The assessment is based on a system which uses two sets of “descriptors” covering physical and mental health.

In theory, people with purely physical or sensory problems have to ‘score’ 15 points or more to be found incapable of work.

People with purely mental health problems have to score 10 points or more.

People who have physical and mental health problems have to score at least 6 points on the mental health descriptors for them to count towards their final total. If you score between 6 and 9 points on the mental health descriptors, you are treated as having scored 9 points and then have this figure added to any points you score on physical and sensory grounds.

HOWEVER

You now have to reach the 15 point score to be found incapable of work.

Within the Physical Disability descriptors, the highest points scored under each activity are added together—apart from the sections relating to

• Walking on level ground and

• Walking up and down stairs
  
  It is only the highest score from these two activities COMBINED that is counted.
  
  
  When the mental health descriptor part of the test is applied, any or all the scores can be combined.
  
  The points system gives far less weight to the mental health descriptors on the whole and makes no ‘sense’. Someone could theoretically:
  
  · forget the risk posed by domestic appliances due to poor concentration
  
  · frequently feel scared or panicky for no obvious reason
  
  · get upset by ordinary events, resulting in disruptive behaviour
  
  · not be able to look after themselves without help from others AND
  
  · be too frightened to go out alone
  
  And STILL be found fit for work!
  
  
  On top of this seemingly discriminatory weighting, people with mental health problems are put at an added disadvantage because they are not invited to comment on the way their difficulties affect them in the same way as people with physical problems are. This directly discriminates against people with mental health problems in that it means that their feelings and voices may never be properly heard in the assessment process.
  
  
  Physical Descriptors
  
  Mental Health Descriptors
  
  
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