Work Capability Assessment centre, but occasionally in the claimant's home. Since 2015, testing has been performed by the US outsourcing firm Maximus. The DWP pays Maximus £200 for each report. At the face-to-face assessments, the assessors – who are nurses, doctors or physiotherapists – are guided and prompted by a computer programme, designed by Atos in conjunction with the DWP, called the 'Logic-integrated Medical Assessment' or 'LiMA'. A large amount of lifestyle data and some clinical information is obtained from the claimant and is entered into the computer by the assessor, mostly by selecting pre-determined 'one click' options from an on-screen menu. As
Incapacity Benefit medical assessments using a new semi-structured interview technique, with the findings recorded in digital format. This meant that from 2008, most new claims were scrutinised by a healthcare professional; those whose claims reached the threshold for eligibility were granted ESA - either shortly after the initial assessment, following an internal review of the initial decision, or after an external appeal. After the introduction of ESA, the number of remaining Incapacity Benefit recipients dwindled (largely as people came off the benefit for reasons such as reaching the State Pension age): by early 2011, the Incapacity Benefit caseload had shrunk by more