document_title: Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

question_text: who plays missy in bill and ted's excellent adventure

question_tokens: who plays missy in bill and ted 's excellent adventure

text: Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

text: Plot[edit]

text: In Futuristic City, 2688, humanity exists as a utopian society due to the inspiration of the music and wisdom of the Two Great Ones: Bill S. Preston, Esq. and Ted "Theodore" Logan. Rufus is tasked by the leaders to travel back to San Dimas, California, in 1988 using a time machine disguised as a telephone booth to ensure that Bill and Ted, who are dimwitted metalhead slacker high school students, get a good grade in their final history oral report and pass the class. Should they fail, Ted's father, Police Captain John Logan, plans to ship Ted to a military academy in Alaska, ending Bill and Ted's fledgling band, the "Wyld Stallyns", thus altering the future. Bill, meanwhile, has a crush on his father's new wife Missy who's just a few years older than Bill himself.

text: Bill and Ted struggle with the report, which asks them to envision how three historical figures would see San Dimas in the present. While they are asking strangers at the local Circle K convenience store for help, Rufus arrives in the time machine. The two are distrustful until the time machine arrives again nearby, out from which step future versions of Bill and Ted. They prove to their younger selves that they are really them and that they should trust Rufus. They privately ask Rufus a question and then depart. The younger versions of Bill and Ted accept Rufus' offer to take them into the past. Rufus takes them to a battlefield in Austria, 1805 where Napoleon Bonaparte is commanding the French army against Austria. They return to the present, unaware that the time machine has caught Napoleon in its wake and pulled him along. Landing near Ted's house, Rufus reminds them that they must still reach the school on time to give their report and then departs, returning the time machine to them. The two discover Napoleon after he falls out of a nearby tree, and come up with the idea of kidnapping other historical figures to bring to the present. They leave Napoleon with Ted's younger brother, Deacon, and start traveling through time.

text: The two befriend Billy the Kid in The Old West, 1879 and Socrates in Ancient Greece, 410 BC before stopping in London, 1461 where they become infatuated with Princesses Elizabeth and Joanna. The teens anger the princesses' father, Henry VI of England, who orders their beheading, but they are rescued by Billy and Socrates. They are forced to leave without the princesses and, in the escape, the telephone booth is damaged. Dialing a random number, they land next in the Utopian future, where Bill and Ted are amazed by the music playing and that the citizens worship them. They leave after a brief stay and, believing they have plenty of time before the report, start collecting more historical figures for extra credit, including Sigmund Freud in Vienna, 1901, Ludwig van Beethoven in Kassel, 1810, Joan of Arc in Orléans, 1429, Genghis Khan in Mongolia, 1209, and Abraham Lincoln in Washington, D.C., 1863. Having run out of room in the phone booth, Bill and Ted finally discover the time machine is damaged.

text: After making ad hoc repairs to the time machine, Bill and Ted try to return to the present but land outside the Circle K, recognizing the situation they previously witnessed. After reassuring their younger selves, they learn from Rufus how to dial the right number to get to their present and that they are running out of time. Once they arrive to the present, Bill's mother has him, Ted, and the historical figures get their household chores done before taking them to the local mall, where the historical figures are left to experience San Dimas while Bill and Ted look for Napoleon; Ted finds Deacon had ditched Napoleon earlier out of embarrassment, but they later find him at the water slide park "Waterloo" (the name based on the Napoleon's famous battle of "Waterloo"). Meanwhile, the historical figures had caused trouble at the mall and have been arrested by Captain Logan. Upon discovering this, Bill and Ted figure out how they can use the time machine to set up an event at the police station to allow them to free the historical figures without getting caught. After freeing them, Bill's mother drives them all to the high school and arrive just in time, where they give an impressive presentation with the help of the historical figures that receives a standing ovation. They pass their course and return the historical figures to their proper times.

text: Later, as Bill and Ted are practicing, Rufus arrives, showing he had rescued the princesses from England and introduced them to the modern world, and that they become part of Wyld Stallyns. Elated, Bill and Ted resume their practice with their usual ineptitude, with Rufus breaking the fourth wall and promising, "They do get better..."

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Main

Keanu Reeves as Ted "Theodore" Logan
Alex Winter as Bill S. Preston Esq.
George Carlin as Rufus

Historical Figures

Terry Camilleri as Napoleon Bonaparte
Dan Shor as Billy the Kid
Tony Steedman as Socrates
Rod Loomis as Sigmund Freud
Al Leong as Genghis Khan
Jane Wiedlin as Joan of Arc
Robert V. Barron as Abraham Lincoln
Clifford David as Ludwig van Beethoven

Supporting

Hal Landon Jr. as Captain Jonathan "John" Logan
Bernie Casey as Mr. Ryan
Amy Stock-Poynton as Missy/Mom Preston
J. Patrick McNamara as Mr. Preston
Frazier Bain as Deacon Logan
John Karlsen as Evil Duke
Diane Franklin as Princess Joanna
Kimberley LaBelle as Princess Elizabeth

The Three Supreme Beings of the Future

Clarence Clemons
Martha Davis
Fee Waybill

text: Production[edit]

text: The film was shot in 1987 in the Phoenix, Arizona, metropolitan area, mostly in and around Scottsdale's Coronado High School. Coronado's auditorium was torn down during 2005-07 renovations, but its unique roof and intricate exterior mosaic, seen in an opening scene when Bill and Ted leave school in a red Mustang, was saved and moved, piece by piece, to the new auditorium. The interior shots of the auditorium were filmed inside the East High School auditorium, which was in Phoenix on 48th Street just north of Van Buren. East High School was demolished in 2002 as part of a redevelopment project. The production also shot a sequence on the Western Street on the back lot of Southwestern Studio in Carefree, Arizona. Odescalchi castle was used as Henry VI's castle.

text: The scenes at Waterloo are a combination of establishing shots at Raging Waters in San Dimas and shots with the actors at Golfland Sunsplash in Mesa, Arizona. The bowling alley was a Fair Lanes-branded alley at that time but is now the AMF Tempe Village Lanes on Rural Road at US 60, three miles south of Arizona State University. The mall was Phoenix Metrocenter, between Peoria and Dunlap Avenues at Interstate 17. It has since been renovated and no longer looks as it did in the film. The Circle K store is at the intersection of Southern and Hardy in Tempe.[4][5]

text: The film also employs computer-generated imagery for the scenes where Bill & Ted are travelling through the 'Circuits of Time', created by the VFX house Perpetual Motion Pictures.

