“This report from the National Audit Office (NAO) highlights the failure of Tory Government policies on helping the disabled receive benefits or get back into work”, said Mhairi Black MP for Paisley & Renfrewshire South.
The report highlights that although the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)has strengthened its oversight and management of contracted-out health and disability assessments, it has not yet achieved value for money.
The DWP uses health and disability assessments to help decide if people are eligible for benefits or to help those on long-term sick leave back into work. Between April 2015 and March 2018, the Department expects to carry out around 7 million assessments which it estimates will cost a total of £1.6 billion.
The NAO report found that the cost of providing assessments is rising and providers are still struggling to meet expected performance standards.
Under the latest contract with the Centre for Health and Disability Assessments (CHDA) for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) assessments starting in March 2015, the Department expects to pay £595 million over three years for 3.4 million assessments.
This is around £190 per assessment compared with £115 per assessment under the previous contract with Atos.
Although there has been some improvement in the time taken to carry out assessments, there is still a backlog of at least 280,000 ESA assessments at August 2015. The ESA assessment provider, CHDA, is not on track to complete the expected number of assessments for 2015 and has missed assessment report quality targets since the start of the contract.
Both Atos and Capita have failed to meet PIP assessment report quality targets since October 2013.
Mhairi Black MP added: “The DWP is handing £1.6bn of public money over three years to private contractors, yet none of the companies carrying out the tests met the government’s own quality assessment threshold, with communications including spelling mistakes and unintelligible acronyms.
“The NAO report found that only half of all the doctors and nurses hired by Maximus – the US outsourcing company brought in by the DWP to carry out the assessments – even completed their training.
“The NAO report makes clear that the DWP continues to struggle with setting targets and requirements with clear evidence and failed to adequately test bidders’ assumptions, for example about staff training, during the contract tender process.”