Firm unexpectedly wins two contracts despite disquiet over handling of work capability assessment, while G4S misses out
Atos, the firm that runs the work capability assessment designed to encourage people to move off benefits and into employment, has won contracts worth more than £400m to test whether disabled people should continue receiving benefits or be coaxed into work.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) announced the award of three contracts in England and Wales, with Atos unexpectedly winning the lion’s share of the work. The smaller of the three contracts, covering Wales and parts of central England, was won by the outsourcing company Capita.
There has been much disquiet about Atos and the work capability assessment, with accusations of widespread inaccuracies in the medical reports used to help determine whether individuals are eligible for sickness benefits.
This week Prof Malcolm Harrington, who was appointed by the government to review the assessment, told BBC’s Panorama that the test was “patchy” and needed improvement.
The biggest corporate loser appears to be G4S, which had begun its own tests with disabled people two years ago and hoped to be awarded a number of contracts. The final stages of the award process came in early July, when details of the debacle over Olympic security began to emerge.
G4S is still in line for two smaller contracts – one in Northern Ireland and the other a national trial. These are worth about £200m in total, industry insiders estimate.
The government will replace the working-age disability living allowance (DLA) with a new personal independence payment (PIP), and cut spending by 20%. The new scheme is being introduced from next year.
DLA, which pays out a maximum of £74 a week, is a welfare payment designed to help people look after themselves and aimed at those who find it difficult to walk or get around. The government says that in eight years the number of people claiming DLA has risen by about 30%, from 2.5 million to 3.2 million, with the annual cost now £13bn. Ministers argue that there are no checks on who gets the benefit, hence the need for an assessment system.
Richard Hawkes, chief executive of the disability charity Scope, said the tests were deeply flawed. “Just this week the government and Atos, the contractor that carries out its fitness for work test, have come under a great deal of criticism about how this assessment is being delivered to disabled people. Yet in less than a year from now, disabled people could have to go through two deeply flawed assessments in the same month to get the essential financial support they need to live their lives.
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useless torys treat us with more atos jeff3
So the way to more government contracts is not to screw things up, but to screw things up AND screw innocent people.
What a useless bunch of crapwits.
Didn’t see that one coming, did we? One can only assume that ATOS must be handing out a lot of “back-handers” to various people. ATOS couldn’t run the proverbial p**s-up in a brewery.
another corrupt deal done this dictatorship we are under just keeps
hitting the working class old sick injured and disabled whilst all around them there austerity measures are failing they will not listen nor accept there wrong doings many more will suffer if we don’t band together for the good of all it is us and them with no holds barred
Britain in the 21st century – out with compassion, care and community and in with corruption, contempt and catastrophe. This is the worst possible news.
atos will be doing incapacity and dla tests after the programe on tv the other night i might be having to find a job so anyone got a job for someone with no leg below the kness
Hmm, think this might actually be good news. After all the recent furore on the TV, I suspect there will be a lot of care taken with this new deal.
if we are stuck with atos then we must highlight the millions of pounds getting wasted on unnecessary appeals and tribunals this will keep pressure on atos i doubt very much they will improve i think the government will expect them to be harsher in there treatment of people
Strange isn’t it?
What happened to competition as a way of driving down costs? All that has happened is that monopoly suppliers come in and dictate to the government! It doesn’t matter how inhumane they are, how much falsification of paperwork and other misdemeanour’s happen they continue to trouser massive contracts.
But why has this happened again? Because the tory government has set a time-scale so rigid there’s no chance for any other ‘provider’ to come forward.
Also I thought the provisional right wing of the tory party disliked anything French! So I wonder why ATOS is the exception?
Vivre la France!
after all the publicity you can only assume somebody has been paid a good back hander to make sure atos got the lions share but to try and look at it another way its better the devil you know a new company brings new threats so at the moment we know what we have to deal with