text: The film's writers, Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson, appear in the film's ice cream scene. Solomon is credited as the "stupid" waiter, and Matheson is credited as the "ugly" waiter. They are given similar credits in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey.

text: When Rufus plays his guitar solo, the hands in the close-up are those of Stevie Salas, who composed the film's guitar music.[6]

text: The film took nearly two years to make. Filming took place from February to May 1987[7] and it was planned to be released in 1988. However, the film's original distributor, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, went bankrupt. Orion Pictures and Nelson Entertainment bought the rights to the movie in 1988, and it was released theatrically on February 17, 1989.[8] As a partial result of the delay, certain dates in the film originally scripted as "1987" had to be re-dubbed as "1988". The copyright date of this film is 1989, while 1988 incorrectly appears on the DVD cover (though some copies still note 1989 as its release date) and 1987 appears on the back of the Blu-ray release.

text: It was followed in 1991 by a sequel, Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey.

text: Writing for Wired to mark the 25th anniversary of the film's release, Angela Watercutter noted:

text: "There's a longstanding urban legend that Reeves auditioned for the role of Bill and Winter auditioned for Ted, but that's not exactly how Winter remembers it. 'The reason that that ended up in lore was because at a certain point Keanu got it in his head that he was playing Bill and I was playing Ted,' he says. 'To be fair to Reeves, it's possible that out of the 80 trillion times we had to do the scenes [in auditions] the very, very last time we went in he happened to get the Bill sides and I happened to get the Ted sides.' After Reeves found out he was playing Ted, though, he was Sad Keanu. 'We're sitting in the office waiting to meet the producers for the first time and I'm pretty jazzed and he's miserable,' Winters says. 'I'm like, "Dude, what's wrong? We finally got it after all this bullshit," you know? And he's like, "Yeah, but I'm Ted." And I was like, "Yeah, you're Ted. That's awesome." He was like, "I thought I was Bill." I was like, "What fucking difference does it make? For god's sake, they're completely interchangeable. If you want you can be Bill and I'll be Ted, I really don't care. It's not going to impact the way I play this guy one iota.'"[9]

text: Differences from original script[edit]

text: In earlier drafts of the script, Rufus was 28 years old and historical figures Bill and Ted plucked from history included Charlemagne (whom they referred to as "Charlie Mangay"), Babe Ruth, and a non-famous medieval person called "John the Serf". John is listed in the credits.[10]

text: In a 1991 interview, co-writer Ed Solomon said the characters of Bill and Ted were originally envisaged as "14-year-old skinny guys, with low-rider bell-bottoms and heavy metal T-shirts" who were despised by the popular kids at school. Casting Reeves and Winter changed the filmmakers' images of the characters because "...once you cast Alex and Keanu, who look like pretty cool guys, that was hard to believe".[11]

text: Originally, the time machine was to be a 1969 Chevrolet van, but the idea was abandoned as being too close in concept to the DeLorean used in the Back to the Future trilogy.[9] Instead, despite the similarities to Doctor Who's time machine, the TARDIS, the film's time machine was styled after a 1960s American telephone booth, though a newer model Ford van would be used as the rock concert "band wagon" for the sequel.

text: In April 2013, Winter commented on Carlin's casting: "He was a very happy accident. They were going after serious people first. Like Sean Connery. And someone had the idea, way after we started shooting, of George. That whole movie was a happy accident. No one thought it would ever see the light of day."[12]

text: Soundtrack[edit]

text:
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Soundtrack album by various artists

Released
1989

Genre
Hard rock, heavy metal, glam rock, glam metal, pop rock, rock 'n' roll

Length
40:32

Label
A&M Records

text: The film's soundtrack was released in 1989. The tracks are as follows:

text:
"Play with Me" by Extreme
"The Boys and Girls Are Doing It" by Vital Signs
"Not So Far Away" by Glen Burtnik
"Dancing with a Gypsy" by Tora Tora
"Father Time" by Shark Island
"I Can't Break Away" by Big Pig
"Dangerous" by Shark Island
"Walk Away" by Bricklin
"In Time" by Robbie Robb feat. Stevie Salas
"Two Heads Are Better Than One" by Power Tool

text: These tracks are ordered for the album differently than they are in the movie. In the movie, the songs show up in the following order: "I Can't Break Away", "Dancing with a Gypsy", "Father Time", "Dangerous", "In Time", "Two Heads Are Better Than One", "The Boys and Girls Are Doing It", "Play with Me", "Walk Away", "Not So Far Away" and "Two Heads" (reprised over the credits).

text: The following songs appeared in the film but were not included in the soundtrack:[citation needed]

text:
"No Right to Do Me Wrong" by Range War
"Party Up" by Rori
"Bad Guitar" by Stevie 'No Wonder' Salas
"Carlin's Solo" by Hands of Flutes
"Game of War" by Warrant

text: Related productions[edit]

text: Sequels[edit]

text: A theatrical sequel, Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, was released in 1991.

text: A third theatrical film in the Bill & Ted franchise was planned, and a screenplay was written, though it never got past the pre-production phase. Although rumors claimed that the script was adapted into the 1996 film Bio-Dome, Alex Winter has said that it was not.[13]

text: In 2010, Reeves indicated that Matheson and Solomon were working on a script for a third film,[14] confirming in April 2011 that a draft was complete.[15] Winter said in March 2012 that he and Reeves both liked the finished script, which revisits the two characters after the changes of the past twenty years.[16] The current script does not feature the return of the Grim Reaper from Bogus Journey, but since actor William Sadler has expressed interest, the writers are considering ways to include the character.[17] In August 2012, Dean Parisot (director of the sci-fi/comedy film Galaxy Quest) signed on to direct the film, although MGM, which holds the rights to the Bill & Ted franchise, has yet to give the movie an official greenlight.[18] In an April 2014 article on the original film's 25th anniversary, Alex Winter reported that work on going ahead with the second sequel was still in progress.[11]

text: Television[edit]

text: Two spin-off television series were produced; both were titled Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures.

