Page 36 - Reforming Benefits Decision-Making

In addition, the application forms and guidance should explicitly state
that if claimants do not have copies of medical information easily
available, this will be requested directly from their healthcare
professionals by the assessment providers where this is required for the
assessment.

2.26 Going forward we recommend that the DWP and NHS continue to work
together to enable sharing of medical information between them (with the
appropriate claimant consent and data protection in place). Once this is
possible claimants should no longer be required to provide any medical
information. This means they will only need to provide reports,
statements or diaries from carers or family members. This will provide
clarity as to who is responsible for providing evidence and significantly
reduce the burden and concomitant detrimental effects on claimants.

Assessing evidence

2.27 The Second Independent Review of PIP found that assessors tended to
privilege medical evidence over evidence provided by carers, support workers
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and family members. Advice providers that we spoke to confirmed that this
is still often the case. This is an issue for several reasons. First, advice
provided by carers, support workers and family members often gives a better
82
insight into the functional capacity of claimants than medical evidence.
Second, claimants may not access formal treatment, either because they
choose to manage their condition themselves, because they struggle to obtain
referrals for treatment, or because their treatment is limited to a certain
number of sessions. Advisers highlighted this as a particular issue for
claimants with mental health conditions.

2.28 Medical evidence and evidence from carers/family and friends is important in
light of the generalist assessor model and to provide a check on self-reporting.

81 P. Gray, The Second Independent Review of the Personal Independence Payment Assessment (see n.
14 above) para 17.
82 Work and Pensions Committee, PIP and ESA assessments: Seventh Report (see n. 11 above) para 57.

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