The Work Capability Assessment (WCA) is the test designed and used by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in the United Kingdom to determine whether disabled welfare claimants or those suffering from long-term illnesses are entitled to the main out-of-work sickness benefit: Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). The introduction of the WCA as the gatekeeper to ESA was a crucial part of the out-of-work benefit reforms of 2008 that the next government continued and developed.
The WCA aims to sort sickness benefit claimants into three groups: fit for work; unfit for work but fit for pre-employment training; or fit for neither work nor training. The DWP views this as the first step in a process that helps some disabled people "off benefits and into work" but the testing procedure has proved highly controversial, with concerns loudly expressed about inaccurate decision-making and the difficulties and delays faced by claimants when they launch an appeal.
Atos Healthcare, part of the UK branch of the Paris-based multinational Atos, conducted the core assessment on behalf of the DWP from October 2008 until 1 March 2015, on which date the American firm Maximus took over.
This report downloadable below might interest those being tested.
Text source: Wikipedia
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