The pilot, which involves the cooperation of the UK benefits system and the National Health Service (NHS), will run for an initial three months and, if successful, continue for a further three months. It will involve 344 GPs in 94 practices in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Lothian and the Forth Valley.
If it is successful, Scottish ministers will consider extending the process to other benefits across the whole of the country.
Strengthening the partnership between the Scottish NHS and the UK benefits system in this way should lead to a reduction in the length of time it takes to process applications and consequently disabled people getting their money quicker, commented Scotland’s minister for disabled people, Anne McGuire.
We are constantly looking at ways we can ensure people get the money they are entitled to as quickly as possible. If this is successful I would like to see it rolled out across the country, she continued.
Scottish Executive deputy health minister Lewis Macdonald added that the new scheme should prove beneficial not only to claimants, but also to GPs, who will have less paperwork to do, and other patients, who will benefit from GPs having more time to spend with them as a result of the faster claims process.
