Time to challenge work test spin

As the Government’s new Employment Support Allowance reaches its first birthday, there’s no cause for celebration says Ruth Patrick

Government research recently published shows that two-thirds of applicants for Employment Support Allowance (ESA) are not getting through the Work Capability Assessment (WCA), the test which determines whether a claimant will be granted ESA at the higher or lower rate, or refused it altogether.

The WCA is spun by the Government as an empowering, enabling test which focuses positively on what an individual can do rather than what they cannot. The test will ensure that individuals get the help and support they need – the rhetoric goes – rather than being abandoned to a life of inactivity on disability benefits.

Thus, figures that show that 36 per cent of applicants are being refused ESA, on the basis of being fit to work, are welcomed by the Government as indicating the success of their drive to end the sick-note culture and get us all back-to-work.

Those of us who can see beyond this flawed rhetoric are concerned that the WCA is pushing people with serious impairments onto Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) with little regard for their individual circumstances, needs and aspirations. The test is based on an individual deficit model of disability which arbitrarily and abstractly seeks to measure capability against government-set criteria.

Why not look instead at the level of disablement in society and use this as the index against which to measure whether people who class themselves as disabled should be forced into work. Focusing the lens of capability on society rather than on the individual might also encourage positive efforts to address the disabling physical, attitudinal and societal barriers which remain.

The WCA also runs the risk of creating hierarchies amongst disabled people. According to the mark scored in the test, claimants will be placed in one of three categories. High scorers are entitled to ESA unconditionally whilst those with a few less points will get a lower rate of ESA only if they participate in work-related activity. Those who fail will be promptly placed on JSA. What is particularly disconcerting is that these divisions are being medicalised and instilled
by private contractors undertaking the WCA on the Government’s behalf, leaving little scope for claimants to make a
positive choice whether or not to identify as a disabled person.

In response, the Government would argue that too many are utilising the disability tag in an attempt to beat the system and claim the more generous disability benefits. This fits the populist rhetoric of benefit cheats but is not supported by the evidence, which shows remarkably low levels of disability benefit fraud.

2010 will herald Government action to roll out WCA as those on Incapacity Benefit are migrated over to ESA. This reality requires strong and concerted efforts by disabled people to tackle Government spin and interrogate the notion of the WCA as a positive development. The time for that effort is now.