Work Capability Assessment

The Work Capability Assessment (WCA) is the test designed and used by the British Government's Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to decide whether jobless welfare claimants are entitled to sickness benefits.

The core testing process was outsourced to private companies from its inception — first to Atos in 2008, and then to Maximus from March 2015. At a face-to-face assessment a healthcare professional — in most cases, a nurse — working for the DWP's contractor uses decision-making software, their role-specific training, and their clinical experience to compile a report on the claimant's disability and his or her fitness for work. The outsourcing firm then sends the report to the DWP. A civil servant uses this report, plus any other relevant information they have to hand, to decide on entitlement to Employment and Support Allowance or to an enhanced rate of Universal Credit, and on whether a successful claimant will be required to take part in "work-related activity".

The WCA was designed when Tony Blair was prime minister and formally introduced in 2008. New criteria were drawn up during the premiership of Gordon Brown and used in pilot studies in the autumn of 2010; they were given legal force in early 2011 by David Cameron's coalition government.

The test was criticised for its inaccuracy from its inception (see the Criticism of the Work Capability Assessment page) and especially from 2011, when the WCA became the fulcrum for a reassessment of all long-term Incapacity Benefit recipients and every disabled person on Income Support.

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.

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