Page 106 - Reforming Benefits Decision-Making

overview of what PIP is and who can claim it (ii) how to claim PIP; and (iii)
the types of supporting information that might be helpful to support a claim.
There is also an Introduction to Universal Credit easy read guide and ‘Who
can claim Universal Credit’. There is, however, no easy read version of the
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Universal Credit: Health conditions and disability guide.

4.16 DWP recently entered into a legal agreement with the EHRC to improve
support for hearing-impaired claimants’ access to its services by telephone.
This was a result of complaints that DWP staff did not know how to arrange a
British Sign Language interpreting service for a number of hearing-impaired
claimants who needed to use the telephone service. DWP agreed to provide a
Video Relay Service across its telephony services for all benefits and services.
This enables hearing-impaired users to contact DWP using an interpreter. The
agreement also commits the DWP to make a number of other changes that
will have an impact on all claimants who require information in different
formats. These are: ensuring claimants can easily locate what they need in
order to request information in alternative accessible formats; recording and
sharing internally disabled people’s communication needs; and improving the
use of Equality Analysis in the design and delivery of all changes.
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4.17 Consultees and working party members also expressed concern about the lack
of information available in languages other than English.

4.18 We welcome the work that the DWP is currently doing to improve the
accessibility of its information and guidance. However, to better understand
claimants’ accessibility needs, and therefore what information it should
provide, as recommended in Chapter 2, the DWP needs to collect data on the
protected characteristics of claimants. Further we recommend that all forms,
key information and guidance and letters from the DWP should be (i) in
plain English; (ii) available in easy read, Braille, audio, large print and

302 DWP, Easy read: universal credit (February 2021).
303 EHRC, ‘DWP enters legal agreement to improve services for deaf customers’ (August 2020).

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