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The assessment often includes an examination by a DWP doctor. You may want to try and ensure that a speech and language therapist with a good knowledge of stammering is involved in assessment. BSA can help find a specialist SLT. |
The test works as follows. There is a Schedule divided into two parts. Part I lists activities relating to physical disabilities (eg "Walking up and down stairs", "Reaching", "Speech"). Part II lists activities relating to mental disabilities.
Each activity in Part I has a list of tasks ('descriptors') of varying difficulty, with a number beside each task. For each activity in which you are disabled you take the most difficult task (with the highest number) that you cannot do. This gives you your points score for that activity. You can add it to your points scores from any other Part I activity in which you are disabled. You pass the test (and so may be treated as incapable for work) if you get 15 points from Part I. The two "walking" activities in Part I are treated as one activity and so can only score once.
There are different rules on how points from Part II relating to mental disabilities, or some points from each Part, allow a person to qualify.
The activity of "Speech" is covered in Part I as follows. You can only take the highest number under "Speech" which applies to you - you cannot add numbers within the activity together.
Speech
| Cannot speak | 15 | |
| Speech cannot be understood by family or friends | 15 | |
| Speech cannot be understood by strangers | 15 | |
| Strangers have great difficulty understanding speech | 10 | |
| Strangers have some difficulty understanding speech | 8 | |
| No problems with speech | 0 | |
So to get the 15 points to qualify as incapable solely because of a stammer, the stammer needs to be so severe that you "cannot speak", or your "speech cannot be understood by family or friends", or your "speech cannot be understood by strangers". If you are also disabled in other respects (eg have difficulty walking), you may be able have a lower score under "Speech", say 8 points, and pick up the remaining 7 points from other activities in Part I. It can also be relevant that you have points from Part II in respect of a mental disablement, but different rules apply.
To score points under Part I, the problem must arise "from a specific bodily disease or disablement". It has been held that 'bodily' in the context of disablement refers to the function that is affected rather than to the source of the condition (Case CIB/5435/2002 at para 16, on OSSCSC website; Case CIB/4828/99 on OSSCSC website. Therefore it should not matter whether or not stammering has a 'mental' origin. Also, a person who stammers has been accepted as qualifying under Part I in practice.
Your abilities are looked at in the context of normal everyday living rather than in a work context (Case CIB/14587/96 on www.rightsnet.org.uk (Word doc)). Even so, in practice you may well want to make the point (if correct) that work is one of the situations in which your stammer is very severe. The Incapacity Benefit Handbook for Approved Doctors (2004, page 83 [weblink?]) suggests that DWP doctors consider:
You may be treated as unable to do an activity (eg speak, or speak understandably) if factors such as tiredness and discomfort mean that although you can do the activity, it is not reasonable to expect you to do it, or to do it with reasonable regularity.
Like many conditions, stammering tends to vary. However it is possible to be seen as incapable for work on a continuing basis even if you don't pass the test every day or all the time.
The personal capability test is different from, and much tougher than, the DDA test for "disability". For example, there is no provision that the probability of a longer term relapse to the required state of incapacity would mean the personal capability test is passed, before it actually happens.
If you are not seen as incapable of work on an ongoing continuing basis, you may pass the test for particular days or for longer periods of time when you are having a bad patch. Obviously longer periods are more likely to be useful in qualifying for benefit.
Official guidance on variable conditions includes:
Again unlike the DDA test for "disability", the personal capability assessment looks at your abilities when using any aid or appliance you would normally use, eg an altered auditory feedback device.
Section yet to be updated: [Some people - eg the doctor in a medical assessment - may suggest that even if you can't speak you are still capable of doing some jobs, eg gardening or other manual work.
First, and most important, the legal test (for stammerers or anyone else) is not whether there are any jobs you can do. The test is whether or not you get 15 points under Part I of the Schedule.
Secondly, though, you may also find it useful to refute the assumption that manual jobs don't require communication. For example as a gardener you need to communicate both ways with the owner of the garden. Similarly, stacking supermarket shelves doesn't just involve taking instructions but being able to communicate back, eg ask questions.
Also, given that your stammer probably varies, you may want to point out, if it is correct, that your stammer is at its most problematic in work situations (though see above on the legal position).]
Yes, at least one individual with a severe stammer has been accepted as meeting the requirement that his 'Speech cannot be understood by strangers'.
Incidentally, the same person was later accepted on appeal as having had 90% disablement for the purposes of severe disablement allowance (SDA). SDA has now been abolished for new claimants. However the tribunal ruling is a welcome recognition of how disabling a severe stammer can be.
I would be interested to hear of anyone else who has been accepted as 'incapable of work' on the basis of a stammer (atyrer2000@yahoo.co.uk).
Main Social Security Benefits page, where there are also references for further information.
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© Allan Tyrer 2000-2008
Last updated 3rd August, 2008
Personal capability
DLA - mobility
DLA - attention
SDA (old)
