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Fit For Work Tests Cause Permanent Damage To Claimants Mental Health Finds Study

March 13, 2017
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The Government’s fit-to-work tests for access to disability benefits are causing permanent damage to some claimants’ mental health, from which they are not recovering, a new study has warned.

The research, conducted by academics at Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt and Napier universities, found that the Work Capability Assessment experience “for many, caused a deterioration in people’s mental health which individuals did not recover from”.

It also established, through dozens of in-depth interviews of people who had been through the tests, that “in the worst cases, the WCA experience led to thoughts of suicide”. Mental health charities said the interviews’ contents “reflect what we hear from people every day”.

The study interviewed 30 people with existing mental health conditions who had taken the tests throughout 2016. Most suffered from depression or anxiety, while a smaller number had more complex issues like bipolar disorder or borderline personality disorder. In addition, researchers also interviewed a number of advocacy workers who had had close contact with the test.

The study’s participants reported a lack of expertise in mental health among WCA assessors and advice from the WCA that was not consistent with what they had been told by their own GPs. In one case recorded in the study, a participant recounted a doctor “actually physically gasping” during an appeal because of the poor quality of evidence initially recorded by a WCA assessor. 

Some study participants reported being in tears or having panic attacks during the tests, with others telling the interviewers that the assessments were “making me feel worse”.

The researchers said that the extreme stress having to deal with multiple stigmas of being unemployed and having a mental health condition became “self-reinforcing and self-perpetuating”, leading to the deterioration of claimants’ condition.

“Our research has reinforced the fact that people with mental health problems face more stigma and discrimination than those with physical health conditions and that this discrimination is built into the WCA,” the study’s final report concluded.

Professor Abigail Marks, the lead author of the study who is based at Heriot-Watt University, told The Independent that people who worked closely with such cases reported that deterioration in mental health conditions was an “almost universal” response to the tests.

Key causes of extreme stress were said to be a claimant’s fear of losing their income, the prolonged nature of tests, a lack of specialist mental health training amongst assessors, and the fact the test was clearly geared towards people with physical disabilities. 

“A lot of the people we spoke to were in a position where they are preparing to go back to work before their assessment – they were doing training courses, community initiatives, or volunteering,” she said.

“They said that after the assessment, because the assessment had caused them so much stress, they were unable to go back and take part in those activities because their mental health had had such a deterioration.

“Talking to the advocacy workers, as well, they said it was almost universal that after people had gone through an assessment there was a significant decrease in their mental health.”

In October last year the Government announced that it would stop repeat Work Capability Assessments for people with chronic conditions, characterising the repeat assessments it was scrapping as “unnecessary stress and bureaucracy”.

Mental health charity Mind said the WCA was clearly “not fit for purpose” and that its lengthy and costly appeals processes could make matters worse.

“The findings of this report are concerning but sadly not surprising, as they reflect what we hear from people every day,” Ayaz Manji, the charity’s policy and campaigns officer, said.

“People with mental health problems tell us that the current fit-for-work test causes a great deal of additional anxiety. We know the assessors rarely have sufficient knowledge or expertise in mental health, meaning many people don’t get the right outcome and then have to go through a lengthy and costly appeals process.

“The current approach is not fit for purpose and needs to be replaced by an open and honest conversation based on each person’s individual needs.”

Debbie Abrahams, the Labour work and pensions spokeswoman, said the study was more proof that the WCA “is not only unfit for purpose, but is causing harm to some disabled people”.

She added: “That’s why I have committed Labour to scrapping these assessments completely and replacing them with a holistic, person-centred approach.”

The Work Capability Assessment was introduced in 2008. It is contracted out to private company Maximus, having previously been run by Atos. The system’s failure rate is controversial; figures reported by The Independent last year found that more than half of appealed WCA decisions were found to be wrong when taken to tribunal.

Responding to the study, a Department for Work and Pensions spokesperson appeared to dismiss the interviewees’ experiences as not statistically significant.

