PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
(20 February 2026)

It might be helpful to explain that the 13 weeks set out in departmental guidelines only applies to the assessment phase of Employment Support Allowance. It is the guideline for when the department expects a decision to be made upon entitlement to Employment Support Allowance (ESA) and is not a deadline for when a Work Capability Assessment (WCA) should be conducted by.

Due to this we have interpreted your question to mean how many ESA new claims the assessment suppliers currently hold that have been waiting for a WCA longer than 13 weeks.

As of 23rd February 2026, there are 6,500 new claims ESA cases that have been awaiting a WCA assessment for over 13 weeks.

Where an assessment takes longer than 13 weeks to complete, we will automatically award arrears from the 14^th week of the claim, where appropriate, so that claimants do not lose out.

Please Note

• All volumes have been rounded to the nearest 100.
• The data provided refers to the cases counted from the date the supplier received a valid referral up to and including the 22 February 2026.
• The 13‑week timeframe referenced in departmental guidance applies only to new claims requiring a WCA. It does not apply to reassessments.
• The 13‑week timeframe referenced in departmental guidance only applies to ESA cases and does not apply to Universal Credit (UC) WCAs as UC does not have an assessment phase like ESA.
• All the above data is derived from contractual management information produced by the Assessment Suppliers.
• The above data is derived from unpublished management information which is collected for internal Departmental use only and has not been quality assured to Official Statistics Publication standards.