Charlotte was a public sector professional, who left her job after incapacitating depression and, later, a diagnosis of bipolar. She says of the Work Capability Assessment, “I was really anxious. I couldn’t understand why the interview happened the way it did. They made me put out all my medication on the table, as if I must have been lying about it. It was so embarrassing. I kept talking about how I loved my job, but how disabled I had become – how I couldn’t function the way I once could.” She was awarded zero points and embarked on an appeals process. She was eventually put on Employment and Support Allowance, but decided the pressure of undergoing assessments was too detrimental to her health, so withdrew from benefits and tries to scrape by on her own.