The role of the nursing community in providing evidence for ill health and disability welfare benefit assessments

As a result of a Congress 2017 item on welfare benefits, it has come to light that a considerable amount of time is spent by nurses assisting patients to provide paper-based evidence for certain welfare benefits, including Disability Living Allowance, Personal Independence Payment and, Employment and Support Allowance. There appears to be confusion among the nursing community as to what their role should be in this respect, and also concern that this is taking an increasing amount of clinical time.