News ME Association submission to the Independent Review of the Work Capability Assessment
| ME Association submission to the Independent Review of the Work Capability Assessment |
| Friday, 30 July 2010 14:17 | |||
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The DWP has announced that an independent review will take place into the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) – a key part of the assessment process when claiming Employment and Support Allowance. The ME Association is currently preparing a submission and we are keen to hear from anyone who wishes to make any input to our submission.
Please note that the review is concerned with the Work Capability Assessment and not with any of the other problems that people are facing in relation to the various complex components of ESA claims and assessment procedures, or the medical assessments carried out by ATOS.
If you wish to pass on any comments - especially in relation to the points-related assessments of physical function, mental health and cognitive functioning - to the MEA please do so via ME Connect:
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. It would be helpful if this input could be kept short and to the point.
We are aiming to have our submission ready by the end of August as the closing date for submissions is September 10,
Individual submissions can also be made to the review. This is going to be appropriate for anyone wants to pass on more detailed personal experiences of the problems that WCA creates for people with ME/CFS, and we would encourage people to make individual submissions.
Further information on the review can be found in the email that we received from Professor Malcolm Harrington, who is carrying out the review >>
Dear all,
As you may know, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has asked me to undertake an independent review of the Work Capability Assessment (WCA). This is an important part of the Employment and Support Allowance claim process, designed to determine which claimants are capable of undertaking work, or work-related activity. My aim is to review the current workings of the assessment, and make recommendations on the future development and efficacy of the WCA. As part of this process, I have today (27th July 2010) launched a call for evidence to gather information from a wide variety of stakeholders on the WCA. I strongly invite you to contribute to the call for evidence by submitting any information you may have that is relevant to how the WCA is operating. This includes evaluating how the WCA assesses limited capability for work and limited capability for work-related activity. There are a number of questions throughout the document and I would very much welcome your responses to these. The call for evidence and can be found at: http://www.dwp.gov.uk/consultations/. This e-mail is being sent to a large number of people and organisations who have already been involved in this work or who have expressed an interest. Please do share this e-mail with, or tell us about, anyone you think will want to be involved in this consultation. I apologise if this means you receive this message more than once, but stakeholder views really are important to the process. The closing date for the call for evidence is10 September 2010 – please send your responses to
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(or hard copies to: WCA Independent Review Team, Floor 6, Section B, Caxton House, Tothill Street, London, SW1H 9NA) by then. Kind regards, Professor Malcolm Harrington CBE
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