text:
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures was an animated series that first ran on CBS in 1990, and featured the voices of Winter, Reeves and Carlin returning to their roles in the film. A second season of eight episodes ran on Fox Kids, with the voice cast of Fox's upcoming live-action series.
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures was a live-action series that ran only seven episodes on Fox in the summer of 1992. It featured none of the cast from the film apart from Lisa Wilcox. Evan Richards and Christopher Kennedy played Bill and Ted.[19]

text: Comics[edit]

text: DC Comics produced a tie-in comic following the plot of the first movie timed to coincide with that film's release on home video.[20] The sequel was adapted by DC's competitor Marvel Comics, published to coincide with the second film's release in theaters. Its popularity led to the ongoing Marvel series Bill & Ted's Excellent Comic Book by Evan Dorkin, which lasted for 12 issues.[21]

text: There was a weekly 2/4 page semi-adaptation of the animated series published for a year by UK's defunct Look-In Magazine from 1991 to 1992.[22]

text: Video games[edit]

text: There were also Game Boy, NES and Atari Lynx games released, which were very loosely based on the film's plot. A PC title and nearly identical Amiga and Commodore 64 port were made in 1991 by Off the Wall Productions and IntraCorp, Inc. under contract by Capstone Software and followed the original film very closely.

text: Theme parks[edit]

text: The annual Halloween Horror Nights events at Universal Studios Orlando and Hollywood have featured since 1992 (Orlando) and 1997-1999/2007 (Hollywood) Bill & Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure, a show satirizing pop culture of the year with Bill & Ted as the protagonists fighting villains who steal their phone booth for their own schemes.

text: The show differs from year to year, with spoofs of various pop culture icons. The main plot involves Bill and Ted being threatened by an evil villain from a popular film of that year, with appearances by a host of villains, heroes, and celebrities. The show usually includes elaborate dance numbers, stunts, and multiple double-entendres for the late night event crowd.[23][24] In 2013, the Hollywood version of the show was cancelled in the middle of its run following complaints of homophobic humor.[25]

text: On August 15, 2017, Universal announced that 2017 will be the final year of Bill and Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure in Orlando.[26]

text: Reception[edit]

text: Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure grossed $40.4 million domestically on a budget of about $10 million.[27] The Washington Post gave the film a negative review, finding the script written by Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon as "made only the sketchiest attempts to draw their historical characters. They exist as foils and nothing else, and the gags that are hung on them are far from first-rate", and that if director "Stephen Herek, has any talent for comedy, it's not visible here. More than anything, the picture looks paltry and undernourished."[28] Variety wrote about each historical figure that Bill & Ted meet, stating that "Each encounter is so brief and utterly cliched that history has little chance to contribute anything to this pic’s two dimensions."[29] Vincent Canby of The New York Times referred to the film as a "painfully inept comedy" and that the "one dimly interesting thing about Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure is the way the two teen-age heroes communicate in superlatives. We are about to fail most egregiously, says Ted to Bill, or maybe it's Bill to Ted. They are also fond of odd words, such as bodacious."[30] In the Los Angeles Times, Chris Willman was also unimpressed, concluding: "Make no mistake, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure […] is not a satire of mindlessness; it's unabashed glorification of dumbness for dumbness' sake. Bill and Ted are heroic in their ability to reduce some of history's great minds to their level.[3] However, writing for Radio Times, Alan Jones decided: "A nonstop giggle from start to finish, this beguiling grab-bag of time-travel clichés, hard-rock music and Valley-speaking cool dudes is a flawless, purpose-built junk movie".[31]

text: The film has an 78% "Certified fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes, based on 45 reviews with an average rating of 6.5/10, the site's critical consensus reads: "Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter are just charming, goofy, and silly enough to make this fluffy time-travel Adventure work".[32]

text: The successes of the film and the animated series spawned a short-lived breakfast cereal called Bill & Ted's Excellent Cereal.[33]

text: The phone booth used in the film was given away in a contest presented by Nintendo Power magazine, to promote Bill & Ted's Excellent Video Game Adventure. It was won by Kenneth Grayson of Mississippi.[34][35]

text: In 2010, the city of San Dimas celebrated 50 years of incorporation. The celebration's slogan was San Dimas, 1960–2010 – An Excellent Adventure.[36]

text: Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure was selected as number 8 in Rolling Stone's '10 Best Stoner Movies of All Time' in 2013.[37]

text: Writing in The Guardian on the occasion of the film's 25th anniversary, Hadley Freeman found: "Of all the delightfully improbable scenarios depicted in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure – from Napoleon Bonaparte causing havoc on a waterslide to Billy the Kid and Socrates (aka "So-crayts", of course) picking up chicks in a California mall to George Carlin acting in a film alongside Keanu Reeves and a member of the Go-Go's – none would have seemed more unlikely on its release than the idea that one day, with much media fanfare, the public would be celebrating the film's 25th anniversary. By the time Bill & Ted was released in 1989, the 80s teen film explosion was starting to taper out. […] Moreover, there had already been plenty of films about time-travelling teens by the time Bill & Ted rocked up in cinemas, such as Peggy Sue Got Married and Back to the Future. Few who were around then would have bet that a goofy movie about a pair of California metalheads skipping back through time in a phonebox collecting historical characters to bring back to 20th-century California for their history report would still be remembered today. But I am very much among those few".[11]

text: The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

text:
2005: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:

Bill/Ted: "Excellent!" – Nominated[38]

text: In cultural analysis[edit]

text: Writing in British Sunday newspaper The Observer, Tom Holland noted,

text: "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure does not tend to be rated as one of cinema's profounder treatments of the relationship between present and past. The story of two Californian slackers with a time machine who, for complicated reasons, have to assemble assorted celebrities from history in order to pass a high-school project, it is chiefly remembered for bringing Keanu Reeves to the attention of a mass audience. Classicists, however, will always cherish it as the only film ever to combine the music of Van Halen with Greek philosophy. When Bill and Ted embark on their quest, what should be their first destination if not classical Athens, and who should be the very first 'historical dude' bundled into their time machine if not a bald-headed man in a sheet whom they persist in calling 'Soh-kraytz'?"[39]

text: Holland continued:

text: "Even to metalheads, then, the philosophy of ancient Greece serves as something that is both primal and emblematic of civilisation as a whole. Socrates, in particular, the 'lover of wisdom' who insisted that the most fundamental presumptions of his countrymen should be subjected to experimental investigation, and who ended up being made to drink hemlock for his pains, has always been admired as the very fountainhead of rationalism. Yet when it comes to identifying what he taught and believed, there is a problem, on which Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, rather unexpectedly, puts its finger. Socrates, transplanted to 1980s California, can only communicate with his abductors by gesturing and gurning – since Bill and Ted, it goes without saying, speak not a word of ancient Greek. Even the miracle of time travel, it appears, cannot serve to alter what is, for any historian, a most awkward fact: that it is impossible to be certain of what Socrates actually said."[39]


document_title: The Life of David Gale

question_text: where was the life of david gale filmed

question_tokens: where was the life of david gale filmed

root

text: The Life of David Gale

text: Plot[edit]

text: David Gale is a professor who is a prisoner on death row in Texas. With only a few days until his execution, his lawyer negotiates a half million-dollar fee to tell his story to Bitsey Bloom, a journalist from a major news magazine. She is known for her ability to keep secrets and protect her sources. He tells her the story of how he ended up on death row, revealed to the audience through a series of lengthy flashbacks.

