Employment and Support Allowance - Work Capability Assessment (face To Face)

Work Capability Assessment (face To Face)

Once a person has claimed ESA, they will receive it initially for up to 13 weeks, as long as they provide medical evidence of their sickness or disability. This 13-week period is known as the assessment phase. During this time, a work capability assessment (WCA) will be carried out to determine whether the claimant is sufficiently sick or disabled to qualify for ESA.

The WCA is made up of three separate assessments, although not all ESA claimants will have all three assessments. The assessments are:-

• the limited capability for work assessment. This determines whether or not a person remains entitled to ESA after the assessment or has to claim another benefit, for example, jobseeker’s allowance
• the limited capability for work-related activity assessment. This determines whether a person gets the support component or the work-related activity component of ESA.
• a work-focused health-related assessment. This helps identify work a claimant who receives the work-related activity component can do, despite their condition and identifies ways of improving their capacity for work.

Note: The work-focused health-related assessment was suspended for two years from 19 July 2010 as a result of the planned introduction of the new Work Programme.