Criticism of the Work Capability Assessment for claimants, for DWP or for Atos Healthcare". In November 2016, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities published its report on the situation facing disabled people in the United Kingdom. Of the WCA, it said: In 2015, Iain Duncan Smith complained that the system gave doctors a "binary choice", not an opportunity to deliver a more nuanced opinion on claimants' fitness for work. In April 2016, the new Welfare Secretary, Stephen Crabb, said that the WCA had "never worked as intended. The WCA was a mess, it didn't recognise mental health issues and other types
Housing Benefit process. Under these latter application schemes, claimants would often contact the responsible central government department, who would then forward the details to the local authority. This has turned out to be a somewhat prescient decision; the gateway for claimants to the new "Universal Credit" system, which replaces Housing Benefit, is the central government department, not local authorities. The date of claim will be the date the claimant you first contacted the Department for Works and Pensions, for claimants applying to the Department for Work and Pensions, and otherwise the date of claim will be treated as the date he contacted