tag: p

text: Gale is head of the philosophy department at the University of Texas and an active member of DeathWatch, an advocacy group campaigning against capital punishment. At a graduation party, he encounters Berlin, an attractive graduate student who had been expelled from the school. When Gale gets drunk at the party, she seduces him and gets him to have sex with her. She then falsely accuses Gale of rape. The next day, he loses a televised debate with the Governor of Texas when he is unable to point to an example of a demonstrably innocent man being executed during that governor's term. After losing the debate, Gale is arrested and charged with rape. While the rape charge against Gale is later dropped, the damage had already been done, and his family, marriage, university career and reputation are all destroyed.

text: Constance Harraway, a fellow DeathWatch activist, is a close friend of Gale who consoles him after his life falls apart, and the pair have sex. However, the next day, Harraway is discovered raped and murdered, suffocated by a plastic bag taped over her head. An autopsy reveals that she had been forced to swallow the key to the handcuffs used to restrain her, a psychological torture technique used by the Securitate under the communist regime of Nicolae Ceauşescu, which Gale and Harraway had both protested against. The physical evidence at the crime scene points to Gale, who is convicted of rape and murder and is sentenced to death.

text: In the present, Bloom investigates the case in between her visits with Gale. She comes to believe that the apparent evidence against Gale does not add up. She is tailed several times in her car by a person who turns out to be Dusty Wright, the alleged one-time lover and colleague of Harraway, who she suspects was the real killer. Wright slips evidence to Bloom that suggests Gale has been "framed", implying that the actual murderer videotaped the crime. Bloom pursues this lead until she finds a tape revealing that Harraway, who was suffering from terminal leukemia, had committed an elaborate suicide made to look like murder. Wright is seen on the videotape, acting as her accomplice, implying that they framed Gale as part of a plan to discredit the death penalty by conspiring to execute an innocent person, and subsequently releasing evidence of the actual circumstances.

text: Once Bloom and her aide find this evidence, only hours remain until Gale's scheduled execution. She tries to give the tape to the authorities in time to stop the execution. She arrives at the Huntsville Unit just as the warden announces that it has been carried out. The tape is subsequently released, causing a media and political uproar over the execution of an innocent man. Later, Wright receives the fee that Bloom's magazine agreed to pay for the interview, and delivers it to Gale's ex-wife in Spain, along with a postcard from Berlin in San Francisco apologizing, all but confessing that the rape accusation that derailed Gale's life and career was false. His ex-wife looks distraught, knowing Gale told the truth and that she effectively stole their child away from him.

text: Much later still, a videotape labelled "Off the Record" is delivered to Bloom. This tape picks up at the point where Wright confirmed that Harraway was dead. It continues to show him stepping aside to allow Gale, also present and party to the suicide, to caress the body of his lover, deliberately leaving his fingerprints on the plastic bag in the process. He then stands up and ends the recording, leaving Bloom stunned with the truth that the couple deliberately sacrificed themselves to discredit capital punishment as capable of causing the execution of an innocent man.

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Kevin Spacey as David Gale
Kate Winslet as Bitsey Bloom
Laura Linney as Constance Harraway
Gabriel Mann as Zack Stemmons
Rhona Mitra as Berlin
Leon Rippy as Braxton Belyeu
Matt Craven as Dusty Wright
Jim Beaver as Duke Grover
Melissa McCarthy as Nico

tag: ul

text: Production[edit]

text: The Life of David Gale was shot in multiple places, including Huntsville, Texas, Sam Houston State University, The University of Texas at Austin, Garrison Hall, KLRU-TV, Metro Espresso Bar (now Cafe Medici), 2222 Guadalupe St, Cain and Abel's Bar at Austin, Gumbo's Louisiana Style Cafe and Plaça Reial, Barcelona.

text: Reception[edit]

text: The Life of David Gale received overwhelmingly negative reviews from critics and has a rating of 19% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 156 reviews with an average score of 4.2 out of 10. The consensus states "Instead of offering a convincing argument against the death penalty, this implausible, convoluted thriller pounds the viewer over the head with its message."[3] The film also has a score of 31 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 36 reviews indicating 'Generally unfavorable reviews.'[4]

text: Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert gave the film a rare zero stars and stated in his review "I am sure the filmmakers believe their film is against the death penalty. I believe it supports it and hopes to discredit the opponents of the penalty as unprincipled fraudsters. Spacey and Parker are honorable men... The last shot made me want to throw something at the screen – maybe Spacey and Parker."[5] Ebert's co-host Richard Roeper, however, did not hesitate to give the film a "thumbs up".

text: Soundtrack[edit]

text: The soundtrack (composed by Alex and Jake Parker) has been used in various film trailers, specifically the tracks "The Life of David Gale" and "Almost Martyrs". The score has been used in the trailers for World Trade Center, Munich, In the Valley of Elah, Milk, The Artist and The Iron Lady.


document_title: Work Capability Assessment

question_text: who carries out work capability assessments for esa

question_tokens: who carries out work capability assessments for esa

text: Work Capability Assessment

text: History

text: Between 1971 and 1995, the main out-of-work sickness payment from the National Insurance scheme was known as Invalidity Benefit. Entitlement to it was decided by a civil servant using information and advice provided by the claimant's doctor.

text: In 1995, the Department of Social Security abolished Invalidity Benefit for new claims and introduced Incapacity Benefit instead. The main difference was that the new benefit would only be paid if the claimant was unfit for any job, not just their old trade. The department then began to commission independent medical assessments using its new All Work Test. However, only a minority of fresh claims were actually assessed in this way; the rest were still gauged by a government official using information provided by the claimant's GP.

