ESA work capability assessments, Great Britain
Accredited official statistics
Employment and Support Allowance work capability assessments started and completed in Great Britain, with the mandatory reconsiderations and appeals that followed, for the claims begun in each year from October to September since 2013, from DWP's statistics on their outcomes.
ESA work capability assessments started
112,440
Oct 2024 to Sep 2025 · claims begun in the year; 27% of completed assessments with a known outcome found the claimant fit for work
Verified against source, 8 November 2026, 13:43 UTC- WCAs started
- WCAs completed
- Mandatory reconsiderations registered
- Appeals completed
Source: Department for Work and Pensions. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Data table
12 rows
| Category | WCAs started | WCAs completed | Mandatory reconsiderations registered | Appeals completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 2013 to Sep 2014 | 1,207,880 | 798,940 | 107,650 | 30,980 |
| Oct 2014 to Sep 2015 | 1,100,540 | 753,250 | 92,530 | 25,960 |
| Oct 2015 to Sep 2016 | 960,000 | 657,590 | 91,130 | 22,790 |
| Oct 2016 to Sep 2017 | 821,810 | 557,100 | 68,940 | 15,380 |
| Oct 2017 to Sep 2018 | 488,560 | 335,640 | 35,580 | 6,940 |
| Oct 2018 to Sep 2019 | 134,270 | 84,040 | 6,880 | 1,250 |
| Oct 2019 to Sep 2020 | 144,880 | 64,490 | 1,850 | 190 |
| Oct 2020 to Sep 2021 | 144,480 | 69,700 | 1,830 | 210 |
| Oct 2021 to Sep 2022 | 135,650 | 75,760 | 1,940 | 170 |
| Oct 2022 to Sep 2023 | 131,630 | 76,260 | 1,600 | 90 |
| Oct 2023 to Sep 2024 | 120,400 | 72,550 | 1,330 | 80 |
| Oct 2024 to Sep 2025 | 112,440 | 62,470 | 1,340 | 30 |
Source and licence
- Publisher
- Department for Work and Pensions
- Check it yourself
- https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/employment-and-support-allowance-outcomes-of-work-capability-assessment
- Licence
- Open Government Licence v3.0 – Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Retrieved
- 8 November 2026, 13:23 UTC
- Raw files fetched
- https://www.gov.uk/api/content/government/statistics/esa-outcomes-of-work-capability-assessments-including-mandatory-reconsiderations-and-appeals-september-2026SHA-256 a3266b4f07c56d0641aba0c07b385231ce350c34021bb9b2bbe6e44ffdb0bbd1 · 15,911 bytes
- https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6aa261e1c5796a7a179c65b1/esa-wca-tables-september-2026.odsSHA-256 d531901e6253d992e6f5a9fd2ba54eee7adb65133bd024ecaba2e430566201d4 · 53,191 bytes
Verification
Verified against source, 8 November 2026, 13:43 UTC Run at 8 November 2026, 13:43 UTC; 48 of 48 figures matched the live source.
| Result | Check | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Pass | Provenance recorded | Department for Work and Pensions; Open Government Licence v3.0; retrieved 2026-11-08T13:23:09Z; 2 raw file(s) |
| Pass | Raw files match recorded SHA-256 | 2 of 2 files intact |
| Pass | Re-parsing raw files reproduces figures | 48 of 48 figures and the headline reproduced; the meta's outcomes match |
| Pass | Figures are finite numbers | 48 figures, 0 invalid |
| Pass | Live source matches every figure | 48 of 48 figures match exactly after downloading 2 source file(s) again (2 byte-identical); the headline matches; the meta's outcomes match |
| Pass | GOV.UK table is current | latest period 2025-09 ended 404 days before retrieval (limit 560), from Data tables: ESA: outcomes of Work Capability Assessments: September 2026 |
| Pass | Each year is its four quarters | 48 of 48 cases of the years' counts are their four quarters' added together within 25 (25 exactly) |
| Pass | Source page answers | https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/employment-and-support-allowance-outcomes-of-work-capability-assessment – HTTP 200 |
Notes
- Each year is a cohort of claims, those begun from October to September, followed through their work capability assessment, any mandatory reconsideration and any appeal; the latest years' outcomes are not complete, since some of their claims are still in progress, and DWP revises them each quarter.
- ESA is closing to new claims as people move to Universal Credit, so the numbers fall by design.
- DWP rounds every count to the nearest 10 and each share to the nearest percentage point, the shares (meta, outcomes) of the assessments with a known outcome.