Assessing the ability to work

doi:10.1136/bmj.39472.451134.80

BMJ 2008;336:519-520 (8 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.39472.451134.80

Editorials

Assessing the ability to work

New UK test claims to be fair but lacks rigorous scientificevaluation

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Recently, the Department of Work and Pensions in the UnitedKingdom announced a renewal of the personal capacity assessment.The report states that the renewal is expected to result in20 000 fewer people claiming sickness benefits each year. Italso claims that the new test is more robust, accurate, andfair than the previous one.¹

Two issues are at stake here: firstly, the provision of workand a decent income for millions of people with disabilitiesand, secondly, the billions of pounds that society is willingand able to pay in disability benefits.In many European countries,the growing numbers of people claiming disability benefit andexpenditure on these benefits is an important point of politicalinterest.²

The personal capacity assessment lists 17 activities, each ofwhich can be given a score according to the degree of limitation.People with a score of 15 or more are assessed as unable . . . [Full text of this article]

Jos Verbeek, occupational physician¹, Frank van Dijk, occupational physician²

¹ Cochrane Occupational Health Field, Knowledge Transfer Team, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Kuopio, Finland, ² Coronel Institute of Occupational Health, Academic Medical Centre, Amsterdam, Netherlands

j.h.verbeek@amc.uva.nl

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How helpful is disability label?: Anthony N Williams
BMJ 2008 336: 630. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

Williams, A. N (2008). How helpful is disability label?. BMJ 336: 630-630 [Full text]

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