text: In 2000, five years after it was introduced, the All Work Test was replaced by the Personal Capability Assessment. This new test was used by government-approved doctors not only to assess some fresh claims but also to reassess some established recipients, at the behest of a government official.[2]

text: In its last term of office New Labour began to phase out Incapacity Benefit and replace it with Employment and Support Allowance. At the same time the Work Capability Assessment became the gateway to the new out-of-work sickness benefit. The policy objectives for the new test were: to accentuate the positive by "looking at what you can do, not what you can't do"; to take into account new disability legislation, changes in the workplace and developments in occupational health; to make the test more stringent; to assess most new claims in person rather than on paper; and, once the new test had bedded in, to use it to re-evaluate virtually every established sickness benefit recipient. To facilitate these last two objectives testing capacity was increased fivefold by employing nurses and physiotherapists to work alongside doctors, and a semi-structured interview technique based on a computer-generated template was used for the first time.[3]

text: The WCA went live in 2008, assessing only fresh claims, but the sickness benefit caseload went up — partly a consequence of the banking crisis and its effect on the economy and on jobs.[4] An overhaul of the test began soon afterwards and the new version was deployed in 2011 by the coalition government led by David Cameron. The WCA then became the fulcrum for a reassessment of all recipients of Incapacity Benefit and all disabled people on Income Support — a major Whitehall project that was supposed to save billions of pounds a year from the welfare budget, in a new age of austerity.[5][6]

text: Assessment process

text: The process is ultimately a legal one that uses social security legislation as its main reference point (which is why appeals are made to lawyer-led tribunals overseen by the Ministry of Justice). The standard of proof used is 'the balance of probabilities': a claim should be accepted if it is more likely than not that the claimant has a significant disability.

text: The process starts with an assessment by a healthcare professional, after which an official from the DWP decides on entitlement to Employment and Support Allowance (or to an enhanced rate of Universal Credit). The process also decides whether a successful claimant is able to take part in 'work-related activity'. In this way, the process sorts claimants — broadly speaking — into three groups:[7]

text:
Fit for work
Unfit for work, but fit for 'work-related activity' (the Work-Related Activity Group)
Fit for neither work nor 'work-related activity' (the Support Group)

text: In principle

text: The strength of a claim is largely determined by comparing the claimant's problem with a framework of set criteria, known as 'descriptors',[8] which are divided into 'functional' and 'non-functional' descriptors. The healthcare professional's main role is to select the most appropriate descriptor for each activity printed on the ESA claim form that the claimant has marked as being difficult for them in their day-to-day life. To do this, assessors draw on their training in the field of 'functional assessment' — a subspecialty concerned with gauging the practical impact of an impairment on a person's daily life and, in the context of the WCA, on their ability to work.

text: The healthcare professional also draws on their medical knowledge gained from working in a clinical environment earlier in their career to:

text:
Answer factual questions that have a bearing on eligibility, such as: "Is the claimant receiving intravenous therapy?"
Explore the medical history
Deliver clinical judgements, such as on whether the claimant is at substantial risk or terminally ill
Estimate the date of any future recovery

text: Functional descriptors

text: Each functional descriptor comes with a 'score' of 6, 9 or 15 points that is intended to reflect the relative severity of the disability. A total score of 15 points or more will qualify the claimant for ESA. If the healthcare professional deems that none of the functional descriptors apply, the total score will be zero.

text: Descriptors are grouped into 17 activities. For example, the activity 'Manual Dexterity' – hand function – comes with the following descriptors for the assessor to choose from:

text:
The claimant cannot use a computer keyboard or mouse (9 points)
The claimant cannot use a pen (9 points)
The claimant cannot pick up a small object (15 points)
The claimant cannot press a button or turn a page (15 points and a place in the Support Group)

text: Only one descriptor may be chosen for each activity, and it should be the highest-scoring option that still accurately describes the loss of function. Someone who can pick up a small object like a coin but cannot use a pen to make a simple mark will score 9 points for that activity.

text: If a claimant is capable – in narrow terms – of carry out a particular action but cannot do so reliably, repeatedly, in a timely manner, safely and without significant pain, they should be treated as being incapable of carrying out that action.

text: The physical functional descriptors cover these activities:

text:
Mobilising
Standing and sitting
Reaching
Picking up and moving an object
Manual dexterity
Making yourself understood
Understanding others
Finding your way around
Continence
Consciousness

text: The mental functional descriptors cover:

text:
Learning tasks
Hazard awareness
Planning and problem-solving
Coping with change
Getting about
Coping with other people
Behaviour

text: A 'top score' in one activity will usually qualify the claimant for the Support Group.

text: Non-functional descriptors

text: The non-functional descriptors have no points attached but instead have a simple 'yes' or 'no' answer:

text:
Is the claimant unable to eat or drink?
Is the medical condition life-threatening and uncontrollable?
Will the claimant probably die within 6 months?
Would the claimant's health be at substantial risk if they were found fit for work or for work-related activity?

text: Other factors that might be taken into account here include:

text:
The claimant is pregnant
There is a risk to others
Intravenous therapy is being administered
The claimant has cancer

text: Summary

text: The process uses fixed criteria and a system of points in an attempt to differentiate between people claiming ESA who have no significant disabilities and those who, because of the type and severity of their disability, do face significant barriers to work. Within the latter group, the WCA tries to identify those successful claimants who have one or more severe functional disabilities: they are not required to prepare for future work and will be placed in the Support Group rather than the Work-Related Activity Group. A 'yes' answer to a non-functional descriptor question will usually lead to the claimant being treated as though they were in the Support Group.

text: In practice

text: The first step in a new claim for Employment and Support Allowance is for the claimant to ask their doctor for a certificate stating that they are unfit for work. This is a standard blank form that the DWP issues routinely to NHS GPs — it is the same form that NHS GPs normally use to issue a sick note or 'fit note' to their employed patients when they are off work because they are ill. Next, the claimant contacts the DWP. At this point, the DWP conducts a basic screen of the claim and then usually sends out a more detailed form for the claimant to fill in, called the ESA50. The claimant then enters the 'assessment phase' and will normally be paid 'assessment rate ESA' for at least the next 13 weeks, at the rate they would be paid if they were on Jobseekers Allowance. Despite the name, no assessment takes place during the 'assessment phase'; it is intended to allow people with medium term medical problems, such as a broken bone, to recover before any more detailed assessment is carried out.

text: The main assessment process starts as soon as can be arranged after 13 weeks from the initial claim, when a healthcare professional approved by the DWP scrutinises the ESA50 claim form and decides whether to seek further evidence from the claimant's GP or another appropriate source. If the evidence shows that, on balance, according to the legally-defined criteria of the test, the claimant could not reasonably be expected to work or prepare for work, then a face-to-face assessment should not be necessary, the claimant should be recommended for the Support Group, and the higher rate of ESA usually granted. Otherwise, the healthcare professional arranges a face-to-face assessment – usually in an examination centre, but occasionally in the claimant's home.

