Disabled People (Hansard, 12 May 1993)

§ Mr. Scott

The operation of the Benefits Agency is a matter for the chief executive, Mr. Michael Bichard. He will write to the hon. Member and a copy will be placed in the Library.

Letter from M. Bichard to Mr. Liew Smith, dated 11 May 1993:

As Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency, it is my responsibility to answer questions about relevant operational matters. I am therefore replying to your recent Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security asking what liaison has taken place between the Benefits Agency and organisations representing the disabled in (a) Wales and (b) England.The Agency is committed to an equal opportunities policy. For our customers with disabilities, this means that wherever possible we will ensure that their dealings with us should not be limited by reason of their disabilities.In Wales, our staff have had a good deal of contact with organisations representing people with disabilities, much of it at local level. A review of our customer service across Wales was held in October 1992, attended by many organisations (including several representing the needs of people with disabilities in Wales). We have also run a one day seminar jointly with the Wales Council for the Blind, aimed at carers and people with disabilities. With the introduction of the new disability benefits last year, a bilingual English/Welsh cassette was produced for blind customers, and was distributed through talking newspapers and to all Social Service Departments in Wales.A series of "roadshows" using our own Benefit Bus and the Wales Council for the Disabled WCD advice and information bus took place during February of this year, at 10 locations throughout Wales. Following this, a series of one day seminars, organised jointly by the Agency and by the council, 507W have been held. They were attended by our own customer service staff in Wales, and by representatives from relevant organisations. A member of our staff was seconded to the council last year for 10 months.Nationally, we liaise and meet regularly with a number of organisations representing the needs of people with disabilities. These include the Royal National Institute for the Deaf, the Royal National Institute for the Blind, People First, and the National Schizophrenia Society. We are looking at a number of their services with a view to publicising them through our network of District Information Officers and Customer Service Managers in local benefit offices. We also liaise regularly with a number of other customer organisations, including the National Association of Citizen's Advice Bureau (NACAB).I meet senior staff from NACAB six monthly.As the Agency's customer charter makes clear, we are committed to providing a service which is accessible for all our customers. We recognise that disabled people may have particular needs and we will continue to look for ways to make our services easier to use. One way in which we intend to meet this commitment is through a national forum to enable organisations representing or comprising people with disabilities to contribute to the Agency's ongoing work to improve services for disabled customers. The first meeting took place last September. That first, very informal meeting, was mainly, but not exclusively, about the disability benefits. A second meeting took place on 5 May this year. The forum will continue twice yearly whilst there is the demand.A small group of organisations have also met with the Agency to discuss how to improve access to our public areas. The outcome is that we are redrafting and improving accommodation guidance for District and Unit Managers.I hope you find this reply helpful. A copy will appear in the Official Report and a copy will also be placed in the Library.