Criticism of the Work Capability Assessment the "written" guidance contained in the 255-page instruction manual issued to all assessors: The foreword to the WCA Handbook states: On 22 July 2013, the DWP announced that all Atos WCA assessors would be retrained, as part of a "quality improvement plan" that followed "a DWP audit which identified an unacceptable reduction in the quality of written reports produced following assessments." In 2006, the New Labour government set out its plans for welfare reform: over the course of a decade, it expected the deployment of the WCA to shrink the number of people on out-of-work sickness benefits by one million,
2015 review of welfare benefits, addictions and treatable conditions who have these specific conditions. The number of people on Incapacity Benefit or Employment and Support Allowance with a primary diagnosis of morbid obesity is 1780 - only 0.07% of the total. People whose primary diagnosis is drug misuse make up less than 1.5% of incapacity benefit claimants, while around 2% have a primary disabling condition of alcohol misuse. As Black herself said in the executive summary of her 2008 report: "Many common diseases are directly linked to lifestyle factors, but these are generally not the conditions that keep people out of work. Instead, common mental health problems and musculoskeletal