A number of constituents, with long standing disabilities, are repeatedly having to prove their disability for various local or central government agencies. Benefits can be administered by district council, county council, outsourced companies and by Government departments. It does not appear that they are sharing evidence and are therefore requiring constituents, via their doctors or other essential workers, to provide repeat information. This causes stress and additional workload to those who do not need it. In the House of Commons, I called for the introduction of a health statement which could be passported across all public agencies. I was encouraged by the Minister's response to this idea and I will now work with those in the charity sector to put a proposal together. My question, and the Ministerial response, can be viewed here: https://goo.gl/wuLC3g and can be read below: 

Huw Merriman

What steps his Department is taking to improve the benefit eligibility assessment process for people with disabilities. 

The Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work - Penny Mordaunt MP

The Department is committed to improving continuously assessments for all our benefits, and we have responded to a range of recommendations from a number of independent reviews. As part of our continuous review of the work capability assessment, we will be consulting on further possible improvements in the forthcoming Green Paper.

Huw Merriman

I welcome the Government’s recent announcement. May I ask the Department to consider creating an individual health statement for each disability claimant to give every local and national agency that is ​responsible for paying benefits access to the relevant information, so that we can end the practice of repetitive form-filling and evidence gathering? That would reduce individual stress on the vulnerable and reduce bureaucracy in our essential public services.