A Hundred Voices For Change
This is a guest post by Rachael Holmes, Head of Policy- Families, Welfare and Work at Citizen’s Advice.
100 voices for change
In February this year Citizens Advice launched a new campaign to make ESA fit for work. As part of the campaign we asked people to share stories of their experience of ESA and we have been overwhelmed with the response. We have now had over a hundred responses giving over a hundred reasons why it is vital that major reforms are made to ESA.
It is clear that too many people are being failed by the system, suffering from poor quality Work Capability Assessments and being left without the support they feel they are entitled to.
One of the most common topics has been how people have had bad experiences with their Work Capability Assessment (WCA) carried out by Atos. We have heard stories like Lesley’s, who was told that the medical evidence she supplied from her neurosurgeon was just ‘her opinion’. And Adam a legal companion trained to support people through ESA claims who has had to argue with Atos staff just to be able to attend a WCA, and has seen assessments cancelled at short notice when the claimant is already on the way to the assessment centre.
DWP will soon have to tender new contracts for companies to run the WCA. With evidence of these failings we are calling on the Government to significantly improve the new contracts so that they can hold the new providers to account for poor quality reports and bad customer service.
Another major concern has been highlighted by stories like John’s who has been left relying on food bank vouchers while he has been waiting over a month without any money for DWP to make a final decision on his ESA application. Citizens Advice is campaigning for the Government to change the rules so that claimants continue to be paid ESA during the ‘mandatory reconsideration’ stage, when DWP gives a second opinion on a claim.
We have also heard stories like Michael’s who is scared that DWP is going to turn down his appeal simply because he could not afford to pay his GP to get the necessary medical evidence to support his claim. We are campaigning to change the rules so that DWP pick up the bill for GPs to provide medical evidence to make sure they can get the decision right first time.
Websites like Same Difference and these voices for change show how important it is that the Government listens to sick and disabled people and makes significant changes to how ESA works. To read the #FitforWork blog and to find out more about our campaign please visit our website at http://blogs.citizensadvice.org.uk/blog/was-it-fit-for-work-for-you/
Same Difference 
The ESA isn’t fit for purpose by design the very name employment support sort of gives it away they want to support people in employment, the “for hardworking people” mantra comes home to roost here. If you can’t work according the the coalition you are just an idle good for nothing who doesn’t deserve any help whatsoever, this is an area of policy that labour appear to agree with. The so called work capability assessment carried out by ATOS but designed by the DWP is so short sighted in what it considers to be either a disability or reason not to be able to work means that the vast majority of conditions that prevent you from working are never considered.
The tribunal can only test whether the DWP have abided by the law, or not, which is difficult to prove as the law was made by the government deliberately to deny as many claimants as possible any help whatsoever.
Whether you get medical reports from your Doctor(s) or not makes no difference because their examinations and diagnoses are not considered whereas the so called medical done more often than not by a nurse who has never met you sitting behind a computer screen overrules anything a Doctar has said, and even if you get a medical from ATOS they simply go through the same idiot sheet. The doctor who saw me spent more time going between his car and my front room than he spent sitting down and filling in his form without even looking at me, let alone attempting an examination.
The Bottom line is that the government doesn’t care about the needy incapacitated and disabled, who are being blamed for the economic mess the rich bankers caused with the economy, and if this group die off well so much the better, in their eyes.
This is the view of someone who is expected to work despite 2 consultants 3 gp’s and 2 ATOS occy health Doctors saying he can’t, not those of a ember of parliament with a good income who voted for a 11 ½ % increase in his pay but we are all in it together.
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