Guidance

Employment and Support Allowance: the Work Capability Assessment: detailed guide

A detailed guide to the assessment carried out to determine the capability for work or work related activity of ESA claimants (ESA214).

From:
Department for Work and Pensions
Published
1 January 2013
Last updated
24 November 2025 — See all updates

Documents

A guide to Employment and Support Allowance (ESA214) – the Work Capability Assessment

HTML

Details

This detailed information about the Work Capability Assessment element of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) is aimed mainly at professionals and contractors. It’s more complicated than the main information leaflets produced by DWP and some words or phrases may be unfamiliar.

Updates to this page

Published 1 January 2013
Last updated 24 November 2025 + show all updates

  1. Changed the reference to ESA50 form to the new WCA50 form.

  2. Published revised PDF including a clarified explanation of the different assessment criteria (including functional and non-functional descriptors) and updated terminology.

  3. First published.

Sign up for emails or print this page