The assessment of disabled people for the Employment Support Allowance has been a national scandal. {jcomments on}
Much of the focus has been on the private healthcare firm, Atos, who have administered the DWP's assessment. But the real problem is the culture of contempt which is at the very heart of the WCA itself.
The Centre for Welfare Reform has highlighted a new report on the experiences of claimants who have attended the Work Capability Assessment (WCA).
The report is based on 884 respondents to an online questionnaire which asked people who were sick or disabled to assess the assessors - to describe how they were treated in the assessment process and what impact the assessment had on their lives.
The statistics are bleak, for instance:
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95% found the assessment damaged their health, 29% severely
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95% gave the assessment a mark of 5 out 10 or less, 43% gave it the lowest possible mark
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80% of the time the respondent felt the assessor did not listen to them
Even more bleak are the moving stories and comments left by the respondents, for example:
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"The process was terrifying, humiliating and degrading..."
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"Tragically, my friend has committed suicide since losing her appeal."
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"It was the second worst experience of my life after my severe accident."
The report was developed independently, with no funding or subsidy, but with support from Mark Thomas and the team of disabled people who are now established as New Approach and who will be setting out alternatives to the WCA over the coming months.
The data used in the report is also available online at: https://bit.ly/wcasurveydata
Read this original article on The Centre for Welfare Reform website
