Better communication throughout the Employment Support Allowance (ESA) system and an audit of decision makers' rulings have been recommended by an independent review.
It concluded that the ESA claims system has improved since the last series of changes but ‘there is still further to go'.
The report has been welcomed by disability charities but they also raised concerns that progress on making the previous alterations had been too slow.
In his second annual review of the ESA claims process, Professor Malcolm Harrington made four key recommendations to improve the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) and claimant experience.
They were:
• Introducing checks on benefit decisions to ensure fairness and consistency,
• Working with disability groups to help develop guidance for Atos healthcare professionals and Decision Makers,
• Improved support and communications for people who move onto Jobseeker's Allowance to make sure they get the help they need,
• Regularly publishing data on performance and quality to improve the transparency of the face-to-face assessment.
Writing in the report, Prof Harrington said: "The WCA has, in my view, noticeably changed for the better.
"However there is still further to go. Some of the improvements from my first Review have not reached all parts of Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) operations.
"To those who feel nothing has happened, I say: be patient, it is happening.
"The process is not yet perfect, but it is improving and will continue to do so over the course of the five Independent Reviews," he added.
Chris Grayling MP, the Employment Minister, pledged that all the recommendations would be accepted and taken on board, saying: "It is in everyone's interest to get the system right.
"We want the assessment to be as fair and consistent as possible. This is the first step on a journey back to work for many people and we want it to be positive.
"The system is far better than it was two years ago but there are still improvements and refinements we can make.
The Disability Benefits Consortium (DBC), which represents disability rights charities and groups, welcomed the new set of amendments from Prof. Harrington but urged the government to speed up change and address concerns about the welfare reform programme.
Neil Coyle, member of DBC Steering Group, said: "We would like to see more significant effort made by government to ensure further improvements are made to the WCA as swiftly as possible to reduce avoidable expenditure on appeals.
"We would also welcome a better approach to enhance support for disabled people to get and keep work, including greater use of the Access to Work initiative.
"We are also keen for the DWP to accept the findings of recent media studies, research and the National Union of Journalists and stop the negative portrayal of disabled people who need support from our welfare system."
He noted that the Welfare Reform Bill, currently being debated in the House of Lords, is set to impose a one year time-limit placed on contributory ESA, ‘a move which will undermine the effectiveness of the benefit and deny support to hundreds of thousands of disabled people'.
