The paper presents the flexibility of approximation in PIES applied for solving elastoplastic boundary value problems. Three various approaches to approximation of plastic strains have been tested. The first one bases on the globally applied Lagrange polynomial. The two remaining are local: inverse distance weighting (IDW) method and approximation in different zones by locally applied Lagrange polynomials. Some examples are solved and results obtained are compared with analytical solutions. Conclusions on the effectiveness of presented approaches have been drawn.