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Work test 'not fit for purpose'
Sunil Peck
Campaigners have welcomed
an independent review of the Work Capability Assessment (WCA, but have
warned that the system for determining whether or not people are capable of being
moved off benefits and back into work will continue to fail disabled people.
The independent review is the first of five statutory annual reviews of the WCA and was carried out by Professor Malcolm Harrington, an occupational health specialist.
Professor Harrington found that the assessment which decides whether someone will receive Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) or Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), is failing because questionnaires are "lengthy" and sometimes difficult or impossible to fill in and that assessments fail people with fluctuating conditions because they rely on stock questions such as whether or not a claimant can load a washing machine.
The review has put forward recommendations including the introduction of mental health specialists in medical assessment centres to spread good practice; reducing reliance on the medical assessments and giving more power to job centre staff; Improving communications and the level of support provided to those who undergo a WCA and Ensuring the medical assessment is transparent by, subject to an initial pilot, recording all assessments.
The Minister for Employment Chris Grayling accepted the recommendations and said that Professor Harrington's review was a "crucial" step to helping thousands of people into work.
He said: "It’s in everyone’s interest that we get the WCA right and Professor Harrington’s recommendations will make the assessment fairer and more effective."
Dr Mark Baker, Co-Chair of
the Disability Benefits Consortium, said: "The extent of the Review’s
recommendations clearly indicate that the current WCA process is deeply flawed
and the Government needs to make sure that, once they have implemented the
recommendations, these issues are fully resolved.
They should not proceed with moving claimants of older incapacity benefits onto ESA, via the WCA, until it is clear that the assessment is working fairly and effectively."
Neil Coyle, Director of Policy at Disability Alliance, said that the coalition government's response would not reassure disabled people that the system would be made fairer because of a desire in the DWP to cut the number of ESA claimants.
Commenting on the uncertainty over how long the government might take to implement the recommendations, he said: "Thousands of disabled people will remain inadequately served by the test and inappropriately directed to insufficient support. Costs to taxpayers will continue to rise through high numbers of avoidable appeals and DWP incurring avoidable costs."
Richard Hawkes, Chief Executive of Scope, said that he hoped that the recommendations would increase disabled peoples' confidence in the WCA.
But he added: "Disabled people face a myriad of barriers to employment, from practical to social and psychological. We urge Professor Harrington to make it his priority to look at how the WCA takes into consideration all of these barriers and therefore give a more accurate representation of someone’s likelihood to get a job."
WCA UNFIT
This is an insult to disabled people
esa
ESA - assessments
work test - is fit for purpose
Place highly paid private enterprise at the centre of the health system.
Remove the idea and ideology of any welfare state
Ensure voters are given food for prejudice by tarring minority groups with press releases that highlight any semblance of fraud.
Link any group, whether generational, racial or ethnic with an image of lazy - gaining something for nothing - drain on resources etc and pretty soon by the drip, drip, drip process, you have a general public believing in harsh meansures being imposed wthout question.
ATOS pulled out of an area recently (Harringay I believe) and stopped because profits running GP practices coudn't be made high enough to warrant continuing - thus ATOS is about profit & nothing more and as long as it continues to receive £14 grand for pushing some poor devil off the IB list then ( in their mind & the Govt) the system certainly is fit for purpose!
Nightmare stories
I would have loved to had typed out all of the letter but it is not my place to do so.
That doctor should have been struck off.
ESA and ATOS
My daughter has to do practically everything for me, from helping me to wash, dress, comb my hair, stand, as well as give me my medication as they make me so forgetful I cannot remember what time I took the last lot and have nearly overdosed. She also does all the cooking and preparing of meals, housework and shopping, thus saving the Government a small fortune in wages for a full time carer/nurse.
I am now in constant, chronic pain, whether sitting, standing or laying down, walking more than 10 or 20 steps has become impossible and that's on a good day. I sleep 4 hours a night if I'm lucky.
I applied for esa, after 6 months was sent to see ATOS, they declared me ' fit for work'. I appealed the decision and lost. When I went to claim JSA my advisor at the local JC refused to let me sign on, he said I was unfit for work and told me to claim ESA, my Dr also agreed with this and promptly signed me off for 6 months.
Once again, 6 months later I was sent to see ATOS and despite being far worse than I had been over a year ago when they last saw me I was declared ' fit for work'.
By now my Dr was having to treat me for stress and depression as well as the pain.
This time when I appealed and lost, I took it to a higher tribunal which found in my favour and was told that was it, I wouldn't have to worry about sicknotes or further reviews as my disability was on the list of those that would not improve with time, only get deteriorate.
6 months later I was sent a form for the disability assessment again, I phoned the DWP and was told I was going in for review. So I filled in the form, recieved my ATOS appointment and went for my review.
The Dr I saw was rude and totally not interested in anything I had to say, in fact several times she told me to be quiet. I was treated as if I was lying, despite having letters from my Dr who has treated me for the last 19 years and specialists at the hospital.
When asked to climb on a bed, I told her I was unable, she then made my daughter help me out of my wheelchair and spent the next 10 minutes trying to force me to put my knee up on a chair seat which I could not manage, by the end of this time I was shaking and sweating with the horrific pains in my legs, back and began to cry from the sheer stress. At this point my daughter stepped in, told the Dr that was enough and helped me back into my chair.
Once I got home I went straight to bed with painkillers and my hot water bottles, my daughter got me out of bed at tea time and made me eat a small meal after which I went back to bed as I was still in agony. It was nearly 3 days before I was able to cope with sitting up or standing for more than 2-3 minutes.
Once again I was deemed fit for work. The ATOS Dr wrote that I could walk 200 metres, an outright lie as she had not seen me walk at all besides the 3 steps from my wheelchair to the chair she wanted me to put my knee on. That I was able to sit in a chair for longer than an hour and lift both arms above my head, I cannot do either of these things and had told her that during the interview, showing her how limited my upper body movement was.
I am still waiting for the complete ATOS report from the DWP but I know it has omissions in it, I was given 0 points for the sitting question and 0 points for the raising of the arms question.
I have also decided that any further dealings I have with ATOS will be recorded so that there is proof of what was said and done at the interview for my next appeal.
The process of appealing this decision began 4 weeks later when my letter arrived saying I was not entitled to ESA.
Although to be brutally honest, the thought of having to go through this agonising, stressful and degrading process every 6 months for the next 18 years (until I'm 66 ), fighting to prove that I am not a liar or a scrounger, has once again made me wonder if it's worth it, if suicide is the better option. Especially since they are also thinking of letting ATOS give '' medicals'' for the DLA, without which I would be a prisoner in my own house.
I'm lucky in that my family are very supportive and loving, there are others out there who are alone.
WCA UNFIT
one also wonders if a disabled person says they are not fit to work
and is contradicted by the wca but goes on to win the appeal whether
an action for defamation of character could then be won after all those of us who cannot work are basically being told we are liars inspite of copious amounts of evidence from the myriad of forms held by dwp and records of care packages held by social services meanwhile the private company(which presumeably must incorporate a profit margin
in what it charges the taxpayer for this unfit for purpose WCA THE WCA SHOULD BE CARRIED OUT BYMEDICALLY QUALIFIED STAFF AT LEAST TO GP LEVEL surely scope has lawyers who canreserarch the legality of rolling out a flawed process across the nation to existing claimantsIT STINKSwhere is the opposition leader on this?
as loud as a mouse!It is wrong to leave us in this limbo not knowing when or if we will be assessed yet again andhow much moneythe government will steal back from us they already get 20% in vat
Ifor one am sick of being labelled a scrounger by people who cannot even be honest about their expenses