Contracted out health and disability assessments inquiry
Closed
What the inquiry looked at
“The Department for Work & Pensions uses health and disability assessments for a number of reasons, including to determine eligibility for both Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and Personal Independence Payment (PIP) benefits claimed by 1.3 million people in 2014–15. In July 2014, the Department also introduced a voluntary occupational health assessment for those on long-term sick leave. Assessments are central to the welfare reform programme; by better matching support to needs and helping people back into work the Department expects to reducing benefit spending (£27 billion in 2014–15) by around £4 billion each year from 2018. The Department contracts out assessments to Atos Healthcare, Capita Health and Wellbeing and Maximus UK. Over 3 years from April 2015 to March 2018 it expects to spend £1.3 billion on a total of 6 million assessments. Historically, assessment providers have struggled to meet expected performance levels. During 2013 and 2014 significant claim backlogs developed for both ESA and PIP, and there were concerns over the quality of assessments. The Department and providers agreed recovery plans and the Department transferred responsibility for ESA assessments from Atos Healthcare to a new provider, Maximus UK. Since March 2015, it has adopted a new contract structure and now pays more for assessments. This review considers whether the Department’s management of contracted-out health and disability assessments represents value for money. As the contracts covered are at different stages we examine how the Department has changed its approach to setting-up and managing contracts. The Department expects to significantly increase the number of assessments in the short-term and we consider how well the Department can address the associated risks.”
The committee's words, from the inquiry page on parliament.uk ↗.
What it found
For many years the Department for Work and Pensions (the Department) and its contractors have struggled to provide timely, high quality health and disability assessments to inform decisions about benefits or to help people on sick leave back to work. We are encouraged to see that the Department and its contractors have reduced backlogs and delays for claimants in receiving decisions, and are slowly improving the quality of assessments. However, contractors’ performance still does not meet claimants’, the Department’s and taxpayers’ expectations. There are particular concerns about the quality of assessments. As the Department increases the number of assessments to be completed by contractors it cannot afford to be complacent and must learn from past experience to ensure contractors are set challenging but realistic targets against which they are held to account. The Department also needs to develop a competitive market for health and disability assessments to ensure that there are sufficient credible bidders for contracts as they come up for renewal.
What the government said
No government response is linked to this report.
How the inquiry ran
Each dot is a dated item listed on this page, from the inquiry's opening on 5 January 2016 to its close on 12 May 2016.
- Oral evidence 3 Feb 2016
- Report 31 Mar 2016
What it recommended
The committee's recommendations are not listed here yet. Read them in 33rd Report - Contracted out health and disability assessments ↗ on parliament.uk.
Evidence
Oral evidence sessions 1
- 3 Feb 2016No witnesses recordedparliament.uk ↗