Page 33 - Reforming Benefits Decision-Making

qualified assessor would be from the questionnaire and other evidence
provided. We welcome the Minister for Disabilities’ recent statement that the
introduction of telephone and video assessments, means that DWP may be
able to explore utilising specialist assessors.
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Obtaining additional evidence

2.19 A generalist assessor model relies on assessors having access to sufficient
expert evidence. This can include reports from medical professionals as well
as people who see claimants every day, such as carers and family members.
Successive reviews of PIP and ESA have emphasised the importance of
ensuring a good supply of appropriate expert evidence, however progress in
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achieving this has been slow.

2.20 The PIP and WCA questionnaires both ask claimants to provide medical and
other information along with their questionnaire. Examples of the type of
information that may be helpful to provide include reports from GPs, hospital
doctors, social workers, community psychiatric nurses, physiotherapists, as
well as results of tests and scans and prescription lists. The questionnaires also
ask individuals to provide details of their GP and other healthcare
professionals, carers, friends or relatives who know about their health
condition or disability, who may “sometimes” be contacted for further
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information.

2.21 Claimants often have difficulty finding the right evidence to support their
claims. The questionnaires stress that claimants should only send copies of
information that they already have and UC50 form states that claimants
should “not ask or pay for new information”. However, claimants can struggle
to find the right evidence amongst information they already have. We were
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71 See Justin Tomlinson MP, ‘Work and Pensions Committee Oral evidence: Disability employment
gap’ (see n. 17 above) Q 274.
72 For example, see the five independent reviews of the WCA (n. 13 above) and Work and Pensions
Committee, PIP and ESA assessments: Seventh Report (see n. 11 above) para 33.
73 UC50, ESA50, PIP2.
74 N. Bond et al., The Benefits Assault Course (see n. 50 above) p.23

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