The highly controversial ‘fit for work’ test is “far from
satisfactory” for people with mental health problems, a damning new
report has found.
The report – ‘
In Safe Hands Now‘
– from the centre-left think tank IPPR found that reforms to the Work
Capability Assessment (WCA) are ‘urgently needed’ in order to ‘ensure
more decisions are correct first time around’.
The IPPR draw attention to a review of the WCA by Dr Litchfield where he
compares the UK system to that used in the Netherlands. Sick and
disabled people in the Netherlands are not assessed as being ‘unfit for
work’ or ‘fit for work’. Instead, ‘specialist medical practitioners and
vocational rehabilitation experts’ are used to determine a sick and/or
disabled persons ability to work in ‘hypothetical jobs’. This is used to
work out a persons ‘earning capacity’ and the level of support they
will require to maintain or increase it. The system is designed to
identify what sort of work a person can do, rather than simply deciding
whether they are capable of working or not.
The WCA has been heavily criticised for its poor level of accuracy
and for how those going through the stressful and demeaning process are
‘insensitively’ treated. Earlier this year the Work and Pensions Select
Committee said that the
WCA is so flawed it should be scrapped and completely replaced.
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