“Only thirty people were interviewed for this report, which fails to acknowledge any of the significant improvements we have made to our assessments – particularly for people with mental health conditions,” he said.

“Last year alone at least 35,000 work capability assessments took place in Scotland to help ensure people get the right level of support that they need.” In fact, 37 interviews were conducted for the study.

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from → disability political policies, politics
9 Comments leave one →
  1. Justin Greenwood permalink
    March 13, 2017 2:12 pm

    yet again here we go with the dwp and there not statistically significant, what is statistically significant is the fact that this is true, they are the only people in the world that do not believe that though, the ids,the grayling the green and the rest of the dwp hanger’s on department keep thinking that,to me that is scary because it shows that perhaps they need assessing as they actually believe that this form of bullying is working so then it becomes normalised behaviour, once that happens then that progresses,we see signs of the progression by them ignoring reports like first do no harm etc,then comments like well the person committed suicide because it was causal and nothing to do with the state of the person’s mind after the assessment or the sanctions and tribunals.then there are the assessor’s themselves, how many of them would you trust with your life in a emergency, would you go to hospital seeking treatment to then learn that the person who is responsible for you r care used to be a wca assessor,i would not, i ask for another nurse and that just about sums up what this government is doing bringing disrepute to a caring profession, that charge should not apply to the nurses, it should apply to tory and the ministers and there advisors and hanger’s on that are responsible for this.

    all of them during there summer recess need a job change working on the front line with staff in units and in the community to see for themselves the damage they have done

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  2. sdbast permalink
    March 13, 2017 3:05 pm

    Reblogged this on sdbast.

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  3. mili68 permalink
    March 13, 2017 7:34 pm

    Reblogged this on disabledsingleparent.

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  4. PhobosAndDeimos permalink
    March 13, 2017 11:48 pm

    >”Debbie Abrahams, the Labour work and pensions spokeswoman, said the study was more proof that the WCA “is not only unfit for purpose, but is causing harm to some disabled people”.”

    “IS CAUSING HARM”. (No Shit. That’s ‘news’ is it?)

    So where the hell are that criminal Debbie Abrahams 17 Labour Party run Police Forces and all of their Labour Councils Social Services???

    *ALL* Mp’s have a ‘Public Duty’ to –
    “The Code of Conduct for Members of Parliament…
    5. Members have a duty to uphold the law,”
    https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmcode/1885/188502.htm

    Why won’t criminal abuser Debbie Abrahams just report DWP crime to her Police?
    Why won’t criminal abuser Debbie Abrahams just report DWP abuse to her Social Services?

    “wilful neglect of a public duty” =
    Misconduct in Public Office –
    http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/l_to_o/misconduct_in_public_office/
    “It carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.”

    Assisting an Offender – section 4(1) Criminal Law Act 1967 –
    http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1967/58/section/4

    Accessories and Abettors Act 1861 –
    http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Vict/24-25/94/crossheading/as-to-abettors-in-misdemeanors

    Perverting The Course of Justice –
    http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/p_to_r/public_justice_offences_incorporating_the_charging_standard/
    It also carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

    ————–

    “IS CAUSING HARM”.

    Care Act 2014 – Safeguarding adults at risk of abuse or neglect –
    http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2014/23/section/42/enacted

    Homicide: Murder and Manslaughter –
    http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/h_to_k/homicide_murder_and_manslaughter/

    ABH/GBH
    http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/l_to_o/offences_against_the_person/

    Criminal Attempts Act 1981 –
    http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1981/47/contents

    Fraud Act 2006 –
    http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/35/contents

    Conspiracy to Defraud –
    http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/s_to_u/sentencing_manual/conspiracy_to_defraud_(common_law)/

    Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 –
    Corrupt or other improper exercise of police powers and privileges –
    http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/2/section/26/enacted

    Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 –
    Ill-treatment or wilful neglect: care worker offence –
    http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/2/section/20/enacted
    Ill-treatment or wilful neglect: care provider offence –
    http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/2/section/21/enacted

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