Atos win PIP contracts
In a surprising, and for
many deeply dismaying, decision
the DWP have announced that
Atos have won the biggest share of the contracts for carrying out personal independence payment (PIP) medicals. A smaller share
has gone to Capita.
PIP is due to begin replacing
disability living allowance (DLA) for working age
claimants from April next year, with
all current working age
DLA claimants having to be re-assessed for the new
benefit.
The contracts for PIP
medicals are worth up to a billion pounds in total and have
attracted the attention of many multinational companies.
Atos have won Lot 1 and Lot 3 in the bidding for the contracts. Lot 1 covers Scotland , NE England ,
NW England & Isle of Man while Lot 3 covers London South
England . Capita have won Lot 2, which covers Wales and Central England .
Lot 4 which covers Northern Ireland Lot 5 is also up for grabs, but the DWP have said they do not intend
to use Lot 5 unless things go wrong with regional suppliers.
Atos are deeply unpopular
with many claimants and disability organisations due
to their methods of assessing claimants for employment and support allowance. On Monday of this
week, the company was the subject of a Panorama documentary and a Despatches documentary
looking at alleged failings in the way they carry out
the work capability assessment.
Capita, which runs the
Criminal Records Bureau on behalf of the Home Office and is invariably referred to as ‘Crapita’ by Private
Eye, has no history of carrying out medical assessments for state benefits. The company has been involved in
a number of less than successful public service
contracts in the past, however, including Individual
Learning Accounts which were subject to fraudulent claims
on an unprecedented scale and which were shut down
after just one year.
Amongst the unsuccessful
bidders for the contracts so far awarded are G4S who are
still reeling from the Olympics security fiasco,
Serco, Avanta, Ingeus Deloitte, APM UK
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