The Work and Pensions Committee today released a report entitled Employment and Support Allowance and Work Capability Assessments. It claims Work Capability Assessments (WCAs), used to determine eligibility for ESA, are fundamentally flawed and must be reviewed immediately.
Outgoing contractors Atos have been extensively criticised for their handling of claims, but committee chair, Labour MP Anne Begg (pictured) said the problems run much deeper.
"Atos has become a lightning rod for all the negativity around the ESA process and the DWP and Atos have recently agreed to terminate the contract early," she said.
“But it is the DWP that makes the decision about a claimant’s eligibility for ESA – the face-to-face assessment is only one part of the process. Just putting a new private provider in place will not address the problems with ESA and WCA on its own.”
Steps proposed in the report include tailoring employment support for the disabled more closely to their circumstances, along with more effective assessments of individuals' position on the spectrum of work-readiness.
Begg called for the re-tendering of the workplace assessment contract to be a catalyst for reform within the process.
"The new contract needs to set out robust and clear service standards on the quality and timeliness of assessments and the reports produced by the contractor, and for the way claimants are dealt with," she said.
