Welfare benefits
The welfare benefits system must be accessible, fair and easy to navigate so that people living with complex disabilities can get the financial support they are entitled to.
For many disabled people, the current welfare benefits system is hard to access and difficult to navigate.
Welfare benefit applications can be challenging for people with complex disabilities and their families, and waiting times for assessments and decisions are long. Poor quality assessments often result in appeals.
People carrying out welfare benefit assessments also lack training and understanding about complex disabilities. This means that they fail to understand the implications of particular conditions – or what people can achieve with the right support.
What we're calling for
- The Department for Work and Pensions, and those carrying out assessments, need to make information about welfare benefits and claims processes accessible to people with complex disabilities.
- Advisers and assessors need to be given appropriate training to increase their knowledge and understanding of disability. This will ensure that people’s needs are met, and provided with the right outcome at the earliest opportunity.
- The Department of Work and Pensions should pause the roll out of Universal Credit in order to fix the significant problems it faces before anyone else moves across to it.
What we're doing?
We listen to the people we support and their families, and monitor their experience of claiming welfare benefits.
We’re campaigning for the Department for Work and Pensions and disability benefit assessment providers to improve their training and knowledge on the impact of complex disabilities on a person, to ensure disabled people are able to access the financial support they are entitled to.
We are a partner in the Disability Benefits Consortium, a national coalition of over 80 different charities and organisations, which is committed to working towards a fair benefits system.
Get in touch
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