text: At face-to-face assessments, the assessors – who are nurses, doctors or physiotherapists – are guided and prompted by a computer programme, designed by Atos in conjunction with the DWP, called the 'Logic-integrated Medical Assessment' or 'LiMA'. A large amount of lifestyle data and some clinical information is obtained from the claimant and is entered into the computer by the assessor, mostly by selecting pre-determined 'one click' options from an on-screen menu. As the assessment progresses, LiMA tries to gauge both the impact of the disability on the person's daily life and the person's fitness for work – but while LiMA suggests options to the assessor, it is ultimately the healthcare professional who is responsible for making the recommendations.

text: As well as taking a clinical history and exploring the claimant's 'Typical Day', the healthcare professional will make general observations of the claimant's hearing, mobility and posture, etc. and there may be a short physical examination. The claimant's mental state will to a large degree become apparent as the interview progresses, but specific questions might be asked in order to elucidate any disordered thinking, abnormalities of perception or cognitive impairment.[9]

text: If assessors are unsure how to apply the test's criteria in specific cases, telephone advice is available.

text: During the face-to-face assessment, if it becomes clear that the claimant qualifies for the Support Group on the grounds of severe functional disability, the interview should be brought to an early close and the finding recorded as a short note on the claimant's file as a recommendation to the DWP decision-maker. Otherwise, after the interview and any examination the findings are summarised in free text using Standard English prose and the report, constructed mainly from the LiMA options selected by the assessor during the interview phase of the assessment, is sent electronically to the DWP. The whole report attempts both to record all the findings and to justify the recommendation on fitness for work.[10] It shows the total points score and ends with a statement on whether significant disability is likely or unlikely, and a prognosis.

text: The way the test has been carried out has been the subject of criticism: the semi-structured interview style and the use of decision-making software led to suspicions among some that the WCA was merely a checklist of standard questions or a box-ticking exercise, and that a 'computer says no' attitude was one of the reasons for the large number of disabled people being declared 'fit for work'.

text: Checks and balances

text: The recommendation from the outsourcing firm is not the final decision on benefit entitlement. There are a number of what the DWP has called "checks and balances" that can follow the core assessment.[11]

text: DWP decision-makers

text: When the assessor's report is sent by the outsourcing firm to the DWP it clearly indicates suitability — or not — for the Support Group, and it contains the assessor's points score and a statement on whether the disability is significant enough for the claimant to qualify for ESA, but it is an official who makes the final decision on which category the claimant falls into and on entitlement to ESA payments. This decision takes into account: the assessor's report; any other available medical evidence; and the aspects of social security legislation pertaining to entitlement to benefits.

text: Assessors should not supply "prescriptive advice" on benefit entitlement in their reports. However, the structure of the core WCA and the way reports are presented mean that assessors' opinions on fitness for work are obvious to decision-makers. Some claimants are unfit for work but nevertheless ineligible for ESA because they do not meet the non-medical criteria with respect to benefit entitlement.

text: Reconsideration

text: If the claimant disagrees with the decision-maker's conclusion, the claimant can ask the DWP to review its decision (in October 2013, the DWP stopped claimants from appealing directly to independent tribunals; claimants must now first ask the DWP to reconsider the case — a process known as 'mandatory reconsideration' — whereas before October 2013, claimants could choose between asking for a reconsideration by the department or going straight to an external appeal).

text: In early 2014, more than 40% of 'fit for work' decisions undergoing reconsideration were overturned at this stage of the process. By 2015, the overturn rate at this stage had dropped to just over 10%.[12][13]

text: Tribunals

text: If the result of the reconsideration is unfavourable to the claimant, he or she can then appeal to an independent tribunal — consisting of a judge, a doctor and a layman — operating under the auspices of the Ministry of Justice. The tribunal takes oral and written evidence from the appellant and observes them during the hearing but the doctor on the panel does not physically examine them; otherwise, the tribunals use the same legal process and the same set of criteria as the DWP and its outsourcing partner.

text: Outcomes

text: The core WCA generated high volumes of 'fit for work' recommendations from its inception. As the reassessment programme gathered steam, the proportion disregarded by decision-makers grew: 8% of 'fit for work' recommendations were disregarded in 2012; this almost doubled to 15% in 2013 and then increased again in 2014 to 20%.[14]

text: With initial decisions, almost two-thirds of claimants were declared 'fit for work' by the DWP in 2009 and 2010. This dropped to around half once the reassessment programme got underway in 2011; by 2013, it was a third; by 2014, only a quarter of claimants were declared 'fit for work' by the DWP at the first stage of the decision-making process.[15] The DWP then overturned a sizeable percentage of its own decisions at the reconsideration stage, while independent tribunals overturned still more.

text: More recently, DWP data for the first quarter of 2016[16] showed that 9% of WCAs carried out at that point in time were reassessments of old Incapacity Benefit claims, while 21% were reassessments of successful ESA claims and the remaining 70% were new assessments of fresh claims. The outcomes, before any reconsiderations or appeals, were:

text:
After Incapacity Benefit reassessments, 93% of claimants were found to be unfit for work
After ESA reassessments, 89% of claimants were found to be unfit for work
After assessments of new claims, 54% of claimants were found to be unfit for work

text: The Work-Related Activity Group

text: The Work-Related Activity Group (WRAG) is the cohort of successful ESA claimants whom the DWP thinks are likely to be able to find work in the future after receiving extra help. The WRAG generally contains people with less severe disabilities than those of people in the Support Group. However, the WRAG and the Support Group both contain people whom a disability analyst and the DWP have deemed to face significant extra barriers to work because of their ill-health or disability.

text: Those in the WRAG are required to take part in 'work-related activity' as a condition of their benefit. The DWP has not defined 'work-related activity' precisely but so far it has not involved applying for jobs, taking part in work placements or undertaking any form of provisional employment. The DWP says: "Claimants identified for this group will take part in work-focused interviews with a personal advisor and have access to a range of support to help them prepare for suitable work" and tells claimants their advisor will "help with things like job goals and improving your skills".[17] Pre-employment training was delivered through the Work Programme, which aimed to find people jobs within two years. However, in February 2017, the DWP decided to stop referring new claimants to the programme, which took effect on 1 April 2017.[18]

text: Members of the Support Group have fewer conditions placed upon them and receive a higher rate of ESA than people in the WRAG.

