How to Get a Copy of Your WCA Assessment Report (ESA85 or UC85) and What to Do With It

Updated October 2026

Your Work Capability Assessment report is the document the decision maker relied on, and you can ask to see it. On Employment and Support Allowance it is called the ESA85; on Universal Credit it is the UC85. You can get a copy by asking through your Universal Credit journal, by phoning the number on your ESA decision letter or by making a subject access request to the DWP, online or by post. If you appeal, it will also be in the papers the DWP sends you. Ask for it the day your decision arrives, but do not wait for it before asking for mandatory reconsideration: the one-month deadline keeps running while you wait.

The Short Answer

• Universal Credit: ask in your journal for a copy of the UC85 report from your assessment, including the personalised summary statement.
• ESA: phone the number on your decision letter and ask for the ESA85 report, then confirm the request in writing.
• Either benefit: make a subject access request to the DWP, online or by post.
• The recording: phone and face-to-face assessments have been recorded by default since 29 June 2026; ask for your copy too.
• The deadline: asking for the report does not extend the one-month reconsideration deadline, so ask for reconsideration first and send your rebuttal when the report arrives.

What the WCA Report Actually Is

After your assessment, the health professional writes a report for the DWP decision maker. DWP decision-maker guidance calls the Universal Credit version form UC85 (Advice for Decision Making, paragraph G1082) and the ESA version form ESA85, with an ESA85A where the claimant has not been examined (Decision Makers' Guide, paragraph 42194). If you are not sure which benefit your assessment was for, see ESA or Universal Credit: which one am I on?

The current handbook for assessors, updated in August 2026, names two companion forms. The ESA85A or UC85A records advice that the support group (LCWRA) criteria, or a rule treating you as having limited capability for work, may apply. The ESA85S or UC85S is the personalised summary statement, where the assessor justifies the recommendation and explains any conflict with your own view of your condition. When you ask for a copy, ask for all of them.

The person who assessed you may be a doctor, a registered nurse, an occupational therapist or a physiotherapist. The report does not have to be signed, but it must say which of these the assessor is. It normally covers:

• your conditions, medication and treatment, plus your clinical, social and work history;
• a "typical day" account, which the handbook says should provide factual evidence to support the descriptor choices;
• informal observations and, where the format of the assessment allows, a clinical examination and a mental state examination;
• the assessor's recommended descriptor for each of the 17 activities, with a justification (our guide to the WCA descriptors lists them all);
• advice on whether any LCWRA criteria apply and whether any exceptional circumstances, such as substantial risk, apply (ADM G1092);
• advice on how long should pass before your next assessment, called the prognosis on ESA and the re-referral period on Universal Credit (ADM G1093).

Why the Report Matters So Much

Decision makers are not medically qualified, and the handbook tells assessors plainly that decision makers "will rely heavily on the report". That is why an inaccurate report can so easily turn into a wrong decision.

But the report is evidence, not the decision. DWP guidance says decision makers have to decide what weight to give the medical report (ADM G1090, DMG 42200). For each activity they can adopt the assessor's descriptor, adopt the one your evidence supports or choose a different one, as long as the evidence backs it (DMG 42279). That is the opening a mandatory reconsideration uses: you show, line by line, why your evidence should be preferred.

The report also outlives the decision. When your claim comes up for review, the handbook says the assessor looks at the ESA85 or UC85 from your previous referral alongside your new questionnaire, so an error nobody challenged can follow you into the next assessment.

How to Get a Copy of Your WCA Report

There are four routes. Start with the quickest one for your benefit and, if nothing has arrived within a couple of weeks, back it up with a subject access request.

Route 1: Universal Credit, through your journal. Citizens Advice's guidance on the Universal Credit assessment says you can ask for a copy of your report, and a journal message gives you a dated record. Something like: "Please send me a copy of the UC85 report from my Work Capability Assessment on [date], including the personalised summary statement (UC85S) and any UC85A." If the reply says it cannot be sent from there, use Route 3.

Route 2: ESA, by phone. Ring the number on your ESA decision letter and ask for a copy of the ESA85 report from your assessment, including the personalised summary statement (ESA85S) and any ESA85A. Note the date and the name of the person you spoke to, then confirm the request in a short letter. If nothing arrives, use Route 3.

