The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is to review the work capability assessment test for the Employment Support Allowance (ESA), after strong criticism that the system would lead to many disabled people being unfairly penalised. The ESA is to replace incapacity benefit, and the government had intended to reduce welfare expenditure by reducing recipients for this benefit by one million from its current total of 2.7 million.

Over the next three years, it intends to test all those on incapacity benefit to find out if they are genuinely unable to work, and then place them on ESA, where payments differ according to levels of disability. Those who fail the test altogether and are judged fit to seek work will be placed on jobseekers' allowance, which will mean considerably lower income. Once all 2.7 million have been tested, incapacity benefit will cease to exist.

Disabled people are disproportionately likely to be in poverty, a situation which disability groups had originally hoped the new system would address. However, these groups have condemned the assessment for not reflecting how an impairment impacts on someone's everyday life or ability to work.

Neil Coyle, director of policy at Disability Alliance, said the tests were too rigid. ‘They do not measure ability to perform work functions, e.g, typing, packing or sweeping, but are based on someone describing their average day and simple tasks like picking up a coin from the floor,’ he said.

Evidence from the first tests for ESA showed that many people who needed help were being wrongly judged as fit to seek work. As a result, they were being placed on jobseekers' allowance and denied access to programmes to help them find suitable employment, such as Pathways to Work, which was set up to help those on incapacity benefit. Figures for new claimants for ESA showed that, of the 193,800 people who made a claim between October 2008 and February 2009, 36 per cent were found to be fit for work and therefore not eligible for the higher benefit.

A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions said: ‘This is a relatively new process, but we were very grateful to have organisations such as Disability Alliance involved in the consultation process and the development of the programme from the very start. We will be reviewing it to see where improvements and changes need to be made to ensure that it is working as it should be.’

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www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/jan/03/retreat-on-draconian-disability-testing