text: Modifications

text: In October 2008, the WCA was introduced for new claims.[19] Reformers were disappointed to find that the total number of people on sickness and incapacity benefits went up, largely as a result of the financial crisis of 2008 and the consequent rise in background unemployment. Plans were then made to tighten up the eligibility criteria still further. The Labour Welfare Secretary at the time, James Purnell, wrote that these and other changes would ensure that "only those who are genuinely incapable of work" would get full ESA.[20] The DWP's in-house medical experts piloted the new criteria in 2010 and parliament gave them legal force in March 2011.[21] Some of these changes would make it easier for some claimants with specific conditions to receive ESA, but most were intended to toughen up the test.

text: A key recommendation from the first review of the testing process in 2010 by Professor Harrington was that Atos should select assessors to be 'mental function champions', who would provide mainly telephone advice to other assessors on mental health issues as they related to the WCA's criteria.[22] At the DWP's behest, Atos did this in 2011. The other legacy of his tenure was the introduction in 2011 of the 'personalised summary statement'. This was intended to be a written explanation to the claimant in plain English of how the assessor's recommendation had been reached, but the DWP decided not to send them to claimants; instead, the department sent a 'decision-makers justification' written by a civil servant.[23] Nevertheless, the DWP insisted that assessors still write summaries, saying that decision-makers found them helpful when trying to understand the main reports. Professor Harrington also asked MIND, Mencap and the National Autistic Society to "provide recommendations on refining the mental, intellectual and cognitive descriptors". Professor Harrington would listen to their ideas and then make recommendations to the DWP, once the recommendations had also been considered by an independent scrutiny group. However, the DWP's medical experts were not convinced by the evidence presented: they did not agree that the existing descriptors were not working properly; they saw no evidence that the proposed system would be any better; and they felt that the changes would make the assessment unnecessarily complicated.[24] The DWP decided to set up an 'evidence-based review' — overseen from start to finish by Professor Harrington and to run in parallel with his annual reports for Parliament — to look at the proposed changes to the mental health criteria used in the WCA. But in his third and final report, Professor Harrington lamented that "the evidence-based review has unfortunately taken longer to develop than is ideal". One reason it had taken longer to develop was that the scope of the review had been broadened to cover the physical descriptors as well, and had mutated into an evaluation of an entirely new assessment. This 'evidence-based review' did not publish its findings until December 2013 — three years after it had originally been conceived — by which time most of the Incapacity Benefit reassessment programme had been completed. The review concluded that the proposed alternative assessment was less accurate than the WCA and that "the WCA produced consistent results on the whole, and is an accurate indicator of work capability as compared with expert opinion".[25] DWP ministers decided to replace Professor Harrington once he had submitted his final report in 2012 (although he maintained an oversight role with the evidence-based review that he had suggested be set up in 2010 and that published its findings at the end of 2013).[26] [27] As his successor they appointed Dr Paul Litchfield, another occupational health specialist and one who had played a key part in designing the WCA's mental and cognitive function descriptors in 2006.[28]

text: At the beginning of October 2016, the recently-appointed Work and Pensions Secretary, Damian Green,[29] said:

text: If someone has a disease that can only get worse then it doesn't make sense to ask them to turn up for repeated appointments. If their condition is not going to improve, it is not right to ask them to turn up time after time. So we will stop it.[30]

text: In a later statement, he revealed that the policy change would not be formalised before the end of 2017. Medical and operational factors had not been worked out and the "IT changes needed" prevented it from happening sooner - although Green did say: "In the meantime, we will be working to ensure that people with these conditions are not reassessed unnecessarily".[31] Green was asked by the Scottish Parliament's Social Security Committee if there was a list of conditions that would be exempt from reassessment by WCA. He replied:

text: It's not the condition. Well, I mean, we know which conditions degenerate or which conditions don't improve. I think the - but the key is, it's got to be individualised. It all fits in with that pattern: that there will be people who, at some stages of having, say, multiple sclerosis can work and at some stage it may get to the point where they can't work. What I'm saying is that, If they've got to the point where they've been assessed as being unable to work, then with a condition like that, there is no point calling them back in two years time saying we're going to reassess you because we know it won't have got better.[32]

text: At the end of October 2016, the government published a Green Paper outlining its plans for ESA, which included the possibility of another "overhaul" of the WCA in the future.[33][34]

text: Credibility

text: Reliability of decisions

text: Between 2011 and 2013 around 40% of claimants found 'fit for work' appealed to a tribunal and around 40% of those appeals were successful.[35] The number of external appeals dropped markedly over the course of 2013, although most appellants who reach the tribunal stage now see their 'fit for work' decision overturned.[36][37]

text: During 2012, Parliament's Office of Science and Technology analysed the WCA's performance and found that "the number of fit-for-work decisions being overturned on appeal has led to questions about the reliability of the assessment process". In the same year, a parliamentary committee heard evidence from welfare advisors that, in nearly two out of three successful appeals to tribunals against fit-for-work decisions, appellants were seeing their points rise from zero in the original assessments — meaning that the original WCA had detected no relevant disabilities at all — to at least 15 points after the tribunals had independently assessed their claims.[38]

text: A 2012 study of 28,000 tribunal hearings analysed the reasons for overturning the DWP's decisions:

text:
In almost two-thirds of successful appeals, the tribunals found the appellants' descriptions of their difficulties, given in person on the day of the tribunal, sufficiently convincing for them to be awarded the benefit — known as presenting "cogent oral evidence" in legal jargon. By implication, in these cases, the tribunal found the oral evidence more persuasive than had the assessor who had conducted the original face-to-face assessment
In nearly a quarter of successful appeals, the tribunals agreed with the DWP on the facts of the case but decided that the DWP had come to the wrong conclusion based on those facts
In 13% of cases, documentary evidence was provided that had not been available at the initial assessment
In under 1% of cases, the assessment report was found to contain important technical errors.[36]

text: In 2013, the Work Programme firms responsible for training people in the Work-Related Activity Group said they had "ongoing concerns about the accuracy of the WCA" and rated earlier improvements to the WCA as only "4 or 5 out of 10".[39]

text: Outcome targets

text: Professor Malcolm Harrington, the first external reviewer of the operation of the WCA, was asked by a parliamentary committee whether he had ever found any evidence that Atos assessors had been put under pressure to reach targets. He replied:

text: They say not, and whenever I have gone anywhere, they say not. This is purely anecdotal, but there was one Atos assessment centre I went to where the bosses walked out and I was left with a couple of assessors having a cup of coffee at the end of the session, and they told me they were under pressure.[40]

text: In 2012, a GP posed as a trainee Atos assessor and recorded undercover video footage that was later broadcast by Channel 4's investigative current affairs programme Dispatches. In the film, trainers warned the NHS doctor that if, on average, he were to recommend more than one claimant per day for the Support Group (out of the eight he would be expected to see each day) he would be subject to an increased level of management scrutiny through a mechanism known as "targeted audit".[41] The undercover doctor was told:

text: If it's more than I think 12% or 13%, you will be fed back 'your rate is too high'

text: An assessor on "targeted audit" would have all their reports scrutinised before they were sent to the DWP and would no longer be allowed to recommend any claimants for the Support Group without asking for permission first. When the doctor asked an experienced assessor where these rules had come from, she replied: "DWP".

