A Day in the Life

I recently wrote an article on the year four review of the Work Capability Assessment for a local mental health charity. The Work Capability Assessment (WCA) is the tool being used by the government to assess whether those who are ill or disabled are capable of working, and in the foreword to the government's response to the review, the Minister of State for Disabled People, the Rt. Hon. Mike Penning MP, stated: "... my key aim is to prevent people being written off to a life on benefits because of a health condition or disability. The links between health and work are well known... The Work Capability Assessment is a key part of the Government's goal to ensure that all people who can work, regardless of their health condition or disability, are given the opportunity to do so." Indeed, Mr. Penning is himself disabled, and his apparently fervent belief in giving people the chance to work would seem to come from hard personal experience. So, one could be forgiven for t

The charity Brighter Futures has recently completed a four-month review of mental illness and how it is treated in Stoke-on-Trent and surrounding areas. They found that between 77,344 and 87,547 people in the area suffer from some form of mental ill health, a figure higher than the national average. This is perhaps not surprising considering that Stoke-on-Trent might be termed a deprived area, with many of the economic and social problems which often impact on people's mental health. Indeed, many of those involved in the survey said that the closure of mental health resource centres had negatively affected their illness. Welfare reforms also featured as a prominent cause for concern, with the so-called "bedroom tax" flagged up as a particularly troublesome financial burden. Having to wait a long time for decisions relating to benefit eligibility assessments was mentioned as well. However, the report stated that the biggest problem faced by those experiencing mental ill