Guidance

Universal Credit Work Capability Assessment statistics: release strategy

Updated 12 March 2026

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

© Crown copyright 2026

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-wca-statistics-release-strategy/universal-credit-work-capability-assessment-statistics-release-strategy

1. 1. Introduction

This release strategy acts as the formal notice of the:

This strategy has been designed to ensure that statistics are placed into the public domain in a clear and orderly way.

In Spring 2023, the Chief Statistician for the Department and Work and Pensions (DWP) led an internal review of all experimental official statistics produced by DWP. This is in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics. The review found that it was appropriate to remove the experimental label from this publication because it was concluded that the statistics are suitable and of public value. As of 14 September 2023, these statistics are now classed as ‘Official Statistics’.

2. 2. User engagement

The department engages with users in the following ways:

3. 3. Initial release of statistics

The initial release of Universal Credit Work Capability Assessment statistics was published on 8 June 2023.

These are quarterly Official Statistics to complement the Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) WCA statistics, on the number of people on Universal Credit (UC) Work Capability Assessment (WCA) by: stage of process and monthly decisions and outcomes.

The initial release of statistics covered:

  • caseload – the number of people on Universal Credit with a health condition or disability restricting their ability to work (UC health) by:

    • stage of assessment: pre-WCA or with limited capability for work (LCW) or limited capability for work and work-related activity (LCWRA)

    • month (from April 2019 to March 2023)

    • age at caseload date

    • gender

    • Great Britain and standard geographical area

    • terminally ill

  • number of DWP Universal Credit WCA decisions by:

    • outcome (no limited capability for work (NLCW), limited capability for work (LCW), limited capability for work and work-related activity (LCWRA))

    • month (from April 2019 to February 2023)

    • Great Britain and standard geographical area

See the background and methodology document for detailed explanations of terminology.

4. 4. Developments to the statistics and timeline

The UK Statistics Authority code of practice for official statistics states that ‘Users of statistics and data should be at the centre of statistical production; their needs should be understood, their views sought and acted on, and their use of statistics supported.

To understand user views and best meet those needs, we would like your feedback on the development of these new statistics. Developments are summarised here.

4.1 Phase 2 (completed)

  • UC WCA decisions by medical conditions derived from International Statistical Classification of Diseases (ICD10) high level codes. We successfully concluded discovery to publish a limited set of breakdowns by International Classification of Disease codes (ICD10) of the medical conditions of claimants undertaking a UC WCA. These statistics were released on 14 March 2024.

  • Initial and repeat claims to UC WCA by age and gender. These statistics were released on 12 September 2024.

4.2 Phase 3 (completed)

  •  ESA  transitional cases. UC health claimants with a previous or concurrent ESA spell.  These statistics were released  on 11 December 2025.

  • Ethnicity breakdowns. Discovery work into the coverage of ethnicity data for UC health claimants has been completed. For both the caseload and decisions series’ the proportion of claimants with a recorded ethnic group does not meet the 70% minimum threshold for publication at this stage. We will keep this under review.

  • Move to COA21 (from COA11) for residency-based geographies. These statistics were released  on this basis from 11 December 2025.

4.3 Phase 4

  • In support of April 2026 Welfare Reform changes, to undertake discovery for development and publication of Severe Condition Cases (SCC); discovery on reporting LCWRA award bands; discovery on Departmental and Customer led Reassessments including a review of the methodology underpinning WCA Decisions; discovery on reporting the proportion of face to face WCAs that take place compared with other channels.

  • Changes to reporting of age bands and individual ages to align with changes to State Pension Age.

4.4 Phase 5

  • Number of UC WCA Mandatory Reconsiderations registrations, clearances, and outcomes.

  • Number of UC WCA Appeals by stage of process and outcome.

4.5 Phase 6

  • UC WCA clearance times.

4.6 Phase 7

  • Discovery work on derivation of pre-2019 Official Statistics under UC Live Service.

5. 5. Feedback

We welcome user feedback on plans for the release of these new statistics and their scope.

Comments and queries about the statistics are welcome and can be sent by email to: stats.consultation-2018@dwp.gov.uk.

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