Route 3: a subject access request, for either benefit. The DWP's own guidance lists "work capability and health assessments" among the information you can ask for. Use the DWP's online request form, or write to Right of Access Requests, Mail Handling Site A, Wolverhampton, WV98 2EF. Include a description of what you want, the time period it covers, your full name, address and postcode, your date of birth and your National Insurance number. The DWP says it will send the information within one calendar month of receiving your request; Citizens Advice warns it can take 6 to 8 weeks to come through. Since you are asking anyway, ask for the whole assessment file:

• the WCA50 questionnaire as the DWP received it, with everything you enclosed;
• the ESA85 or UC85, the personalised summary statement and any ESA85A or UC85A;
• any report or letter obtained from your GP or another professional for the assessment;
• the decision maker's record of the scores and the reasons for the decision.

Route 4: the appeal papers. If you appeal to the tribunal, the DWP must send the tribunal a response with copies of all the documents relevant to the case that it holds, and send you a copy at the same time (Tribunal Procedure Rules 2008, rule 24). In most cases it has 28 days to do so. The report will be in that bundle, but this route only opens after reconsideration, so treat it as a safety net; our tribunal guide explains what happens at that stage.

One narrow exception applies to every route: the handbook explains that information you are unaware of, and which would be seriously harmful to your health if you saw it, is the only type that may be withheld from a claimant in a review or appeal.

Your Assessment Recording: New Since 29 June 2026

Since 29 June 2026, phone and face-to-face health assessments for Universal Credit and ESA (as well as PIP and Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit) have been audio recorded as standard unless you opt out. Video assessments are not recorded, for technical reasons. According to GOV.UK:

• you can ask for a copy during the assessment or by calling the number on your appointment letter;
• when it is ready you get a text message with a secure download link, and you need a smartphone and your National Insurance number to open it;
• the link works for 7 days, and you can download again only within 24 hours of the first download, so save the file straight away;
• if you cannot use the link, ask through the DWP's online request form or write to the Right of Access Requests address above, giving the date of the assessment;
• recordings are normally kept for 24 months before deletion, or longer where there is an ongoing dispute.

The guidance says decision makers will not use recordings to make their decisions, and the government's announcement said recordings would be made available to claimants who wish to appeal. For you, it is the best way to test the report: if the report puts words in your mouth, the recording shows what was actually said. Note the time of each passage you want to rely on.

Do Not Let the Report Stop the Clock

You usually have one month from the date of the decision to ask for mandatory reconsideration. You can ask later if you have a good reason, such as a hospital stay or a bereavement, and Citizens Advice suggests trying to get a late request in within 13 months of the decision. Waiting for your report is not one of the things that extends the deadline.

What can extend it is a statement of reasons: not the assessor's report but the decision maker's written explanation of the decision. Under the decisions and appeals regulations for Universal Credit and new-style ESA, if your decision notice did not include written reasons you can ask for them within one month, and the DWP should provide them within 14 days or as soon as practicable afterwards (regulation 7). Asking within the month extends the reconsideration time limit to 14 days after the month ends or, if the statement arrives later, 14 days after it is provided (regulation 5). On Universal Credit, Citizens Advice says the statement of reasons will be in your online account. Even so, the safest course is to ask for reconsideration before the deadline on your letter.

So the order that works is:

1. On the day the decision arrives, ask for the report and, if you want the whole file, send a subject access request too.
2. Before the month is up, ask for mandatory reconsideration. Say which activities you disagree with and why, list any evidence you are sending and add that you have asked for the assessment report and will send a detailed response when it arrives. Citizens Advice suggests exactly this while a subject access request is outstanding.
3. When the report arrives, send your line-by-line response. Citizens Advice says extra evidence should go in within one month of asking for reconsideration, and that you should tell the DWP if you need more time.

If you are still waiting for the decision itself, our guide to how long a WCA decision takes explains when to chase it.

How to Read Your Report: Eight Things to Check

Read it with your copy of the WCA50 beside you. The handbook's own standards make a ready-made checklist.

