Department for Work & Pensions - Shaping future support: The Health and Disability Green Paper

Shaping Future Support: The Health and Disability Green Paper aims to explore how the benefits system can better meet the needs of disabled people and people with health conditions now and in the future, to build a system that enables people to live independently and move into work where possible. 

This Green Paper considers the options for addressing short- and medium-term issues in health and disability benefits. It will also start a discussion about the opportunities for wider change to deliver on the objectives of the health and disability benefits system. This Green Paper will also consider whether the money they spend on supporting disabled people and people with health conditions is spent well. This is because they want to ensure that the health and disability benefit system is effective and sustainable in the future.

This consultation is an important step towards making changes that will improve their services, increase opportunities for employment and help more people to live independently. Their approach must be informed by different views and opinions, particularly those of disabled people and people with health conditions.

Why the DWP are consulting

To provide an opportunity to test the following aspects of their support for disabled people and people with health conditions:

• Ways to provide more support to help meet the needs of disabled people and people with health conditions and allow them to more easily access and use benefits and services.

• Improve employment support for disabled people and people with health conditions, and how to encourage people to take up that support, where possible.

• Short-term improvements to our current services, such as improvements to assessments and decision making, to improve the experience of disabled people.

• Changes to future assessments and alternative approaches.

• Changes that could be made to the structure of the main benefits claimed by working-age disabled people and people with health conditions