Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to improve access to his Department's services for deaf claimants.

The Department is committed to pursuing a just, equal, and inclusive society, ensuring independence and control for everyone, including our deaf customers.

Customers can communicate with us using Relay UK. We also offer email as a reasonable adjustment as well as a range of different (or alternative) formats such as Easy Read, which uses succinct and simplified language combined with images to convey information about government benefits and services.

UC customers can also communicate with us using the UC journal.

As a department we continue to recognise the importance and value of British Sign Language. We take our commitments seriously and are continuously seeking ways to improve the BSL services we offer.

We’re almost one year into our BSL 5-year plan and have made good progress against our goals. This includes:

• Deployment of the Video Relay Interpreting service into all Job centres and Universal Credit Review (UCR) Service Centres

• Developing our first set of BSL video standards, which are currently being reviewed by stakeholders prior to implementation

• Reviewing all existing learning content, identifying improvements for deaf and hard of hearing customers

• Creating DWP’s first ever ‘YouTube Short’ in BSL to improve our target reach and communication mediums

For customers with additional support needs, the department offers a wide range of reasonable adjustments, including a visiting service for vulnerable customers who are unable to use our other contact routes, and support from Disability Employment Advisors within our jobcentres.

We continue to review our services and make improvements to ensure they are accessible and responsive to customer needs.