1. The basic facts. Are your conditions, medication, doses and treatment right? A missing diagnosis can undermine everything that follows.
2. The typical day. The handbook treats it as factual evidence for the descriptor choices. Is it your typical day, or a good day written up as normal? Has a "with help" or a "has to stop" dropped out?
3. What you said and what you can do. Assessors are told to write "Says he only walks 50 metres" rather than "Can only walk 50 metres", because a flat statement may be taken as fact. Check every sentence that reports what you said, and check it against the recording.
4. Observations. Informal observations, such as how you sat or moved around, are part of the evidence the assessor relies on. Were they accurate, or one moment presented as how you always are? On some formats there is little to observe, so check what each "observation" is based on.
5. Every descriptor against your questionnaire. Where the assessor disagrees with what you said, the handbook requires a full justification with examples; simply repeating the wording of the descriptor is not enough. It also says conflicting evidence must be addressed, not ignored.
6. Most of the time, not a snapshot. The chosen descriptor should reflect how you function most of the time, taking into account pain, stiffness, fatigue, response to treatment and variability of symptoms. If the report only describes the day of the assessment, say so.
7. The personalised summary statement. DWP guidance says it should refer to all your health conditions, consider their combined impact and not introduce new information that is not already in the report. Check that nothing is missing and nothing is new.
8. The LCWRA and substantial risk advice. The report includes the assessor's opinion on whether exceptional circumstances apply. If the risk to your health was not properly considered, that is a separate ground to raise; see our guide to substantial risk.

Turning the Report Into Your Reconsideration

Answer the report point by point rather than in general terms. For each activity you dispute, set out three things:

• What the report says, quoted exactly, with the section it appears in.
• What actually happens, in concrete terms: how far, how often, how long it takes and what happens afterwards.
• The evidence, such as a GP or consultant letter, your symptom diary, a carer's statement or a timestamp from the recording.

An example of the format, for illustration only. The report says: "Walked from the waiting area to the consultation room at a normal pace without apparent difficulty." Your response: "The consultation room is about 15 metres from the waiting area. I used my stick, held the wall and stopped once. On most days I cannot walk more than 50 metres on level ground, even with my stick, without stopping because of significant pain, and I cannot repeat even that within a reasonable time. My physiotherapist's letter of [date] confirms this (enclosed). I believe descriptor 1(a) applies, worth 15 points."

Keep it factual and calm: a precise, evidenced account is easier to prefer than an angry one. Our free Decision Analyser shows where your scores may have gone wrong, the free reconsideration letter generator drafts the request and the whole process is in our mandatory reconsideration guide. If reconsideration fails, the same rebuttal becomes the core of your appeal.

Can a Wrong Report Be Corrected?

Not in the way most people expect. DWP guidance says the content of the medical report should not be changed beyond very minor corrections, such as a typing error, with any other additions or alterations provided in a separate document (ADM G1091). So the realistic aim is not a rewritten report but a different decision: at reconsideration the decision maker, and on appeal the tribunal, can prefer your evidence to the assessor's opinion.

If your concern is how the assessment was carried out rather than what it concluded, raise that separately; the audio guidance says recordings may be used to review how an assessment was carried out where there is a dispute. Either way, keep your reconsideration going, because that is what deals with the decision itself.

Got the Award? Read the Report Anyway

A good outcome is still worth checking. The report advises how long should pass before you are assessed again (ADM G1093), and the handbook notes that reports may be read by health professionals in future referrals, so the next assessor may see it alongside your new questionnaire. On ESA, if you were placed in the work-related activity group, DWP guidance says the ESA85 should be shared with your work coach when deciding on any work-related activity (DMG 42325). Knowing what it says lets you put the record straight with fresh evidence before your next review; our guide to WCA reassessment on Universal Credit covers what comes next.

Official sources

This guide reflects the official Work Capability Assessment rules. For the source material, see:

• GOV.UK - Request your personal information from the Department for Work and Pensions
• GOV.UK - Health assessments: audio recordings and the 29 June 2026 announcement
• GOV.UK - Work Capability Assessment handbook for healthcare professionals (August 2026)
• DWP Advice for Decision Making, Chapter G1 (WCA, Universal Credit) and Decision Makers' Guide, Chapter 42 (ESA)
• Universal Credit, Personal Independence Payment, Jobseeker's Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance (Decisions and Appeals) Regulations 2013, regulations 5 and 7
• Tribunal Procedure (First-tier Tribunal) (Social Entitlement Chamber) Rules 2008, rule 24
• GOV.UK - Challenge a benefit decision (mandatory reconsideration)
• Citizens Advice - Challenging a benefit decision: mandatory reconsideration and Going to your Universal Credit medical assessment

Guidance only, not legal advice. Rules can change - always check GOV.UK for the latest.

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