Fitness to work firm paid £382m by DWP
●
ACONTROVERSIAL company with a substantial presence in Runcorn received £382m for carrying out a hated scheme carrying out disability fitness-towork assessments.
Analysis by the Daily Mirror showed Atos was one of two companies to have reaped half a billion pounds from the Government for completing the personal independence payments (PIP) tests since the scheme launched.
Capita was the other, having earned £125m.
Between them the companies received £211m for PIP assessments during the first 11 months of 2016.
This was up from £198m in 2015, £91m in 2014, £7m in 2013 when it was launched.
According to the firm’s Atos Healthcare website, the company has an assessment centre at Heath Business And Technical Park in Runcorn.
Atos also has an office ● for its IT consultancy division on Evenwood Close in Manor Park.
The assessments have proved controversial following deaths of disabled clients who died after having been fit for work and due to the number of decisions overturned on appeal.
They are carried out when claimants switch from disability living allowance, which is being replaced by PIP, to find out if they are entitled to PIP.
The Mirror found that 61% of 90,000 claimants who appealed against a decision at a tribunal in the period up to September 2016 won their case.
Tim Farron, Liberal Democrat leader, said the figures raised a suspicion that the companies were driven by the profit motive, with the incentive ‘to get the assessments done, but not necessarily to get the assessments right’.
Mr Farron said the firms were ‘the ugly face of business’.
Alex Cunningham, Labour’s welfare spokes- man, said: “It is clear that the assessment process continues to fail.”
An Atos Healthcare spokesman told the paper: “The Atos team undertake PIP assessments on behalf of the Department For Work And Pensions and do not take a decision on a person’s eligibility for PIP – that decision can only be taken by the DWP.
“Each assessment is carried out under the guidelines delivered by the DWP.”
A DWP spokesman said: “Payments to our providers reflect the amount of work they do for us.
“We introduced PIP to replace the outdated DLA system, and as we invite more people to claim PIP, claims have been steadily increasing quarter on quarter since summer 2015.”
A Capita spokesman said: “Capita carries out PIP assessments according to Department For Work And Pensions guidelines and professional codes of conduct.”