WCA damages health say 95 per cent

Culture of contempt at the very heart of the Work Capability Assessment (WCA)

The assessment of disabled people for ESA has been a national scandal with the real problem being the culture of contempt which is at the very heart of the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) itself, a new report concludes.

Assessing the Assessors, published by the Centre for Welfare Reform, is based on data from 884 respondents to an online questionnaire.

73% of the respondents had physical impairments and 70% had mental health problems.

The questionnaire 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.

Among the disturbing statistics are that:

• 95% found the assessment damaged their health, 29% severely
• 95% gave the assessment a mark of 5 out 10 or less, 43% gave it the lowest possible mark
• 80% of the time the respondent felt the assessor did not listen to them

Among the moving stories and bleak comments left by the respondents, include the following:

• "The process was terrifying, humiliating and degrading..."
• "Tragically, my friend has committed suicide since losing her appeal."
• "It was the second worst experience of my life after my severe accident."

Assessing the Assessors is available @ http://www.centreforwelfarereform.org/uploads/attachment/433/assessing-the-assessors.pdf

The data used in this report is also available @ http://bit.ly/wcasurveydata