We sign joint letter to DWP

Community Integrated Care has joined other leading charities and organisations in signing an open letter to the Department of Work and Pensions, after the Government’s consultation paper on the health and disability benefits is yet to be provided in accessible formats.

The open letter calls for an update to the consultation, ensuring that accessibility is prioritised and not treated as an afterthought.

Read the open letter in full:

Dear Rt Hon Liz Kendall MP, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions,

The Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper to reform health and disability benefits should be an opportunity for the government to hear from those directly affected.

It is essential that those most affected by these proposed changes have time to process and share their views. But there is no information provided in accessible formats at the point of launching this important consultation.

The consultation is only running for 12 weeks and whilst the consultation page indicates that accessible information will be available ‘in due course’, we are concerned that this excludes people who the Government should be listening to from the start.

Inclusion and accessibility are a basic baseline for employers to be disability confident and the Department for Work and Pensions should be a leading example of this.

We are calling for an immediate update to the consultation and accessible formats be included, simply extending the deadline implies accessibility for disabled people is an afterthought when the essence of welfare reform should focus on ensuring people get the support they need.

See the other organisations and charities that have signed the letter, here.