Atos quitting will not solve the problems with the Work Capability Assessment
The news that ATOS is quitting its work capability assessment contract with the DWP will be loudly cheered by disabled people up and down the land.
It has been a national scandal that this company has not been sacked long ago let alone that the DWP further commissioned it last year to undertake medical assessments for Personal Independence Payment (the replacement benefit for Disability Living Allowance).
The poor and incompetent performance of ATOS doctors has caused hardship and misery among disabled people wrongly found fit for work as well as documented deaths.
However, we are worried by the fact that ATOS staff will seemingly just transfer to a new contractor. For ATOS to state that “there will be no change for those applying for employment and support allowance" will be a real cause for concern to disabled people.
While seeming to now accept its own inaptitude we are amazed at ATOS’s gall in not also quitting its PIP assessment contract. Although set a target to carry out 97% of PIP assessments within a six-week period disabled people are instead waiting six months or more for decisions to be made on their claims.
In bidding for its DWP contact ATOS maintained it had 740 assessment sites across London and the south-east of England, when in fact it has less than a 100 (96). Yet despite this exaggeration it seems that the DWP are happy to continue its contract with no signs that even the smallest of financial penalties will be imposed.
While it is certainly true that ATOS has been brutal and incompetent in conducting the assessments it is vital that it is the system that is overhauled and not just the providers. The reality is that four “independent” reviews have failed to evaluate fundamental flaws in the WCA such as the lack of any known link between what is being assessed (like whether you can walk up a set number of steps) and whether you can do a job: it all depends on what kind of job it is and whether barriers can be removed.
Liz Sayce, CEO of disability Rights UK comments:
“The test itself is simply not fit for purpose as it currently stands. Disability Rights UK calls for a new purpose to be defined for the assessment, a real world test reflecting the barriers disabled people face in obtaining work, descriptors (the criteria against which points are scored to determine eligibility for ESA) that are fair and transparently, and an assessment that allows people’s support needs for obtaining work to be identified and provided for.”