text: Both the DWP and Atos categorically denied ever having had any target for getting claimants off sickness benefits. However, both eventually admitted that Support Group "norms" were being used nationwide,[42] though they both denied that the purpose of "targeted audit" was to limit the number of claimants placed in the Support Group. Atos said that the audit process triggered by the breach of a "norm" was intended to ensure consistency across the firm's UK team: if the assessor's reports met the DWP's expectations, the healthcare professional would not be asked to change their recommendations.[43]

text: Between October 2008 and November 2010, only fresh claims for ESA were assessed. Figures obtained by the Daily Mail in July 2011 showed that in this period, the percentage of claimants placed in the Support Group after undergoing a WCA was 11%.[44] Soon afterwards, a "norm" of 1 in 8 or 12.5% was in use as the benchmark for targeted audit during the Incapacity Benefit reassessment programme, suggesting that the DWP was expecting a very similar proportion of claimants to be recommended for the Support Group overall. However, Professor Harrington has described the set of people making fresh claims as "a completely different group of people" from long-term recipients, who generally have a significantly higher level of disability than new claimants. Moreover, studies of long-term Incapacity Benefit recipients carried out by the DWP before the 'roll out' of the Incapacity Benefit reassessment programme suggested that 31% of established recipients - almost 1 in 3 - would be suitable for the Support Group.[45] Despite this, the "norm" does not appear to have been adjusted upwards to reflect the more severe disabilities experienced by the people being tested from 2011 onwards.

text: In 2013, the Work Programme's training providers - outsourcing companies who coach and train people put into the Work-Related Activity Group after their WCA - complained that claimants who were "clearly unfit for any type of work-related activity" were nonetheless being put in the Work-Related Activity Group rather than the Support Group, and that "claimants with terminal cancer, whose life expectancies were shorter than the work-ready prognosis" had been referred to them for pre-employment training.[39]

text: Years later, after much upheaval in the testing process, a Green Paper provided more evidence that a de facto outcome target had been in operation during the first part of the Incapacity Benefit reassessment programme. In 2016, the government conceded that:

text: At the time Employment and Support Allowance was implemented in 2008 it was assumed that less than 10% of those having a Work Capability Assessment would go into the Support Group and that, as a result of [the extra help to find work given to people in the Work-Related Activity Group], there was an aspiration that one million fewer people would be on incapacity benefits by 2015. In practice, over the last 12 months, we have seen on average 50% of people going into the Support Group.[46]

text: In December 2016, the DWP released data on outcomes covering the first quarter of that year: then, for the small number of Incapacity Benefit recipients undergoing a WCA for the first time, the percentage being placed in the Support Group after their assessment was 87%, while 39% of new claimants qualified for the Support Group immediately after their WCA.[16]

text: Expert opinion

text: When Atos gave its reasons for seeking to exit the contract to carry out the assessment, the firm announced that it had come to the conclusion that "in its current form, the WCA is not working for claimants, for DWP or for Atos Healthcare".[47] Conversely, Dr Paul Litchfield, who advised the DWP on the performance of the WCA in 2013 and 2014, described the test he had helped to design as "by no means perfect" but nevertheless adequate. However, in 2014 he cautioned that: "We have taken the WCA about as far as it can sensibly go in terms of modification and adjustment".[48]

text: Professor Dame Carol Black advised the government on back-to-work policy between 2006 and 2016. She said of the WCA: "I don't think anyone thinks it has been a success", describing it as "badly placed" and too far from when the first sick note or fit-note is penned.[49]

text: In November 2016, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities published its report on the situation facing disabled people in the United Kingdom. Of the WCA, it said:

text: Evidence indicates several flaws in the processes related to the Employment and Support Allowance. In particular, the Committee notes that, despite several adjustments made to the Work Capability Assessment, the assessment has continued to be focused on a functional evaluation of skills and capabilities, and puts aside personal circumstances and needs, and barriers faced by persons with disabilities to return to employment, particularly those of persons with intellectual and/or psychosocial disabilities.[50]

text: Political assessments

text: In 2015, Iain Duncan Smith complained that the system gave doctors a "binary choice", not an opportunity to deliver a more nuanced opinion on claimants' fitness for work.[51]

text: In April 2016, the new Welfare Secretary, Stephen Crabb, said that the WCA had "never worked as intended. The WCA was a mess, it didn't recognise mental health issues and other types of disability".[52]

text: Later the same year, the Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Debbie Abrahams, said the test her party had described as "tough but fair" in 2010 had been "discredited".[53]

text: In late October 2016, when appearing on Question Time, the president of the Liberal Democrats, Baroness Sal Brinton, described the WCA as "not fit for purpose", adding "this process absolutely fails" and "we need to get rid of it". On the same BBC programme, Kier Starmer QC, a former Director of Public Prosecutions, said:

text: It is time for a real review of how these assessments are actually working.[54]

text: In September 2016, Damian Green, the latest Welfare Secretary, was asked by the BBC's Andrew Marr about the deaths of specific benefit claimants:[55]

text: You know these cases, they must be on your desk, you've been [at the DWP] over the summer, when you look at them, are you completely satisfied yourself that the government has done this right in the past? Do you want to look again at any of these cases and think again about the way disabled people are assessed for work?

text: In reply, the Secretary of State acknowledged that "obviously there are individual cases where it looks as though the system is not working". Marr asked once more: "Are you going to look again at the way people have been assessed generally to see if it has been as fair and humane as [...] you would like it to be?" Green replied:

text: I am permanently looking at all these systems. And of course, there are tens of thousands of these assessments going on all the time. There will, I dare say, be individual cases that are wrong and as they are brought to the attention of ministers we look at them.