Is it simple to get money for straightforward disability related items?

Today I had cause to complete an online form for a referral through my Local Authority for funding for replacement automatic door openers at my home. First impressions were good – a simple form that needed to be completed and hey presto with the push of one button my referral would be winging its way to the appropriate person!
My of my how naive could I be?
It was true I could submit the form online but it was the way this form was written that really got my blood boiling.
One of the very first questions it asked me was whether I already had contact with the local social services and whether any past funding had been received. A clever little tick in the “yes” box then. Still straight forward enough I hear you cry.
No, No, No – The pesky form then went on to ask me all about my disability, needs and living arrangements! Surely this is already on their records and therefore as soon as I placed the relevant tick in their relevant form it should have bypassed all this form filling but no, yet again, I have to tell them my life story.
Definitely a case of bureaucracy at its worse.
Over the years I have come to believe that navigating the maze of disability benefit or funding is worse than completing my tax returns and I could probably read War & Peace quicker.

For many years the need for an easing of bureaucracy was being debated. The Disability Challenge – The Conservative Party’s disability website - (http://www.thedisabilitychallenge.com) in June 2007 states:-

“Councils throughout the country would like to reduce the bureaucracy of the assessment process but legislation requires much of the assessing, thus making reduction difficult. The third layer of bureaucracy is perhaps the worst because it is hidden. It is the bureaucracy that providers of social care must tolerate. It comprises: reports to get star ratings from the Commission for Social Care Inspection; 26 performance assessment frameworks, including key thresholds; delivery and improvement standards reports for the Audit Commission; best value performance indicator reports; comprehensive performance assessment reports, and, for the Department of Health, the referrals, assessments and packages of care reports. All that bureaucracy comes at a huge price of £2 billion. That money is used in the assessment and commissioning process, not in delivering the services that carers and disabled people need.”

The Labour party states:-

“Work through the Office for Disability Issues, established by Labour, to ensure cross Government action to achieve substantive equality for disabled people by 2025 is imperative” (http://www.labour.org.uk/Equalities)

Well to my mind, no major party is doing anything to assist the disabled in gaining access to the funding that is so desperately needed and before you all begin to shout at your computer screens, I do appreciate that this can be applied to many groups of society. However, the difference that can be gained to independence by this vital funding is immense and therefore the red tape and bureaucracy should be cut with very large scissors as quickly as possible.