Recommendation 21

The vast majority of assessments are still not recorded and auditing the reports may not pick up discrepancies between what a claimant has said or done in an assessment, and what is recorded in the report. We recommend the Department instructs providers to record assessments by default, with a clear opt-out rather than opt-in option, as recommended by the previous Committee and endorsed by all three 92 Health assessments for benefits current contractors. This will ensure that an objective record of assessments exists, providing reassurance to claimants and enabling quality auditing. This should be included in the new contracts for assessments from 2023.