Tell us about your experiences of claiming benefits and employment support

Posted Tuesday, 24 August 2021

We want to hear about experiences of claiming benefits and receiving employment support as we respond to the Government’s Health and Disability Green Paper.

Last month, the Government’s important consultation, “Shaping Future Support: Health and Disability Green Paper”, was launched to look at how the welfare system and employment support could better meet the needs of disabled people and people with health conditions, so more people can live independently and work.

We know many blind and partially sighted people find claiming benefits far too difficult due to the amount of form-filling and information required. We also know that overcoming barriers to employment is one of the biggest challenges faced by people with sight loss; only one in four blind and partially sighted people of working age is in employment.

Make your voice heard

This consultation is a really important opportunity to press for better assessments and decision-making, an improved Access to Work scheme as well as better training for those assessing and assisting blind and partially sighted job seekers and employees.

To help inform our recommendations to the Government, we have put together a short survey to ask blind and partially sighted people for feedback on:

Benefit assessments and claims and how this process could be made fairer.
Employment support: for example, the support offered, or needed, at job centres or through the Government’s Access to Work scheme, and how this could be improved.