On Monday the coalition Government began piloting the migration of people claiming Incapacity Benefit onto Employment and Support Allowance. Claimants are to be reassessed on their ability to work using the Work Capability Assessment.

Under this process, claimants assessed are allocated to one of three groups. The small minority unable to work are allocated to the ‘Support Group’, and are not obliged to undertake any work-related activity (but may do so voluntarily). A larger number of claimants will be assessed as being able to work in future, and so will move to the Work-Related Activity Group. However, according to DWP data, the vast majority of those reassessed will be found ‘fit for work’ – and thus ineligible for ESA – and passed onto the less supportive, stricter Jobseeker’s Allowance pathway.  

The WCA is highly controversial and with good reason. Fluctuating symptoms, such as those that might occur with a condition like Multiple Sclerosis, are often poorly measured. The test takes little account of the social obstacles disabled people face: the additional costs, and social and practical barriers when trying to find work. In an age when discourses of social mobility, ambition and aspiration have taken political centre-stage, the WCA is based on a medical model of deficiency. It’s not what you can do; it’s what you can’t.

ESA is the most appealed benefit in the UK. It is thought that some 8,000 cases are brought to tribunal every month. As shown by DWP data, some 40 per cent of these appeals are successfully overturned in the appellant’s favour. At a time when the government is taking a hatchet to the welfare budget, these appeals – which will certainly multiply when such reassessments are rolled out nationally – will come at a significant cost to the taxpayer. Incorrectly reassessing people as fit for work when they are not is likely to end up costing the government money, rather than saving it.

The test itself is currently under independent review. And yet, rather than wait for the results of this inquiry, and despite widespread criticisms and concerns from disabled people’s and third sector organisations, the Government is ploughing ahead.

In our new report Destination Unknown, we highlight some of the startling issues and inaccuracies with the WCA. In our recommendations, we call to abandon plans to use the test to reassess DLA claimants. We recommend that the test be reformed so that it takes into account not only a medical assessment of the impairment itself, but also the personal, economic and social obstacles that prevent many disabled people from securing and sustaining work. Disabled people themselves are perfectly placed to identify the barriers they face, and so future tests should adopt a personalised and co-designed approach, as is widely and successfully used in social care self-assessments. The goal of such tests should be to determine what an individual can do, how they can contribute and how best to help them do it. 

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