Following consultation with disability organisations, Ekklesia is conducting a survey of people with mental or physical health conditions in order to design a replacement for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and the Work Capability Assessment (WCA).
We consider the WCA to be too flawed and broken to be satisfactorily fixed. It needs replacing, and the people best able to do this are those who are affected by long term illness.
Ekklesia has commissioned experienced independent researcher Stef Benstead to carry out this research, in collaboration with other grassroots disability groups.
Our survey is designed for people with long-term illness to contribute their views on what affects their ability to find and keep work, what support they need and what a proper assessment process should look like.
The survey results will be analysed and written up into a report that will present an alternative to ESA and the WCA, based on the majority views given in this survey.
You can read through the survey in the files attached, and then either return it by mail or complete it online here We now have an easy read version which is available here. Full background and guidance notes are available here Email enquiries should be directed to: ekklesiasurvey@gmail.com
Please note: Ekklesia is committed to the abolition of the Work Capability Assessment (WCA). We are therefore working with Stef Benstead, an independent researcher who lives personally with the issues she is researching, to help develop a new system designed by disabled people. We invite you to take part in our survey. Trigger Warning: The survey is a standard questionnaire which we hope the majority of people will feel comfortable with. We are aware, however, that for some people, filling in a questionnaire like this will remind them of the distress caused by the WCA. If you feel this may be the case for you but have ideas about the new system, we invite you to send your thoughts via the email address provided.
* ESA and WCA Survey for people with long-term illness (*.PDF Adobe Acrobat document): http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/sites/ekklesia.co.uk/files/esa_questionnaire.pdf
* ESA and WCA Survey for people with long-term illness (Word document): http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/sites/ekklesia.co.uk/files/esa_questionnaire.doc
*ESA and WCA survey for people with long-term illness - EASY READ (Word document):
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/sites/ekklesia.co.uk/files/ekklesiaesasurvey_easyread.doc
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