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The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has admitted to the public spending watchdog that its system of disability benefits assessments is too slow, too expensive and too inaccurate, and too many claimants do not trust how it makes decisions. The […]
The government has awarded five-year disability assessment contracts worth more than £560 million to the outsourcing giant Capita, on the same day that a safeguarding review linked the company to the death of a young disabled mum. Last week, the safeguarding […]
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) must publish regular reports to show how many deaths of disabled people are linked to the disability benefits assessment system, a committee of MPs has concluded. The call comes in a report by the […]
MPs are calling for an urgent government investigation into the use of “covert surveillance” of disabled people by the private sector companies paid to assess eligibility for disability benefits. It comes in a report by the Commons work and pensions committee, […]
Contractors likely to be bidding for new five-year contracts to test eligibility for disability benefits are still producing a “shockingly high” number of sub-standard assessment reports, nine years after they first won contracts to carry them out. An audit of assessment […]
Disabled people have backed up an MP’s claims that government contractors are deliberately putting lifts out of order and attempting other “covert” attempts to trick claimants waiting to be assessed for their disability benefits. Last week, Conservative MP Dr Ben Spencer […]
Private sector contractors are deliberately putting lifts out of order and removing cups from beside water coolers as part of “covert” attempts to trick disabled people waiting to be assessed for their benefits, MPs have been told. Conservative MP Dr Ben […]
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) ignored leading academics after they published “hugely alarming” research that linked the work capability assessment with 600 suicides in just three years, MPs have been told. The failure is just the latest evidence to […]
Backlogs in the disability benefit assessment system are having significant knock-on effects on disabled people’s ability to live independently, new evidence has shown. It is showing how lengthy delays in reviewing people’s personal independence payment (PIP) claims are having a substantial […]
New figures have shown how the backlog of disabled people waiting for a personal independence payment (PIP) assessment has more than trebled in the last five years. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) figures, secured by Disability News Service (DNS) […]