Dr Paul Litchfield was
appointed to lead the fourth independent review of the Work Capability
Assessment (WCA) in 2013. This review sets out a series of recommendations to
the government based on the evidence he collected as part of the review and
which complement the recommendations from the first 3 annual reviews carried out
by Professor Malcolm Harrington.
The key findings and recommendations from this review are:
DWP should review the WCA and its use of scores, place less emphasis on the number attained, and use the calculation to determine whether the threshold for benefit has been reached
WCA needs to be fair and widely perceived as such (the review highlights areas for improvement)
decision making must be improved
the process takes too long and needs to be simplified
the limited capability for work questionnaire (ESA50) should be redesigned, and training improved, to help decision makers when assessing people with mental health problems.
WCA Review
Response to the report from Disability Rights UK :
While Disability Rights UK welcomes some of the review’s recommendations we are disappointed that Dr. Litchfield’s belief is that the WCA is a “reasonable pragmatic tool”.
There is little or no recognition by Dr. Litchfield of the widespread anger and criticism of the poor standard of medical assessments carried out by Atos Healthcare Professionals. Instead, he advises that DWP Decision Makers “view Atos HCPs as trusted advisers”. He also sees as problematic that 15% of Atos fit for work recommendations are revised to those of limited capability for work as opposed to 0.1% revised from eligible to fit for work.
In fact, given the high proportion of disabled people successfully appealing WCA decisions the 15% of revised decisions by Decision Makers is clearly too low.
We believe, more fundamentally, that tinkering with the WCA will not make it work and that the Government should start from scratch on the Work Capability Assessment as part of a wider strategy to transform employment support.
“The vehicle via which disabled people are directed towards these ineffective programmes is the Work Capability Assessment. Ironically, the very last thing the WCA is capable of is assessing whether or not someone is capable of work. Companies like BT and Barclays have long abandoned using pre-employment health questionnaires to test someone’s capabilities to work prior to starting – not least because they are not worth the money spent on them. They tell you nothing useful about the person’s potential performance in work. Research evidence is clear: the best predictors of someone’s employment success are self efficacy (a sense of choice and control), support and adjustments that are right for you – that are individualised – and motivation.”
Disability Rights UK
Response from the Public and Comercial Services Union
The demeaning 'fitness for work' work test for disabled people should be scrapped, PCS says following publication of an independent review.
The work capability assessment is not designed to support people into employment, but to cut their benefit entitlement, the union says.
Last week the appeal court upheld a ruling that the tests discriminate against claimants with mental health problems, learning disabilities and autism.
The government has failed to implement all the recommendations in the first three independent reviews into the WCA.
The fact that this fourth review, published today (12), contains 37 recommendations – including some basic things such as allowing claimants to see what is being written about them – shows how flawed the test is.
The union's view – shared by the TUC, the British Medical Association, a range of disabled people's organisations and more than 120 MPs – is that the assessments are not fit for purpose and should be scrapped.
There is mounting anecdotal evidence showing people are being found "fit for work" so denied employment and support allowance and put onto jobseeker's allowance. They are then denied that because they are not able to start work or meet the conditionality requirements of JSA.
Sanctions for disabled people claiming ESA have increased by 156% in the last year.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "No one joined the employment service to administer a system designed to harass people and take benefits away.
"Our members want to support people into work and claim the benefits to which they are entitled. But, consistent with the government's approach to social security, these tests are not designed to help people and they should be scrapped."
