Criticism of the Work Capability Assessment group of experts — a professor of psychiatry, a consultant psychiatrist in learning disability, a professor of rheumatology, and an expert in human resources — reviewed the WCA in 2013 and concluded that "the WCA produced consistent results on the whole, and is an accurate indicator of work capability compared with expert opinion". But in the year that the study was published, the firms running back-to-work training for people on ESA said they had "ongoing concerns about the accuracy of the WCA". And in 2014, Atos announced that it had come to the conclusion that "the WCA is not working
Work Capability Assessment the sickness benefit caseload increased — partly a consequence of the banking crisis and its effect on the economy and on jobs. An overhaul of the test began soon afterwards.The Labour Welfare Secretary at the time, James Purnell, wrote that these and other changes would ensure that "only those who are genuinely incapable of work" would get full ESA. The DWP's in-house medical experts piloted the new criteria in 2010 and parliament gave them legal force in March 2011. Some of these changes would make it easier for some claimants with specific conditions to receive ESA, but most were intended