Criticism of the Work Capability Assessment OBR confirmed that the reforms themselves had done nothing to reduce levels of welfare spending — although a simple freezing of benefit payments, so that they did not rise with inflation, had limited the extent of fiscal failure. But in fiscal year 2016-17, the budget in question had nevertheless risen to £15 billion a year. In 2016, the NAO published another evaluation of the DWP's disability assessment contracts: it said the cost of each WCA had risen from £115 under Atos to £190 under Maximus, to no benefit to the Exchequer. A former chief economist at the DWP, Professor Jonathan
Criticism of the Work Capability Assessment February 2018 Baroness Altmann, a former minister at the DWP, said: DWP figures show that, between January and November 2011, 10,600 sick and disabled people died within six weeks of their benefit claim ending; many disability campaigners believe that these deaths occurred after — and even "because" — the claimants were declared fit for work. "The Daily Telegraph" has questioned this: it posits that the 10,600 deaths include people who happened to die from natural causes, "after" which their benefit payments ceased. The newspaper said that when the DWP states "within six weeks", this "does not mean 'within the following