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Capita chaos on PIP assessments
Just spotted the grauniad reporting that civil servants are being drafted in to help reduce the backlog of PIP assessments due to Capita finding it difficult to cope with the volumes of clients coming their way.
In one of three steps to be trialled, the department will cut down on face-to-face referrals by getting its own staff to determine whether people are eligible for PIP using paper-only evidence.
“We are also considering whether DWP case managers could make more decisions earlier in the journey before formal referral” to Capita, the letter said.
The DWP confirmed that a pilot of paper-based decisions was starting in Wales and Bootle, but said it had always stated that if the case laid out in paper submissions was straightforward, not everyone would need a face-to-face interview with a medical professional.
Civil servants deployed to help Capita clear PIP assessments backlog
‘The reality is that this is a twenty-first century benefit that is fairer than DLA - in that it will be payable some time in the twenty first century and it is fairer to pay no-one at all than to pay some people and not others. You, sorry, we, are all in it together. Did I mention it was all Harold Wilson’s fault? Him or Bonar Law or some swine like that…look, clear off, get a job will you!?’
(Iain Duncan Smith. Probably.)
No mention of the fact that they’re only paying £40 per assessment and have thus employed a cohort of monkeys that can’t get past the 100% audit stage which in turn massively delays the reports that they do manage to produce.
What’s worrying me is the implication that everything here in Atosland must be just dandy…
I mean, who would have thought that an assessment process based on replicating the approach to Employment and Support Allowance and the Work Capability Assessment would ever lead to any problems???.....
I’m a bit irked that they’re not doing this in West Mids. For the vast majority of the PIP claims I’ve had dealings with I’ve hands on the evidence that would swing it in people’s favour without too much bother.
Harumph!
What’s worrying me is the implication that everything here in Atosland must be just dandy…
Govt’s been strangely silent on ATOS hasn’t it? I wonder whether there’s another Anouncement around the corner… The only corner of ATOS left with an ATOS label is the PIP assessments; everything else has been rebranded