Criticism of the Work Capability Assessment thereby saving £7billion a year. A reassessment of long-term recipients was expected to start in 2009 but the start was delayed until 2011 while the test's criteria were reviewed. In 2012, the DWP's handling of its contract with Atos was the subject of a critical report by the National Audit Office (NAO). The Public Accounts Committee heard that in that year the DWP had paid Atos £112m to carry out WCAs. The chair of the committee told the BBC that the DWP got "far too many decisions wrong on claimants’ ability to work" and that this came at a "considerable
Claimants Union Claimants Union A Claimants Union is a grassroots organisation based on self-help and mutual support to enable those entitled to welfare benefits to make successful claims for that benefit. They were particularly prevalent in the United Kingdom following the establishment of the Welfare State. Cross party support led to the introduction of a Welfare State in the UK by the late 1940s. Whilst this led to a somewhat self-congratulatory viewpoint that poverty had been largely eliminated, this perspective was increasingly being criticised by the 1950s. The research of Brian Abel-Smith and Peter Townsend, "The Poor and the Poorest", published in