A report has been published which makes recommendations for improvements to the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) for people with fluctuating conditions. Forward ME (an alliance of UK ME charities) and 5 charities representing a range of medical conditions conducted a review because large numbers of people across the UK with a fluctuating health condition have wrongly been found fit to work after undergoing a Work Capability Assessment (WCA) for Employment & Support Allowance (ESA).
The 12 recommendations include:
- asking more questions in assessments to better understand how a fluctuating condition really impacts on someone’s ability to work
- amending the wording of the test to ask whether people can complete activities ‘reliably, repeatedly and safely’ and, as appropriate, ‘within a reasonable amount of time’ and ‘without significant discomfort, breathlessness or fatigue’
- improving the test to recognise the barriers to work presented by pain, fatigue and cognitive problems.
The report will now be examined by a group of independent experts, and the charities will have the opportunity to input into proposals before they are sent in the autumn to the DWP and Ministers via Professor Harrington who is conducting an independent review of the WCA.
The report was discussed on the BBC R4 programme You and Yours on Wed 11 May 2011
