Who’d have guessed it, but the cosy relationship between the Department of Works and Pensions (DWP) and Atos, the French company who were given the contract to assess benefits claimants, has come to an end after almost 20 years.
You’ll recall that Atos were responsible for rejecting thousands of benefits claims, in particular those submitted by disabled people in the UK. They had also been blamed for countless deaths in connection with the WCA process, and for dishonest reports written by many of its PIP assessors.
Instead, the DWP have awarded contracts estimated as being worth over two billion pounds over the five years from 2024 to 2029, to other contractors. These include the multinational Serco who have been awarded a £338 million contract to cover claims in the Southwest of England.
You can read more about this latest DWP fiasco in Disability News Service (DNS) who also revealed why the Minister for disabled people, Tom Pursglove failed to reveal the winner of the south-west contract. And, why it’s now gone to court.
Looks like that’s another fine mess they’ve got themselves into!
Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software
A DWP Civil Servant is stood in the middle of the room where tendering for DWP benefits assessments are made. He is holding a large piece of paper on which is written ‘£2 billion in contracts’. On one side of him are two people representing Serco. They are holding a contract worth £338 million for benefit assessments. On the other side are two people representing Atos. They have no contract. The civil servant is saying to the Atos team: ”On the bad side you were responsible for the deaths of many disabled claimants … AND your staff told lies!” The Atos representative replies: “Ah yes – but on the good side we were the ones who rejected more claims than you had set the target for!” … “AND we’ve still got all of the evidence!”
Crippen Cartoons 