Atos Healthcare

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. A medical assessor gives the DWP a description of the claimant's disabilities and a recommendation on their work capability, after which the claimant is put into one of three categories: 'fit for work'; 'unfit for work but fit for "work-related activity"'; or 'unfit for work and unfit for "work-related activity"'.

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 knowledge to compile a report on the claimant's disability and their fitness for work. The outsourcing firm then sends the report to the DWP. A civil servant uses the 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 under Tony Blair and introduced when Gordon Brown was prime minister; a new version of the test was rolled out by the coalition led by David Cameron. It attracted a barrage of criticism (described on the Criticism of the Work Capability Assessment page) from disabled people and others — especially from 2011, when the WCA became the fulcrum for a major reassessment of every long-term Incapacity Benefit recipient 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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