Catherine Hale

Reposted from Left Foot Forward 9th April 2014 A new Spartacus report launches today, proposing an alternative to the broken ESA system which fails to support disabled people, either in or out of work Employment and Support Allowance promised to liberate people by assessing their capabilities, not their disabilities, and giving them intensive, personalised support to achieve their aspirations and lift them out of poverty. Six years on from its introduction, it is clear the ESA system is a sham. Take the Work Capability Assessment. Despite all the controversy, the backlog of costly appeals, 43 per cent of which are upheld, the deaths reported in the papers every week of people declared Fit for Work, the government still defends the WCA. “Looking at what people can do, not what they can’t,”  is the mantra for the WCA. Here’s an illustration, in the DWP’s own words, of the hypocrisy of this statement. Consider their justification of why Case Study 2, (I’ll call her