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
Paul Litchfield own royal college). He has been given the honorific status of Fellow by both. In 2006, Litchfield was a member of the DWP's Mental Health Technical Working Group, which was set up to design a new mental health assessment for Incapacity Benefit claimants that would "identify accurately those who in spite of their condition are fit to continue in work". This work shaped the criteria used to gauge mental function in the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) that was introduced in 2008. In 2009, he co-wrote a report on mental health and the workplace for the DWP. It focussed on the