Atos & Capita must improve the delivery of Personal Independence Payments (PIPs) or face losing their contracts, MP Frank Field has said.
Frank Field, MP
The government says it is looking at extending the firms’ contracts by two years to ‘better allow for a stable transition to any new provision’. And it added that it was developing IT systems to move some of the work in-house.
Frank Field, the Works and Pensions Committee Chairman, said,”The ministerial statement was a clear warning to the companies. Having capacity to bring assessments back in-house will put it in a far stronger position to turn the screws on its hitherto failing contractors, in the interest of claimants and all taxpayers. This should serve notice for Atos and Capita to start delivering, or else.”
A Department for ‘Work and Pensions source said the re-tendering process for assessments would begin after the two year period – in which other contractors may be successful. The government has accepted the key finding of the DWP committee report, to make video recording of assessment interviews a standard part of the process.
Esther McVey – Work and Pensions Secretary
On Monday, Ms. McVey told MPs the government intended to pilot the move to ‘make sure it is right’, adding that such recordings will ensure people get an ‘honest appraisal’.
Labour MP, Nic Dakin
Mr. Dakin raised concerns over a Scunthorpe constituent whose PIP assessment ‘did not reflect the truth’ of the conversation they had had with an assessor adding, “This happens too often to be coincidence.”
Ms. McVey replied, “We all have to have faith in the conversations in those assessments and that is why I look forward to having them videoed to make sure we see, we hear, we know what’s going on.”