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
Employment and Support Allowance describe this idea and referred to it in-house as "the AME-DEL switch". In July 2008 a Green Paper was published, which James Purnell said was "inspired by the reforms proposed by David Freud". It declared that "between 2009 and 2013, all Incapacity Benefit claimants will be reassessed using a medical assessment called the Work Capability Assessment" that would divide them into three groups: fit for work; unfit for work but fit for "work-related activity"; or fit for neither. In the same month, Professor Paul Gregg was asked by the DWP to conduct a feasibility study of "conditionality" - a compulsory