The Evidence Based Review (EBR) of the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) is a study to examine the performance of the instrument used to assess entitlement to Employment and Support Allowance and an alternative version of the assessment that was developed by specialist disability representative groups.
The study arose from a recommendation in Professor Harrington’s second independent review of the WCA. Professor Harrington asked several disability representative organisations to propose ways in which to improve the assessment of fluctuation in physical and mental health conditions, and the effects of cognitive limitations on work-related functioning. A systematic Evidence Based Review (EBR) was established to examine the validity and consistency of the WCA and the alternative assessment (AA) proposals. The research questions were:
- How did the two different assessments work when applied to claimants? What were the assessment outcomes?
- Which assessment performed better overall in terms of validity and consistency?
Key findings
The findings suggest that, overall the WCA produced more valid and consistent outcomes than the AA. As an instrument, the WCA functions well as a coherent whole and in the large majority of cases was a valid indicator of work capability as indicated by the opinion of experts.
The AA did not perform as well as the WCA overall in terms of consistency or accuracy, although on most indicators its performance was good.
In addition, where expert panels considered a claimant to have limited capability for work, the outcome of the AA was much more likely to correspond with this view than was the WCA.
There was no evidence that the AA was a significant improvement on the WCA in terms of the accuracy or reliability of findings. However, the AA did reveal some areas – namely the way in which limitations and their fluctuations are noted, and the style of assessment discussion – which have relevance for ongoing refinement of the WCA.
You can view the EBR at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/work-capability-assessment-evidence-based-review