Fourth independent review of Work Capability Assessment published

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Dr Paul Litchfield was appointed to lead the fourth independent review of the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) in 2013. This review sets out a series of recommendations to the government based on the evidence he collected as part of the review and which complement the recommendations from the first 3 annual reviews carried out by Professor Malcolm Harrington. Download the full report here. 

The key findings and recommendations from this review are:

  • DWP should review the WCA and its use of scores, place less emphasis on the number attained, and use the calculation to determine whether the threshold for benefit has been reached
  • WCA needs to be fair and widely perceived as such (the review highlights areas for improvement)
  • Decision making must be improved
  • The process takes too long and needs to be simplified
  • The limited capability for work questionnaire (ESA50) should be redesigned, and training improved, to help decision makers when assessing people with mental health problems