael Wood v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

Daily living activity 1 assesses the ability to make food ready for cooking or eating. It does not include mobilising around the kitchen, including while carrying food. The assessment is generic and notional, so it does not turn on an individual claimant’s kitchen layout or preferences. A tribunal must still assess whether the claimant can perform the activity safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly and within a reasonable time when using an aid that could reasonably be expected.

Mr Wood received Personal Independence Payment at the enhanced rate for mobility and the standard rate for daily living. The Secretary of State awarded him two points under daily living activity 1, preparing food, on the basis that he needed an aid or appliance. The First-tier Tribunal added a point for managing therapy but otherwise upheld the award. It accepted that a perching stool could help Mr Wood prepare and cook a simple meal; his stated difficulty was moving around the kitchen and carrying items.

Mr Wood appealed, arguing that mobilising while preparing food was part of activity 1 and that the First-tier Tribunal had not properly assessed whether he could use a perching stool safely and within a reasonable time. The Upper Tribunal considered the effect of MP v SSWP (PIP) [2025] UKUT 240 (AAC) and whether the First-tier Tribunal had made an error of law.

1. Disposition. The appeal was dismissed. The First-tier Tribunal’s decision involved no error of law.
2. Scope of activity 1. Under the Social Security (Personal Independence Payment) Regulations 2013, preparing food means making food ready for cooking or eating. The activity includes acts done to the food to ready it, such as washing, peeling and chopping. Mobilising, including mobilising while carrying food, is not part of preparing food. The test does not extend to every practical step between obtaining food and eating it. The activities of preparing and cooking are also disjunctive, so movement between those stages is not assessed as part of activity 1. The generic, notional test excludes individual kitchen layouts and preferences. Moyna v SSWP [2003] UKHL 44 was applied to that assessment.
3. Authorities. The judge held that MP v SSWP (PIP) [2025] UKUT 240 (AAC) had decided that mobilising and carrying were outside activity 1, although its reasoning about movement between preparation and cooking did not itself resolve the present argument about movement during preparation. As a decision of a single judge of the same tribunal, MP was not binding; the judge could depart from it if it was manifestly wrong. She agreed with its result on her own analysis and followed it. GB v SSWP [2015] UKUT 0546 (AAC) treated washing food and utensils as part of preparation but did not decide whether movement was included. The reference to lifting and carrying in SSWP v KJ [2017] UKUT 358 (AAC) was in passing and formed no part of that case’s ratio. The transfer considered in KW v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (PIP) [2017] UKUT 0054 (AAC) could occur within arm’s reach while stationary.
4. Perching stool and reliability criteria. Regulation 4(2A) requires ability to perform an activity safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly and within a reasonable time. The First-tier Tribunal directed itself to that provision, explained the use of a perching stool and recorded that Mr Wood accepted he could sit on it as described. His remaining objection concerned moving and carrying, which was irrelevant to activity 1. The tribunal made adequate findings and reasons on the statutory criteria. It was entitled to use its expertise after giving Mr Wood a fair opportunity to comment on its understanding of the stool.

1. Upper Tribunal (Administrative Appeals Chamber), [2026] UKUT 276 (AAC) : dismissed the appeal and held that the First-tier Tribunal had made no error of law.
2. First-tier Tribunal (Social Entitlement Chamber), 18 July 2024: added a point for managing therapy but otherwise confirmed the Secretary of State’s decision, including the award under daily living activity 1.