 |
 |
|
|
site map 
search disability rights uk
contact us | home | list of members | publications | what's new
DBC Press Release: 30 March 2010
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has today published further welfare reform proposals. These include the outcome of a review of the new ‘Work Capability Assessment' (WCA) – the test used to assess ability to work and access out of work benefits[i].
The Disability Benefits Consortium (DBC)[ii] welcomes the announcement that more people will now be now exempt from the Assessment. But the Consortium believes the review does not reflect the problems the WCA is causing many disabled people, as revealed in a recent Citizens Advice report[iii].
Rebecca Rennison, co-chair of the DBC policy group, says:
“We welcome the idea of better supporting disabled people to work through welfare reform. But the Work Capability Assessment is inflexible and fails to recognise the impact of some impairments and health conditions.”
The DBC believes that the review was announced prematurely – and with the express purpose of reducing access to the extra support available from the new Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). ESA is supposed to provide more support to people who need help to find work. But the WCA is systematically denying access to ESA support to people who need it[iv].
The Consortium also believes that the Work Capability Assessment can worsen people's health and results in avoidable, expensive appeals[v]. Dr Mark Baker, co-chair of the DBC policy group, says:
“Some people's health is being undermined by being forced to attend assessments. Other people found fit for work appeal the decision and are moved onto a benefit for people not expected to seek work at all. This huge discrepancy between the initial assessment and the result of appeals is deeply worrying. The WCA is failing in its primary purpose.”
The Disability Benefits Consortium was asked to contribute to the review but is frustrated that concerns over the stringency of the Assessment have largely gone unaddressed and opportunities for improvement been missed.
The DWP has acknowledged the Assessment must improve, but today's announcements do not specify how this will happen. Charities suggest a thorough, independent rethink is required.
Ends.
For more details about the review, WCA problems, or the DBC please contact:
[i].Building Bridges to work: new approaches to tackling long-term worklessness DWP, 29 March 2010. And associated internal WCA review online at: http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/work-capability-assessment-review.pdf
[ii] The Disability Benefits Consortium aims to improve the benefits system and is a coalition of over 25 national organisations. Information on the DBC is available online at: www.disabilityalliance.org/dbc.htm
[iii] Not working: CAB evidence on the ESA work capability assessment Citizens Advice, March 2010. See: http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk
[iv] In order to qualify for ESA an individual must score 15 points, either on an individual ‘descriptor' (part of the test) or across a range of descriptors. But the DWP review was partly designed to reduce individuals being able to score points. The number of descriptors has been reduced and the possibility of accruing 15 points across a spread of descriptors is less likely.
[v] An example of an avoidable appeal includes a former engineer in his 50s seen by a London Citizens Advice Bureau. After feeling ill for a number of months he visited his GP and was referred to hospital and required a triple bypass. About three weeks after being discharged he started to feel extremely ill. He went back to hospital and after a series of tests was diagnosed with inoperable and incurable stomach and liver cancer. At his WCA he was found fit for work on the basis that he remarked he walked daily (although not far and not without discomfort) and could raise his hands above his head (once). None of his medical consultants could believe the decision. He appealed and was put into the support group for people not required to look for work.
 |
