28.03.14
Atos ‘removed’ from Work Capability Assessment contract
Atos Healthcare is to exit its £500m contract to assess whether benefit claimants are “fit-to-work” a year ahead of schedule, the government has confirmed.
Ministers, however, have made clear that Atos will not receive any compensation from the taxpayer and had made a “substantial” financial settlement to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to terminate the contract early.
Disabilities minister Mike Penning told the BBC a new company would be appointed in early 2015 and Atos would not receive “a single penny of compensation”.
Last month, Atos said it was seeking to end its government contract under which it carried out the Work Capability Assessments (WCA). In the last 24 hours, though, the government stressed that Atos was “removed” from the contract, rather than the firm choosing to “walk away”.
Penning added that the government was looking for a provider to replace Atos “with the view to increasing the number of assessments and reducing waiting times”.
Commenting on the early exit of Atos from the WCA contract, Jenny Gulliford, policy and research officer at The Work Foundation, said: “This has several implications for the future of the WCA. It is imperative that the next provider is given sufficient time to implement a smooth hand-over. A poorly handled transfer could negatively impact both the effectiveness of the WCA and the individuals being assessed.”
However, there already seems to have been some confusion over the exiting of the contract. Atos said on its website: “There has been an announcement today regarding Atos Healthcare’s contract to undertake WCA on behalf of the DWP.
“We have seen that this has caused some confusion for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) claimants, especially those who currently have appointments to attend a face to face assessment.
“To clarify, we are continuing to complete WCA for anyone already referred to us by the DWP and those referred going forwards. If you have been asked to attend an assessment please do attend as planned. The WCA process that you will go through has not been changed.”
Gulliford stated that while WCA is based on sound intent and principles, it currently lacks public trust.
“The DWP should ensure that re-establishing it is a prominent feature of the contracting process in order to re-affirm the WCA’s role as a support-focused assessment of functional capacity, rather than its perception as an unsympathetic, quota-driven gateway to ESA,” she said. “It is vital that individuals feel genuinely supported in their efforts to find employment suited to their capability rather than feeling punished for incapacity.”
(Image: Kirsty Wigglesworth/PA Wire)
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